There were a lot of Great Racers in Scottsdale, Ariz., last week for the annual car auctions, including the ultimate Great Racer himself, Corky Coker.
Also there were Great Race title sponsor Jim Menneto of Hemmings Motor News and a host of our friends from Hagerty, including racer favorite Brad Phillips and Senior Manager of Events Nicolle Girard.
But for those of us stuck back at home watching the auctions on television, one former Great Racer got a lot of prime time publicity. Gary Wales, the winner of the 1984 Great Race sold three cars at Barrett-Jackson, and he drew a lot of praise from the announcers on Speed.
Gary stopped by the Great Race space at Hershey in October and talked about his wonderful memories of winning the second Great Race in his 1936 Bentley boattail speedster with John Classen as his navigator.
The first two cars he sold at this years Barrett-Jackson were matching 1937 and 1938 Rolls-Royce speedsters that had been made from sedans. The 1937 Rolls brought $181,500 and the 1938 Rolls brought $214,500.
The third car was a 1939 Bentley Royale, another custom car designed and built by Gary and it sold for $374,000. Any of these three cars would be fantastic Great Race automobiles, but there was no word on what the new owners were going to be doing with them.
