Ron Grable did not fit the normal profile of a race driver. Not only did he begin his racing after graduating from college, he raced sports cars, stock cars, formula cars, production cars, IMSA Prototypes, Trans-Am and Can-Am cars. He raced at tracks all over the United States, at Le Mans, in New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and South America. Over the course of his three-decade career, Grable won championships in sports cars, sedans and formula cars. Throughout this period, he was an engineer for several high-tech firms and a technical writer for several well-known automobile, airplane and motorcycle magazines. Oh, yes, he also operated a restaurant and flew a Pitts Special Bi-Plane in aerobatic competition. Clearly, Ron Grable was cut from a different cloth.
Raised in Southern California, after completing high school, Grable enrolled at San Diego State in 1957 with aspirations of becoming an engineer. During his college days, there was nothing to indicate that a career in racing was in his future. Upon graduating with an engineering degree in 1961, Grable bought himself a graduation present—a Porsche Speedster. Unbeknownst to him, this vehicle would become much more than just daily transportation.
Grable moved to Arizona and took up residence with several friends. His new roommates also owned Speedsters and were involved in autocross competition. It wasn’t long before Grable took up this sport in his Speedster and enjoyed the experience. He did well enough to earn an award at the state autocross championship…a paid entry to the local SCCA Drivers School. After passing the course, Grable decided to enter a few local races in Arizona and more races in Southern California. These first few races were enough to whet his appetite for more road-racing competition.
Relocation and First Racing Success
In 1962, he accepted a job offer from Westinghouse in Baltimore, Maryland, so he packed up and moved to the East Coast with the Speedster in tow. After settling into his new job and residence, he resumed road racing in local SCCA races. His first race was in April of 1963 at Virginia International Raceway where he drove his Speedster to a 3rd-place finish in E-production followed by a 1st-place two months later also at VIR.
The year 1964 would bring a much busier race schedule with Grable competing in events at VIR, Cumberland, Vineland, Reading, Bridgehampton, Watkins Glen, and Thompson. With several wins and other top finishes, he was Northeast Division E-Production champion and was invited to the first American Road Race of Champions at Riverside where he finished 2nd in class. There was no turning back now…he was fully hooked on racing!
The following year, Grable continued racing his Speedster, but a new opportunity surfaced during the season that would provide a glimpse into the future. Quite out-of-the-blue, Grable received a call from a Dodge factory representative with an offer to co-drive a Plymouth Barracuda at the 12 hours of Marlboro. Due to an illness, one of the original drivers could not participate, so when the Dodge representative needed a local driver as a replacement, Grable’s name was suggested and he was offered the drive. With co-driver Nelson Sims, they qualified the sedan 5th, then in the race, they finished 1st in class and 8th overall. After the race, the Dodge rep offered Grable his first sponsorship in the form of a car, parts, and expenses. There was only one catch…he’d have to move to the West Coast. While mulling over this offer, Grable continued racing his Speedster and did well enough to finish the 1965 E-Production season in 4th place.
Sedans, a Championship and More
Grable decided to move back to the West Coast and settled in the San Francisco Bay area, with a new job at Fairchild. He had been in contact with the Dodge factory about the offer he received at Marlboro and, as promised, he received a new Dodge Dart, which he promptly turned into an A-Class Sedan racer in preparation for the 1966 SCCA season.
Grable took full advantage of the sponsorship, earning enough points to finish 2nd in the SF Region and then beating all the Mustangs in the ARRC to become A-Sedan national champion. To see how he would do against the “big boys” in Trans-Am, he competed in events at Green Valley (TX), Crows Landing (CA), Riverside (CA), and Continental Divide (CO). With co-driver Miles Gupton, they finished each race with a best showing of 4th at Green Valley.
Photo: Grable Collection
He continued with the Dodge Dart in SCCA events for the 1967 season, finishing 3rd in the SF Regional points, and competed in the AARC at Daytona where a first-lap accident put him out of the race. He also drove the Dart in one Trans-Am race at Continental Divide finishing 23rd. Next, Grable added another new line to his racing resume with a Winston West drive at Riverside. Racing a Ford Galaxie, he ran up front most of the race, finally finishing 2nd to stock-car veteran Herschel McGriff. It was becoming evident that Grable was quick to adapt to whatever type of car he drove and with good success.
