Website contributor and
Corvette maven Jim
Lockwood on this Corvette:
"Jerry
Austin raced this 1957 Corvette in 1957. He sold it to Bob
Bondurant who scored overall wins in 18 of 20 races with the car in
1959. (This is the only Corvette Bob Bondurant ever owned outright.)
After Bondurant, the car was owned by a Dr. Eddinger, Bart Martin, current
owner Mick Swezey, and one other owner whose name is unknown."
From racer and website
contributor
Ron Keil:
"Perhaps the first Corvette
Bob Bondurant raced was this '57. The car was later sold to Bart
Martin who raced it for a couple of years before switching to the Big Bore
"Modified" machines. My long-time Friend Myron A. Swezey II bought
the car from Bart, in 1963 IIRC, and has owned it ever since; he races
it in vintage events to this day. The car was a race car from the
start and has never (legally, anyway) turned a wheel on the street.
Mickey resprayed the car
in the 60s a shade of Godawful Brown (a Thunderbird color) and then suffered
considerable body damage at Vacaville when an axle snapped, inverting him
in the middle of Turn 1. He glued the car back together and raced
for a few more years, when the usual life events (career, marriage, home,
mortgage, children) curtailed racing for all of us.
The car languished in
his father's garage for decades until vintage racing rekindled his interest
and he restored the car to its earlier condition and colors. Bondurant
has frequently asked Mickey to sell the car back to him, but can one give
up a race car he has owned for over 40 years? I didn't think so.
The roll bar still has the scrapes from the Vacaville pavement and Mickey
has run the car with a pair of child's roller skates fastened to that bar." |