By the Editor
One of the many joys that VT brings to its editor is experienced when a long-lost acquaintance sends an email, which is nice enough, but often it is accompanied by a photo or story idea. Some of these singular but digital reunions harken from long ago. For example, Jim Cohn and I were only 19 when we organized rallies for the local sports car club back in 1966. Because of VeloceToday, Jim emailed me from Hawaii in 2006, 40 years later, with rare OSCA photos. We are still in touch. Last year, Jackie Jouret, my old editor at Forza made contact with me after 20 years, which resulted in the Merritt Interview story we ran earlier this year.
Recently, we received an email (and a story idea) from one Greg Glassner. Now that was a name I recalled but couldn’t quite nail it. He wrote, “You may remember me from my days in Norfolk. I was editor of the newsletter for the short-lived Tidewater Drivers Club and I believe you contributed several stories before going on to bigger and better things. We shared an interest in Italian cars. I am retired after 40-some years in newspapers.”
Cut and Paste for real. Nice job though.
Now I got it. Being a packrat sort of person, I still had a copy of one of the Tidewater Driver from 1984 and dug it out from the archives. It was more than a newsletter, and much like the contemporary AutoWeek, pulp but very well laid out with excellent articles about the local and international motorsports scene, at a time when everything was typed up and cut and pasted with real scissors and glue. Well done, Glassner! There was even an article written by yrstrly about a trip to the vintage car races at Lime Rock. But that was a long time ago! Where has he been?
Glassner today. Photographer unknown.
A brief bio told us that Greg Glassner was a news reporter, motorsports writer, editor and columnist during a five-decade career in newspapers. He wrote biographies of U.S. Attorney General William Wirt and Virginia Gov. William Smith and is coauthor of “American Deadline: Reporting From Four News-starved Towns in the Trump Era,” a 2023 release by Columbia University Press. Glassner’s current project is his “Auto Autobiography.”
Glassner then wrote “I have been receiving VeloceToday for a couple of years. I can’t remember if a car club friend pointed it out to me or if I stumbled across it. I figured you were the same Pete Vack I knew from Norfolk days and was aware you wrote several books on Italian marques. The first car I bought that was roadworthy was a 58 or 59 Fiat Abarth 750 sedan. I was 18 at the time.”
Now it all came together. So what did Glassner have in mind?
“With the Ferrari movie coming out in December and revived interest in the 1957 Mille Miglia, I just thought you might enjoy reading a little piece of fiction I put together for our writers’ group at the Ladysmith Library in Caroline County VA. Fiction is not my forte, but several gearhead pals of mine said they liked this story.”
Glassner’s credentials are impeccable and the story close to home. So rather than simply skip VeloceToday for December 26 and January 2, it seemed appropriate that we publish Glassner’s short, fictional story about Chub Olsen, a guy much like you and me, trying to grow up and move on with life. Thank you, Greg, and welcome to VeloceToday.
Great that you did this piece on Greg. I enjoyed his fictional Ferrari story a few month’s ago when he sent it to me for an opinion. He and I go quite a ways back when he was here at Penn State and became editor of our local sports car club publication named SLUDGE.
Stan Smith
Pete- I don’t want to be too picky and it is Christmas and all, but I live in some dread of the upcoming Ferrari film which I am already assuming will sacrifice accuracy for screen impact. As for the Glassner piece, he is of course free to write fiction. As far as I’m aware no crashed works Ferrari of the period ever escaped, virtually all were scrapped and I don’t think any made it to the USA. Some say the engine survived but given the nature of the crash and time underwater, I would guess the engine number or perhaps the cylinder head survived and that may be in the USA. The number of real ex works cars discovered in small garages is very small…they mainly exist in fiction. Looking forward to part 2. Best to you Pete.