Cheers Tim!! Well done and best wishes to Tom (and the whole team) going forward. GRM is a great business that has evolved and earned enormous good will.
I started writing these columns some 40 years ago. Initially, I thought in a year or two I would be back at a real job, having written off the magazine business as a learning experience.
Turns out that’s not what happened, and I have built my life around this and our sister magazine, Classic Motorsports. And while hopefully that life, at 63 years of age, is not nearly over, nothing lasts forever.
To that end, I have decided to pass the torch–as well as this column–on to my son, Tom.
I told him when he was about 17 years old that if he wanted this business, We were not going to give it to him and we were not going to sell it to him. I told him that if he wanted it, he would need to take it from us.
He answered rather curtly, “How in the hell can I do that?” I told him that while I didn’t know for sure, it would start with him being on time for meetings and we would talk about it more when he had earned the respect of the staff we’ve had for decades.
While he still hasn’t totally mastered the game of being on time, quite honestly neither have I. He has definitely earned the respect of our staff, advertisers and readers. In fact, he has been mostly running things here at GRM these last couple of years.
While I’m still very involved, at least on the Classic Motorsports side of things (and I intend on staying that way for at least another decade), my interest in amateur motorsports (except in vintage racing, Lucky Dog races and the occasional rallycross) has waned a bit.
So to be fair to you, our readers, I felt it was time to step back and let our magazine enjoy a younger and more involved voice. I know this will be successful as Tom is a better writer, wrench and driver than I ever was. He’s also a bit better focused than I am and will run the business well.
And while my title will now be publisher emeritus, I’m still showing up for work every day (okay, almost every day) and will still contribute features and build project cars for both magazines. I’ll also handle ad sales, at least for our long-term customers, and be very involved in an ownership and functional capacity here at Grassroots Motorsports.
I will, however, be spending a bit more time in my garage, now nearly full of the cars I’ve dreamed of owning and have largely restored myself over the years.
Recently, it dawned on me for the first time that I might be the longest-standing automotive journalist (if you can call me that) who has written the same column for the same publication. I did a little bit of research, and certainly the Bonds, famous for putting Road & Track on the map, were at it longer. Nope, only about 22 years. David E. Davis jumped around a bit, and my idol, Peter Egan, might have been better, but his column didn’t run for 40 years.
I always joked that my last column would be full of vitriol for everyone who had ever wronged me. Except for one group in the West and one very close to home, my heart has healed, and I have no hatred for anyone.
In fact, I leave this column full of love for the four decades of support, encouragement and constructive input I have received from our readers.
From that shaky start in a rain-soaked Solo Nationals to the outpouring of support at the 1985 Portage Grand Prix to the insane three years that we put on Council of Motorsports Clubs events to the success that has become our $2000 Challenge, I have been blessed with supportive family, friends, staff and readers.
I’m not sure how history will treat my body of work or whether it would even care, but I feel I conducted our business honorably, genuinely tried to help people and left amateur motorsports in a better place than when I found it. I always tried to speak to our readers openly and honestly. I hated columnists who talked down to me, and I wanted to make sure I never did that.
You can still find my column in every issue of Classic Motorsports, and you’ll still see me mostly at vintage-oriented events. I have again been asked to judge at The Amelia. And as a symbolic gesture of how I plan to take it easy in later life, we have created another major event for Friday, March 1, when we’ll host our Amelia Island Kickoff.
Thank you, everyone, for an amazing life and career. I could not have done it without you.
Cheers Tim!! Well done and best wishes to Tom (and the whole team) going forward. GRM is a great business that has evolved and earned enormous good will.
Congratulations, Tim! Hopefully your voice won't be entirely absent from these pages in the future.
Even if it were, however, the marks you've made on the community remain indelible.
Thank you for starting this adventure Tim, and thank you for challenging Tom to take it over, and then actually following through with it. You should be proud of your work and the team, nay family, that you have assembled. Enjoy a well-earned semi-retirement!
Job well done Tim. Enjoy the spoils.
Congratulations Tim and Tom!
Cheers and best wishes for the future. Having been aware of GRM since it's inception when I was in college, it doesn't seem like it's been that long! Thank you for your publication, the community that's built up here online, and for all the good advice that has come from those sources.
Bravo!
And I know what it is like to conclude that your son is a taller, better looking, smarter version of yourself. It is not a bad feeling.
Congrats to both of you. This is such a great magazine(s) and community. Thank you for building this for all of us to enjoy and cheers to you for fostering your sons development to be able to take the reins!
Great article and thank you! 
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