Tijuana Road Races Certificate

Right above the "California" you will see how they accorded me the honor of calling me "Francisco." Somehow it would not have been right to have a non-Hispanic official name emblazoned on this memento.

Here's that enlargement. I'm the white shirt below the "H". The car at left is the notorious "Lethal Beetle" hotshot "Formula Vee" of Bruce Redding. He won the feature after hitting a curb and ignoring my attempts to blackflag him. Of course he was right. I didn't have a black flag.

I wouldn't have had a checkered flag if  I hadn't made my own out of shoe dye and Contac™ paper. William Anderson had foresight and a girlfriend working in the rehab center for girl Recipients. He asked them to make flags for the corners. Sure enough, the guy who had one job—bring flags—forgot. Andy's flags saved that part of the day.

As I said, lots of stories about this one.

I believed* the hat at right belonged to Vern Jaques, a pillar in the Southern California racing community for many years. He was a driver, a trailer and a tracker, a thinker, a writer, an innovator, and  a doer, and is sorely missed.

*I was corrected by his widow, Katie. There will be more about these two. Among other efforts, they managed to pull the on-the-ground elements of this racing event together and enable the inexperienced organizers to actually run a few races for the benefit of all, including INPI, the Baja California children's welfare organization.

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