Besides racing the Dart in A-Sedan for the 1968 season, Grable decided to explore new territory. With a desire for more horsepower and speed, he worked with a local San Francisco Bay area designer on a new racecar that became known as the Spector HR1. This was a V-8, Chevy-powered, open-wheel car built for the new SCCA Formula A class, the U.S. version of F1. Grable adapted quickly to this new type of car as he dominated West Coast Formula A races with 1st-place finishes at Cotati (twice, plus a track record), Riverside, and Portland. He was Division F/A champion and would top off the year by winning this class at the ARRC at Riverside. In addition, Grable competed in two other Formula A events, the Colorado GP at Continental Divide (DNF—suspension), and the Ken Miles Memorial Race at Laguna Seca (21st, out of gas). He also amassed enough points with the Dart to win the SCCA Pacific Coast Division A-Sedan title. Overall, it had been a very successful year…and important people had taken notice.
In 1969, a major career change took place for Grable when he was asked to join the Javelin Trans-Am factory racing team after a driver tryout at Las Vegas. Deciding to accept the offer, he quit his engineering job and went racing as a professional, full-time driver for the first time. Unfortunately, it wasn’t a storybook season as the Javelin team was not among the front-runners in many of the races. However, Grable gave the team two 5ths, one 6th and one 8th place finish during the season. Despite this good showing, he would not get another chance to drive for the Javelin team as it was taken over by Roger Penske for the 1970 season, with his existing drivers Donohue, Revson, and Roberts. Grable would have to look elsewhere if he were to continue his career as a professional driver. During this same period, he also squeezed in the Permatex 400 Winston West stock car race at Riverside. Grable led most of the race but, with rain approaching, he pitted for a tire change. He recalls, “I was still in the pits when the yellow flag came out, shortly followed by the red flag, ending the race. I was credited with a 2nd-place finish.”
Back to Formula A
After the conclusion of the Trans-Am season, Grable was pondering what to do next. The solution arrived in the form of a letter from the organizers of the Tasman race series in New Zealand and Australia. The Tasman series was run during the winter off-season in the United States and summer “down under.” Since its inception in 1964, many of the Formula One drivers/teams contested in this series, taking their cars with them. It became a regular practice for the F1 teams to sell their cars to local drivers, but these sophisticated machines were expensive to race and maintain. The Tasman organizers had taken notice of the economical and increasing popularity of the stock-block engine cars of the SCCA Formula A series. The race organizers invited a select group of these racers, including Grable, to the final event of the 1969 season to serve as a test to see if these cars would be competitive against the existing 2.5-liter Tasman machinery.
Through his sponsor, Grable purchased a McLaren M10A and departed for New Zealand. Demonstrating that driving a Trans-Am car had not diminished his formula car capabilities, Grable won the “test race” held at Bay Park Raceway. With this success, he decided to contest the 1970 Formula 5000 season known as the L&M Continental Championship. Driving a Chevy/Lola-T190, Grable finished in the top ten in all but five races and won the Laguna Seca (new lap record) and Edmonton events. With a break between events, Grable was asked by Webster Racing to drive their Eisert/Chevy in a Champ Car race at Indianapolis Raceway Park. Once again, proving he was a fast learner, Grable qualified and despite a spin, he finished 11th.
The Tasman Series
With the L&M Continental Championship season now over, Grable headed back to New Zealand/Australia to contest the full Tasman series. At the Bay Park Raceway “tuneup race,” Grable once again showed his heels to the field in his McLaren M10A and won for the second year in a row. Round One of the series got off to a bad start as the crankshaft broke in his McLaren during a practice session at Levin. With a new engine installed, Grable raced to a 4th-place finish at Pukekohe behind Aussie Frank Matich, Englishmen Derek Bell and Kiwi Graeme Lawrence. Rounds three and four at Wigram and Teretonga found him pressing for the lead in each race, ultimately finishing 2nd to Frank Matich and Graeme McRae, respectively. The series now moved over to Australia for rounds five through seven. Grable placed 5th at Surfers Paradise, coming back from a first lap off-course excursion. At Warwick Farm, he suffered a DNF (battery) and at Sandown, Grable was up to 2nd place until his engine failed, forcing him out of the race. With two 2nds, one 4th and a 5th, Grable finished with 17 points, good enough for 5th place behind series winner Lawrence, followed by Matich, Barlett, Stewart, and McRae. Back home in the United States, after the Tasman series, Grable was voted Road Racer of the Year by the Motorsports Press Association, in recognition of his outstanding success in road racing that year. The future looked very bright and Grable looked forward to the next racing season.
Anticipation, Initial Success,
Lost Opportunity
Now firmly established among the elite racers in Formula A, Grable looked forward to another good year in 1971. However, before the start of the L&M Continental Championship Series, Grable took part in two other events. The first was a return to Riverside Raceway in a stock car for the Motor Trend 500 Winston Cup race in January. Driving a Ford, Grable made the field, qualifying 33rd (out of 40) against all the Winston Cup regulars. During the race, he was able to gain ten positions before his engine expired and he was classified 23rd.
