Dear Dad,   I thought I'd take a moment to pay tribute to you in our own, unique special father-daughter way. So strap in the front passenger seat, while I take you and your loving family and many wonderful friends here today for a scenic drive through a celebration of your life and car history, okay?   First, we'll have to squeeze into your two-seater Austin Healy "Bugeye" Sprite, your first of several prized car collections.

Putting the Austin Healy in reverse and looking back, we are in Liverpool, NY in the 1960's at the end of our very long driveway where my first memory was when you took me and Cristin by your hand and took us to the end of our long driveway and pointed at the end of the driveway. You said sternly, "Do not cross this line EVER as it leads to a busy road!" Little did you know that showing me that line would make me want to cross it, move it and cross it again. I never made it easy for you, Dad, but as Mario Andretti said, "If you're not on the edge, you're not going fast enough" and for you and me, dad, that line would turn out to be one of the most kindred, special reasons we shared such a special father-daughter relationship as I would later become a race car driver and you would become my all-important driving and life coach.

Driving forward while still in your Austin Healy Bugeye Sprite, we are heading to Cooperstown, NY. It's now the early 1970's. Take a look out your window; that's you taking up flying and successfully earning your pilot license. We were so proud of you. Your hobby turned into many fun filled weekends camping out in the Winnebago and exploring the outside, long grassy fields on my Honda mini bike. You loved to sail the friendly skies for hours in your new sailplane you proudly nicknamed "GreyTop". You gave us all so many great memories; those were good times!!

Time to roll up the window as we park the Austin Healy Bugeye Sprite into our moving van, board a plane to California, our new residence. Take a look out the window again, that's us about to land at SFO and move into our brand new 5 bedroom house in a cute cul-de-sac community in Los Gatos where you'd later park the Austin Healy Sprite in your new prized 3-car garage and soon after buy yourself a new Porsche 911. You built us a great life here in California, Dad; you should be so proud!  You are now working at National Semiconductor in Price Management where you would successfully remain for nearly 30 years. You would go on to mentor a number of college interns, who admired your ability to keep an open-door policy and help make them as successful as they could be. You definitely took them under your "GreyTop" wing and left a lasting impression on each of them helping each of them become the successful people they are today -- and you continued to keep in touch with each of them.

Ok everyone, time to pile into Dad's prized Porsche 911. I'll open the moonroof and windows because we have a lot to see.

Driving through the quaint little town of Los Gatos, just a few blocks away from our house was where your Mom & Dad (Mabel & Edward Sr.) lived. You were very close to them and would stop by to visit them after work and pick me and Cristin up after a nice long visit after school. They would go on to make a lasting impression in both our lives just as you have with your 9 (Mellissa, Nicole, Nick, Sammy, Sydney, Mara, Luca, Carlo, Sarah) grandkids.

It's now the 1980's and you had a lot of change and personal growth in your life during this time. You and Mom divorced; Cristin and I spent most of our teenage years living with you. You made us your priority, coming home from work on time and as you put it..."the 3 things that were the most important to you were your two daughters and your Porsche". So you weren't the greatest cook and we spent many dinners at McDonalds, but that was ok. You'd drive us to the beach in Santa Cruz, take us go-karting and you'd often go swimming with us at home. Despite the difficult separation on you from mom, you continued to show us your strength and unwavering love for us. 

It was later time for Cristin and I to take a huge step in our new lives and move out. I moved to Newport Beach and I'll never forget how much you cried when you stepped off the plane to come visit me. You were so proud. Later, Cristin and I would go on to become mothers and you a loving grandfather to Mellissa first, then Nicole. You played with them, showered them with love and took on one of your greatest roles to date, a doting and loving grandfather.

