This is my personal favorite Dick Ralstin tale. Dick shared many stories with me throughout our too short friendship. He was a great writer and storyteller. Dick's sense of humor made me laugh until I cried. I sure miss him. I will be featuring Dick a lot here. I will share some of our private emails, pictures, and correspondance eventually, so that you too, can gain respect and awe for another great man who played a major role in the media, Goodyear, NASCAR, and Off Road Racing in the early days of our favorite sport. From Dickralstin.com (Used with permission) Coming Down The Hill There's a mountain in Colorado shown as Pikes Peak on the map, to racers it's simply the Hill --- or maybe Unser's Hill. I had the thrill(?) once of riding from the top of the "hill" to the bottom, in my rent-a-car, with Bobby Unser driving.The year was 1968 and Bobby had invited one Mario Andretti to come race on his mountain and Mario accepted. Well to make a long story short they both broke their toys during the race and arrived at the top with no transportation down. That's where old Dummy here entered the picture.Bobby asked if I had wheels and, instead of saying no I was hitchhiking, I said sure Cougar rent-a-car. Bobby said good, give me the keys, I'll take us down. Can you believe dumb +!@#$ me meekly handed Bobby Unser the keys to my car on top of Pikes Peak?!?!

To set the scene: Charlie Kerns, Goodyear Champ car field manager, and Mario race driver crowd into the back seat; Bobby Unser, maniac, slides behind the steering wheel and stupid here gets in the passenger seat, beside said Mr. Unser, and wheeeeeeeee away we go.I can't really describe the ride down the hill, you see after a couple hundred yards I had my eyes closed. I can definitely remember a voice coming from the back seat, and I'll guarantee you it wasn't Charlie's, say something like "come on Bobby, get this turkey to the bottom of the hill".Also I could hear a lot of gravel flying around and a few horns honking as we passed sane people driving to the bottom of the hill. There is one stretch, known as the Devils' Backbone, where I lost my grip on the door handle and dash board and the only thing holding me was my feet digging into the floor boards.When the sound of the gravel stopped I knew we were on the blacktop, about halfway down, and I thought safe at last. Wrong! From there on to Manitou Springs, at the bottom, I don't know whether it was the voice of Firestone or Goodyear, but whatever kind of tires were on that Cougar made an opera soprano sound like a boys church choir.Bobby Had won his first Indianapolis 500 that year, and went on to win two more, and became a famous race driver. Mario won Indianapolis once, and the Formula Championship, and became a famous race driver.As for Charlie Kerns and I, we went back to the motel took a shower, put on clean underwear, and both vowed that never again, under any circumstances, would either of us get in a car with Bobby Unser driving.

By the way, if you ever land at the Denver airport and rent a Mercury Cougar, check to see if the door handle on the passenger side is bent and if there are two big dents in the floor boards. If these tell tale marks are present I would suggest you ask for a different car.