[Fot] RIP - Don Brick

[Mike Jackson]

Sad news but we're all getting older and that crew had a head start.  Surely they will live on in legend with the endless stories repeated over and over.
It's not clear that vintage racing will ever again have characters like that.
 
It was always such a thrill to be with the Beady Eye guys each year at Mid-Ohio.  Nearly 20 straight years under the big oak tree in the grass paddock.
Truth be told, Don was a much better driver than Bob and Bill.  But, with those wire wheels and skinny tires he was only going to corner  so fast and hence not lead often.
 
Don worked for a cheese factory and always brought some of the stuff they produced for cheese contests.  Who ever knew there was such a thing?
 
I tried to  talk Don out of retiring from racing in his last year of competition.  Wiz and Bill wanted him to continue as well but he wasnt gonna change his mind.
 
It is great to  know that his car will continue to be used and run!  So many others just disappear.  One of my best friends to this day, John Harkness, lived quite close to Mid-O ran a baby  blue TR3 to great success.  He eventually sold his and we saw it entered in a race or two and then never again.  So sad, that thing flew and we had many great races.  This is my 35th year with my TR3.  We can only hope that when its my time to retire that someone will get it and love it as does Henry with Dentinger's car.
 
Say - does everyone know where the Beady Eye name comes  from?  Bill owned a stone masonry contracting company  and did work on many iconic buildings in the Milwaukee area.  The name of the company was BDI - Bill Dentinger Inc
 
Mike
 
-----Original Message-----  
From: yellow04
Sent: May 4, 2022 8:14 AM
To:
Subject: [Fot] RIP - Don Brick
 
Responding to Brian McEldowney, the new owner of the Don Brick TR4, prompted me to do a google search. I just realized we lost Don six weeks ago on March 27, 2022.
 
The last of the original Beady Eye gang. Sad.
 
While the stories of the shenanigans Bill, Bob and Don got into are the stuff of legend, there is one story about Don I will never forget.
 
More years ago that I care to admit, I am beginner racer who bought a derelict TR4 racecar and was trying desperately to figure out how to prepare it so it would finish weekends, and more importantly trying to figure out the art and science of race craft. I show up at Grattan for the first time, and I am not sure I can say I was struggling, but the Beady Eye boys thought I needed a primer on the track. VSCDA had a practice of doing lunch time parade laps at Grattan, so they cooked up the idea that I needed to get driven around the track by their resident hot shoe, Don Brick. Yes, Don was the fastest of the bunch.
 
These parade laps were done in race cars, and the premise was the racers could put their family, friends, crew, etc. in the passenger seat to get a birds eye view of the track. No passing, just some leisurely laps. Apparently, Don didn’t get the memo... Don and I climb into his TR4, my memory is telling me we had no fire suits or helmets, and proceed to the false grid. We are waived onto the track, and Don nails it. We get decent speed for turn one, and Don is narrating. "This is where I usually have to brake, but since we are not at speed yet...", he brakes late, turns into 1 with tires at full chat. We slide around turn one, and on the little straight heading for 2, we come up on the first car doing parade lap speed, Don just passes them! At this point, Don is at racing speed, and he continues to narrate his way around the course passing everybody. As we round the corner for the start/finish straight, the flagger is waiting for us, and no surprise to me Don gets black flagged. As we are going down the straight for turn 1, I tell Don I don't think we are supposed to be going full tilt, everybody else is going much slower. Don was not deterred, he needed to show me his braking point for turn 1 at speed! We proceeded to do that second lap way too fast, then Don dutifully pulled into pit lane and was directed to the black flag station where he was given the stern warning that lunchtime parade laps were not to be driven at speed. Don's reply with a smile, "Oh, OK, I didn't know."
 
Anybody else remember running with Don and watching his red wire wheels? Don insisted on running that same set of red painted wire wheels. He claimed he finally got a set of wheels that didn't break spokes, so he just kept running them. It was disconcerting to see Don in the seat sawing on the steering wheel, and you could see the hubs on the car moving with his motions, but the rim and tires couldn't keep up the hubs, you could almost see the spokes stretching with every turn of the steering wheel!
 
Farewell, my friend.
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