It's now the 1990's and you have now settled into Campbell in a 3-bedroom Townhome. This is where you'd open your garage door in the morning keeping it open all day for your constant flow of friends and family to visit. You were happy, settled and enjoying life. You took up a new hobby - racing - that would later turn into a true passion of yours. You and Rich would later go on to develop a beautiful bond over both your passions for racing as you took Rich under your "GreyTop" wing in life and treated him as your very own son. You bought "Sluggo", your Porsche 914-6 and as you said - it was one of the ugliest Porsche race cars on the track with it's bad paint job but it had such a "GO" to it that it would blow away the competition.  You loved to come up with catch phrases like that. It was who you were and when someone asked you where you got the name "Sluggo" you'd get such a huge smile and you'd laugh first and then say "you'll see on the track". You poured your heart and soul into racing and you and Rich shared many wonderful memories with lots of great wins. You'd also go on to build a great friendship with your best friend at work and in racing, John Miller. You'd both later go on to build Miller Team Racing, buy a big rig to tow all 3 open wheel race cars. You excelled and very much enjoyed handling the operations of the whole team. It was a huge feat managing that big "to-do" list, but being the true champion that you are, you helped make the team become the '94-'95 Star Mazda Champions with your son Rich behind the wheel and John's son, Johnny. You built so many friendships in the racing community and you were well respected when your team would show up at the race track. Race competitors and team owners were constantly coming up to you asking you how you'd get an older car and engine to go so fast. You were a very accomplished team owner and driver coach and had a lot to be proud about. You are a true champion in all sense of the word dad!

It was also in the 1990's for me to start spreading my wings and prove myself. I was a single mother who also had an undying passion for racing. Nicole was getting old enough to take to the race track and so you helped me get my start in racing where we would share many fun, crazy and teary-eyed memories together as father and daughter. One of the first things you did was set up a prized silver stock Porsche 914-6 for me to autocross. During this time, you flew to Tokyo, Japan for many business trips for National Semiconductor. Somehow you'd still manage to keep the race operations going successfully. It was at that time you asked Rich to go along with me to my very first autocross. You couldn't get home fast enough from Tokyo when you called and I told you that I had beat Rich's autocross time and won. It was our beautiful start to a passion we both were fortunate to share.

You signed me up for my first autocross school and you made it a point to watch me the whole weekend. You had tears in your eyes when I beat six of the seven instructor times and was one of the fastest female student drivers. You were so proud. You then signed me up for the annual drivers school at the race track in your prized sluggo race car.  It was a very fast race car and you were very concerned it might be too much for me.  I went out on the first run and broke the race car. You and your best friend, Lawrence Farmer, spent all weekend trying to figure out a way to fix the racecar for me to participate in the final race so I could earn my racing license. We had little hope as the requirement was to have several hours of on-track driving with a coach watching you but somehow you convinced the officials to give me a shot in the final race with no track time all weekend. You and Lawrence had done an amazing job in the final hours finding the part and fixing the car temporarily. I'll never forget you saying to me, "just go easy...it's not completely fixed...just go out there and get your racing license" then you tapped the top of my helmet and said "you can do this...I know you can!" The officials lined me up as the last car because I didn't participate all weekend due to my broken race car. As the green flag waved, off I went dicing through the large 33 car field to the very front of the pack. On the final lap, I had one very fast corvette catching up to me very quickly on the front straightaway just as the checkered flag began to wave a few hundred yards ahead of me. I was determined to win and began to protect my place out front and got to the finish line first and won. Before I could celebrate my win, these red-hot mad race officials whisked me off into the race official trailer and scolded me for blocking the corvette from the win. They angrily said "didn't you read the race rule book we gave you?"...."No" I said.  They never gave me a book because I wasn't able to participate in the weekend racing school because of my broken race car. The officials looked puzzled and realized I was the girl they had placed in the back of the race and excused me from the trailer and went to go talk to you dad. Dad, you came back and hugged me and were so proud of me. I remember you saying...."You drove a helluva race Jennifa"..then started to laugh by saying with a stern look..."what part of easy going did you actually remember in the race?" This wasn't the first time I'd get in trouble, but you were so proud and we shared so many great memories going to the race track together racing in the Porsche Club of America where you'd continually be amazed by all false expectations people set on me because I was a female racer. You loved to recall all those memories of being called in by the race officials where we were accused of cheating and Sluggo constantly being pulled in for inspection or you going to bat for me when a racer got beat and threw his helmet down after learning he got beat by a girl, or when you'd be in the race trailer and I'd be in the restroom changing out of my race suit and a race competitor would come up to you and congratulate you for winning and you'd proudly say "oh, that was my daughter". You were a proud dad and I am so fortunate to have lived my dream with you by my side coaching me to become a successful race car driver. You were at your happiest time of your life and that's when you opened your heart even more, fell in love and married your true love, Charlene and a new beautiful chapter of your life began.