The second and most unique event was the Questor Grand Prix at Ontario Motor Speedway in March. The race organizers were able to entice virtually all the Formula One teams to a race at the Speedway against a select group of Formula A drivers from the United States. With a large purse at stake and good promotion, a crowd of 65,000 turned out to watch the best from the U.S. versus the F1 teams. Like most of the other Formula A drivers, he scrambled to find a suitable car and arrived at OMS to see how he would do against the F1 drivers. Grable qualified well, then finished 10th in the first heat and 7th in the second heat for an overall 7th place and was the highest-placed Formula A driver. He proved to himself and the racing world that he could compete with Europe’s best.
The L&M Continental Championship began at Riverside in April 1971, where Grable finished 4th in his Lola T-190, followed by a 28th at Laguna Seca. At the Seattle race, he debuted a new car called the ASD American and finished 8th. Continuing to drive the American, he was 9th at Mid-Ohio, 29th at Road America, 2nd at Edmonton, and 21st at Seattle. Gaining consistency with a new car was proving to be difficult but progress was being made. During this same period, Grable had been contracted to compete in a few Can-Am events for W.O.R.L. (William Overhauser Racing Ltd.). He ran two races in a Lola/Chevy at Laguna Seca in October (finished 25th, broken half-shaft) and Riverside (29th due to a spin). Back to the L&M Series in August and during practice at Brainerd, a tire deflated while Grable was on a very fast section of the course resulting in a crash that totaled the American and broke both of Grable’s legs. Obviously, his season was over and a long recovery period ensued.
Lack of Sponsorship
With racing becoming more expensive, finding sponsorship was an ongoing and necessary effort. Even though Grable had the desire to return to the L&M Championship Series, he was only able to secure sponsorship for the first two events for 1972 at Laguna Seca (finished 14th) and Riverside (finished 27th), both races in a Surtees TS-11. He also raced for Overhauser Racing in Can-Am, competing in the Riverside and Laguna Seca rounds in a Chevy-Lola T-163 but suffered two DNFs. In addition, he raced in a one-off series in Bogota, Colombia, the El Premio International Marlboro de Colombia. This was an invitational race for F5000 cars and an attempt to bring high-level racing to this part of South America. While Grable enjoyed the trip, his car suffered mechanical problems and he did not finish either of the two races.
With no money to continue further, Grable was faced with resuming his engineering career if no other opportunities appeared. Just when he was about to dust off his resume, an unexpected offer came in from John Greenwood who was planning on building three special Corvettes under BF Goodrich sponsorship. Greenwood wanted Grable to help build and then race these new cars. This was a great opportunity to combine his engineering and driving skills so, in January 1973, Grable packed up and headed east to Greenwood’s operation in Detroit.
Greenwood’s team planned to enter the Corvettes in three endurance races: the Daytona 24 hours; the Sebring 12 Hours, and finally the 24 hours of Le Mans. They finished 15th overall at Daytona, which was a good showing for a new car; 3rd overall at Sebring, and then looked forward to Le Mans. However, their effort at Le Mans was over shortly after the first practice sessions. With the Corvette in the garage for overnight service, one of the team drivers liberated the car from the mechanics so he could take a local, female companion for a ride in the racecar. He promptly wrecked the car in the French countryside and, despite the crew’s efforts, their hopes for competing at Le Mans were prematurely over.
With the conclusion of the Greenwood effort, Grable was unable to find another suitable ride for the balance of the year. Discouraged, he headed back to California not knowing if he would race again anytime soon. In fact, it would be several years before Grable would find himself behind the wheel again. Grable recalls, “Who knows where my career would have led had I not had this long layoff.” Instead of resuming his engineering career, Grable wanted to try something different, so he embarked on a new venture: he decided to open a small restaurant with a friend. While this endeavor would occupy his time for the next two and a half years, life wasn’t quite the same without racing as an integral part of his life.
A Re-Introduction to Racing
In 1979, that situation was rectified when Grable came in contact with longtime racing enthusiast and vintage racer, John Streets. Streets had been racing a Lotus Elite in vintage races on the West Coast and recalls, “Through a mutual friend, Rodney Smith, I was introduced to Ron. I knew of his racing background and I asked if he would like to race the Elite in an upcoming vintage event.” He agreed and Grable made his vintage debut at Riverside Raceway in 1979—he was behind the wheel of a racecar again for the first time in six years.
