The Shelby American (Summer 2022)

him small projects – sanding the spokes of a wheel or polishing a bumper. He gained an appreciation for cars through his father. When he watched television as a kid, he saw Kookie’s Model-T hot rod on “77 Sunset Strip” and it was a life- changing experience. He knew then that he had to have a hot rod. But eastern Pennsylvania was a long way from Southern California. His second car in high school was a ‘36 Ford road- ster which is part of the collection and is known as “George’s Ride.” One night a drunk driver ran into him, re- sulting into major damage. Many years later it was built into a hot rod. His father had a small paving com- pany which Ross joined after graduat- ing from Virginia Tech. Today the company has over 2,000 employees. Hot rods provided a diversion from the world of work. In 1980 a close boyhood friend, Terry Bookheimer, had a Boss 302 and attended the 5th SAAC con- vention in Dearborn. He came back bursting with excitement, describing to Ross how at this event people were able to actually drive their cars at speed on an open track. It opened up a whole new world to both of them. Ross soon bought a Shelby and as he immersed himself into these cars he located a ‘65 GT350 R-Model that was for sale. He was soon the owner of 5R103, the 1966 SCCA National B/Production champion which he drove at SAAC convention open track events. By the late 1980s vintage rac- ing had taken hold and Ross and Terry were eager competitors. Ross added a ‘66 Mustang notchback racer (ex-Dr. Dick Thompson) and a ‘67 Cougar Trans-Am sedan (ex-Dan Gurney) to his growing collection. Maintaining the race cars took more time and effort than he could dedicate, so at one vintage event he crossed paths with another racer, Chris Liebenberg, who operated his own restoration shop in Connecticut. Before too long Chris was preparing and restoring some of Ross’ race cars and it evolved into steady work. The successful construction business en- abling Ross to continue adding to the collection of hot rods and race cars with the long term goal of eventually having a museum. Ross invited Chris to move to Penn- The SHELBY AMERICAN Summer 2022 33