In 2000, your love for your family grew even more, as did the family members and so did your house and enjoyment of your retirement. You moved into your dream home, an estate on Oak Glen in Morgan Hill. It had your prized 6-car garage, a pool, basketball court, orchard turned dirt golf-cart track and a koi fish pond.  You cherished your role as a grandfather to 9 and wanted to make sure that the house you lived in was a place where we could all gather and enjoy ourselves. Our  Thanksgivings and Christmas' and Birthday's were a time of great family gatherings and fondest memories. We had great swim parties, you enjoyed playing with your 9 grandkids and timed them as they'd ride their tricycles around the path of the house. We heard you laughing and cheering the older grandkids on as you timed them driving the golf-cart around the self-made dirt track. You took on a new love for your koi fish pond and was always seen tinkering in the garage fixing something.  That was just who you were, what you loved and you were so happy! Your whole house was outfitted with the latest technology of some sort. You had a passion for the latest electronic gadget. You had surveillance at the front gate, not to keep intruders out...just because it was cool. You had doors chiming to alert you when someone was entering a room, you had the latest DVD player and movies and the coolest fun toys for all of us to enjoy. That was who you were...Mr. Gadget!!

A few years ago, after settling into your new home in Morgan Hill where you built a beautiful casita for Millie, you decided to sell off most of your prized Porsche 914's and took on a new passion for buying and selling Porsche parts. You then became a successful book author, after building a black Porsche 914-V8 that you just loved more than anything to rev the engine at a red light and tempt the car next to you to gun it. You were settling down in your retirement, or so we thought...when you suddenly announced to the family you had found your dream job at Perkin Elmer in Fremont to work in Price Management. You were so excited that you and I went out together and picked out a few nice long sleeve shirts for you to wear. You were styling dad...even at a young 68!  You were the coolest dad with a smile so big and a laughter so contagious you lit up a room. I was so proud of you!

It was at that same time things in your life seemed to start coming together for you. Everything that you worked so hard for, wanted so badly and hoped for was all coming together for a reason...a reason we would soon learn later.

Your 4-year race build with your best friends John Miller and Lawrence Farmer had finally completed. After 8 years of living away from home, you coaxed me and helped me move back down from San Francisco to San Jose and after an exhaustive search to find the exact corvette you wanted and had been talking about for years, you had finally found it, bought it and enjoyed driving around in it. You had set up Millie's casita with the latest and great of everything. You helped her get her drivers license, get her involved in the local senior center activities where she was quickly off on great road trips with her new senior friends heading to the casino's...a passion you helped her fulfill. You and Charlene opened your hearts and lives to your extended family and shared many weekends with your 9 grandchildren. You helped Mellissa, your oldest grandchild, by guiding her into developing her passion for animal rescue and building it into a successful business. You continued to talk to Nicole about her goals in life and how important family was and encouraged her to live her life to the fullest. You were the true guide to us all, your wisdom was heard and used by everyone you came in contact with. You led your family and friends with great passion and love and we are forever grateful for how you made such an impact in our lives.

In September 2007, when you learned that you had Esophageal Cancer, you did what you know best. You got yourself informed, you led with courage and strength and in the end, on April 12, 2008, you left us in peace, dignity and grace.

I have shed many tears since the 4-long days you have been gone, but I have smiled and laughed because of the incredible life you lived and the many memories you left behind with me. The night of your passing, I did what only you would have wanted me to...I took a warm, moonlit drive in your convertible corvette with your granddaughter, Nicole. We shared many tears while remembering what a great dad and grandfather you were to both of us.

I know as humble and private you always were, that you would still be pleased to know that the world sends its love both in person and online and that people all over this planet that had the privilege to know you have been grieving. We've lost a great champion, and it's going to take some time to adjust to that.

For me, you have been an incredible inspiration of courage and strength.  You personally showed me how to love and be loved. I will miss your great laugh and beautiful smile and wonderful ability to light up a room when you walked in. I will cherish all our many memories driving to the race tracks and back, all our daily phone conversations and our weekend visits. You had an amazing life dad and I am so privileged to be your daughter and share so many great memories with you. You took amazing care of me and Nicole and you loved us unconditionally and I can't thank you enough for being such a special dad and grandfather to the both of us. I will continue to talk to you daily and keep your loving spirit with me always.

I LOVE YOU SO VERY MUCH DAD AND I WILL MISS YOU DEEPLY!