Over the next three years, Grable would race Streets’ Elite, Mallock Formula Junior and Lotus 18 at numerous vintage events on the West Coast including three appearances at the Monterey Historics. Having lost none of his abilities during the long layoff, Grable usually finished up front in these races and thoroughly enjoyed the seat-time. The association with Grable paid benefits in other ways as Streets explained, “Ron applied his engineering and racing background to help improve the handling of the Lotus and Mallock. He also mentored my son Skip who was racing Formula Vees. We very much enjoyed our relationship with Ron and have continued to stay in touch through the ensuing years.”
Back to the Big Time
The year 1982 brought both a career change and a return to upper-level racing. Grable received an offer from a friend at Motor Trend magazine to join the staff as technical editor. He had previous journalistic experience beginning in the early 1970s, having written for Sports Car Graphic and a monthly column for SportsCar, the SCCA’s national magazine. While at Motor Trend, he developed a number of contacts that led to an opportunity to return to the upper levels of racing. Grable accepted a ride in the IMSA Series GTU class at the Daytona 24 hours in a Mazda RX-7 (7th overall, 2nd in class). He then landed a ride for the remainder of the season in the new IMSA GTU Toyota Celica prepared by Kent Racing. One of Grable’s teammates, Rick Knoop recalls, “The combination of Grable’s outstanding racing successes and his journalistic background, put him at the top of our list when we began looking for drivers for the season.” The team scored four podium finishes out of eight races and accumulated enough points to finish in 20th place (out of 86 teams).
Grable also renewed his relationship with BF Goodrich when they asked him to co-drive a 924 Le Mans Porsche at the Suzuki (Japan) 1,000 km race. Teaming with Jim Busby, they finished 17th in the GTU class.
For 1983, Grable continued racing in the GTU Class of the IMSA Series but limited his participation to the longer races. He competed in a Porsche 924 Carrera primarily with Jim Busby at the Daytona 24 Hours (DNF); Sebring 12 Hours (DNF); Riverside 6 Hours (24th), and at Mid-Ohio (34th). The following year Grable entered two IMSA races, the Daytona 24 Hours (11th in GTP with Busby, Knoop and two others) and the Los Angeles Times/Nissan Grand Prix at Riverside (19th in GTP with Busby, Knoop). The team drove a Mazda/Lola T616 in each event.
Continuing with his preference for endurance racing, Grable joined the Morrison–Cooke Corvette Team in 1985 for the SCCA Playboy Endurance Racing Series. The team won the championship in 1985 and Grable, who finished on the podium six times, won the individual drivers championship. In 1986, the Morrison–Cook team had one car finish 2nd in points for the season, but Grable’s car was not able to maintain the top finishes of 1985. He finished 5th in the individual driver’s points and the car in 8th place.
Grable stayed with Morrison–Cook into 1987 as a reserve driver but raced sparingly that year and in 1988. With his career winding down, and after 28 years of competition, he decided to hang up his helmet in 1989 and retire from racing. Looking back, it had been a remarkable and satisfying career: national championships in SCCA A-Sedan, Formula A and Playboy Endurance Series; top Formula A driver at the Questor GP; top American in the Tasman Series; multiple-event winner in Formula 5000. He raced sports cars, sedans, stock cars, formula cars, IMSA prototypes, Trans-Am and Can-Am, cars at tracks all over the world. In describing his career, Grable simply says, “I had a good time; it was lots of fun.”
After retiring from racing, Grable didn’t slip off to an easy chair somewhere to enjoy the quiet life, he simply replaced car racing by expanding two of his hobbies: flying and riding motorcycles. He purchased a Pitts Special Aerobatic biplane and engaged in competition aerobatics, cross-country air races and air shows. Besides cars and flying, Grable also enjoyed motorcycles, so he decided to leave his Technical Editors job at Motor Trend and continued his journalistic career as a freelance writer. He combined his enjoyment of flying, motorcycles and cars to write regular articles for Plane & Pilot, Rider, and Motor Trend for the next four years.
His Biggest Challenge
All this came to an abrupt halt in 1993. Grable was returning from a road test for a magazine when he crashed the motorcycle he had been testing. He suffered serious and debilitating injuries that left him partially paralyzed. Since the accident, he has been undergoing continuous physical therapy treatment to regain his full, normal mobility.
Seven years after his accident and during his rehabilitation, Grable’s fortunes took a very positive turn. He explains, “After I got home from the hospital, I reconnected with a former girlfriend via the Internet. We had dated back in my Fairchild Engineering days some 25 years before, and we got back together in 2000. One thing led to another and that led to marriage in 2001, here in Arizona.”
“Currently,” Grable says, “with my wife Sandy’s support and encouragement, I am back to about 80 percent and continuing to steadily improve.” Just as he exhibited the determination to succeed at all levels during his racing career, he is meeting this challenge with the same determination, and there is no doubt he will succeed at this as well.
