2017

and making friends everywhere he went.  The friendships Paul made were lasting and included people like Dennis Paul (IMSA starter), Jim Swintel and JD Wilbur (CART & Champ Car starters), and Will Buxton (F1 commentator & pit reporter).

During Paul’s retirement years, he became enamored with visiting and photographing National Parks.  He looked forward to those times when he could visit a park to photograph its beauty and check out from the world for a time. The photos Paul took on these trips were breathtaking.

The news of Paul’s passing was a shock to all.  While his presence and sense of humor will be missed by all who knew him we are comforted knowing that Paul is watching over us from the great race in the sky where the starts are always perfect and the blue flags never wrong.

God Speed Paul you will always in our thoughts.

SCCA Member Jerry Mouton from Palo Alto passed away September 12 while on an Jaguar E-Type tour in Montana.

Jerry was a long time autocrosser and SFR contributor Jerry Mouton has passed away unexpectedly. It appears he died in his sleep, the morning before a group drive with his E Type Jaguar in Montana. Godspeed, Jerry! I know that everyone will miss your friendly smile and your beautiful car at our events.

Jerry was very active in the Autocross community and the Jaguar Community and will be greatly missed.  Jerry brought SFR Solo onto the web in the late 1990’s and maintained the site, schedules, points, and many other things behind the scenes. If you asked him about it, he always said “I don’t do very much.” Oh, but he did!

Below is a message from Alex Mouton.

From Alex Mouton, Jerry’s son:

Its great comfort to me to read how much you all have appreciated the joy he found in working on his E Type and sharing that knowledge with you all. I hope his posts here will continue to educate and inspire you to make your cars great and delight in putting them through their paces.

For those who would like to pay final respects:

Funeral services are planned for 9 am on Monday the 25th at Alta Mesa Funeral Home and Cemetery in Palo Alto, California. Visitation will be from 9 – 11 with opportunity for personal remembrances with a mass and graveside service to follow. Flowers will be a welcome addition to the ceremony.

Despite the gravity here I am very happy to see the Oil Leak continued on to find some roads. I personally take that as a great tribute to my fathers time here.

From the “Oil Leaks” blog (the E-Type Jaguar touring group):

It is with great sadness that I have to report that Jerry Mouton, the kingpin of the series of “Oil Leaks” since 2011, passed away in his sleep on the eve of the BSOL in Paradise, Montana. It’s hard to imagine how the 6 past Oil Leaks could have been as successful and enjoyable without Jerry’s enthusiastic participation and leadership, and at the moment it’s equally hard to imagine how we can continue them without him. However, as his son James (who Jerry visited in Missoula only 70 miles away, on the way to the start of BSOL) reminded us when he spoke to the assembled “Leakers” later that morning, Jerry would have wanted us to continue the BSOL adventure, and future Oil Leaks.

We all send our sincere condolences to Jerry’s family – Jerry was one in a million, and will be greatly missed.

Jerry’s unexpected passing came as a shock to us all, and we each had to decide how best to proceed. David Drake stayed behind to assist with the arrangements. Lynn and Jan generously chose to help James transport Jerry’s beloved “MIK Jaguar” to Missoula and then return to Boise. Others chose to find their own way to our next stopover in Whitefish, Montana and rejoin the group there. Debbie and I left Paradise, Montana with the rest of the Leakers with heavy hearts, and a sense of disbelief…

Larry Albedi passed away on May 29 at the age of 85.

Although many people knew Larry by sight, others only knew him by the sound of his voice.  He was known as “the voice of the Sears Point and Petaluma Speedway”, having started announcing in 1952, and was a race track announcer for more than five decades.

When describing Larry Albedi’s association with the San Francisco Region, the word decade comes up frequently.  He first became a member of the San Francisco Region in 1956.  He joined the SCCA so he could race and in those early days you were required to be an SCCA member to drive, but not for any other positions. He became an active racer of production and formula racecars beginning with a Corvette and later driving a Huffaker built Formula Jr, which was later converted to a Formula B car and a Bourgeault Formula B Ford-Cosworth in SCCA’s first pro formula car series, the SCCA Grand Prix in 1967.

From Dick Templeton: I cannot really remember a time when I did not know Larry Albedi.  Back in my days as a course worker I heard his announcing, we raced against each other in formula cars, and I attended membership meetings at his early Vallejo auto dealership.

When I became the Executive Steward Larry became my “go to” guy.  Marty Kaufman, Al Brizard and Roger Eandi were all traveling with their pro series leaving a large gap in the stewards’ organization.  Whenever and wherever I needed help Larry would step up and do a great job.

When I left the Exec’s role I continued working  with Larry, stewarding for many pleasurable years, sharing stories and trying to outguess each other.  He always greeted me and others with a smile and cordiality.  I even let him sell me a couple of cars and, once, he bought me lunch.

Larry, I will miss you but I know that where you are is a better place with you in residence.