Bob Gerritsen shares his fascinating journey through the automotive world, from his early days in drag racing to becoming a prominent figure in Porsche racing. He discusses his transition from the tech industry to founding Garretson Enterprises, where he worked on iconic Porsche models. Bob reflects on his racing career, including winning the World Championship in 1981 and the challenges he faced along the way. His passion for Porsches and the unique stories behind his experiences make for an engaging conversation.
Bob Garretson is the founder and owner of Garretson Enterprises. Garretson Enterprises went from AX and Pikes Peak to Le Mans and Championships. Jerry Woods, Rick Mears, Bobby Rahal, Rolf Stommelen, Dick Barbour, Paul Newman, Bruce Anderson are just a few of the names linked to Garretson Enterprises.
The show where we hear Bracken and his distinguished guests from the Porsche community patter on about Porsches and all things automotive, Porsche Patter is sponsored by Circuit Six Four.
Circuit Six Four creates authentic automotive apparel made for like-minded automotive enthusiasts.
The links for Circuit Six Four are in the show notes.
Okay, let's get to it.
Bob Gerritsen, part one.
Okay, this was one of the first interviews I did when I started taking this serious, because I used to do it for transcribing.
I didn't really care how the audio sounded.
I know you've heard that a million times that I used to transcribe, got it Anyway.
So I've been trying to like clean this one up for since I started even thinking about doing a podcast.
So we're talking I've been doing the podcast for a year and a couple months now, so I mean, I've been at this for a while.
So I tried to fix it myself.
No good, I paid someone to fix it.
They stole my money and they didn't make it any better.
They thought it was better I didn't.
Then I sent it to my friend he's really good at this and he cleaned it up a little bit.
This is as good as it's going to get and I'm kind of in a hurry to get it done now.
So I just want to get it out there.
So when I went up to Bob Gerritsen's place, he was still living in California, in Sonora.
He took me out to his shop with his 356 and his car, his R group car.
It was a long hood that was in the middle of being fixed.
And then he showed me because he works on four cams Not many people work on four cams anymore.
So he's showing me the engine that he was building.
And I remember him showing me one part and this was years ago, so price have probably gone up and he said oh, just for this one part is a hundred thousand dollars.
I don't even remember what part it is, I have a picture of it.
And then inside he had like all of his posters and trophies that he showed me.
We actually became pretty good buddies because I was calling him like at least once a month, and then the fact that I would run into him at the lit show.
He'd come sit at my table for a minute, talk to me, and then at Rensport Union 18, he came out to my tent, sat with me for a while.
He tried to get me to come out to his house but I got the fear of flying.
I still fly but I try to avoid it at all costs.
But my wife goes out to Washington for her work a lot and he's in Virginia now and he was like oh, you know, when you go, when your wife goes out to Washington DC, just come on down to Virginia Cause he told me I was supposed to look at some posters and some old racing posters and stuff when he lived in Sonora but he was never got around to unpacking them.
Then he moved to Virginia and I still don't know if he ever got them unpacked.
But he said oh, I'll have them ready if you ever fly all the way out here In this part one when he starts describing that he went to his friend that he used to compete against, had a 935 that he was racing and kept breaking down at Monterey and then at Sears Point, kept breaking down at Monterey and then at Sears Point, obviously he's talking about Dick Barber.
But Bob's lived quite the life I mean you hear, early on.
I mean I didn't know, I didn't go any earlier than when he was drag racing.
So he was into drag racing for a while, went into the military, went to college for quite a while, a few different colleges, went into the tech industry, did quite well in the tech industry, as you'll hear.
Then he formed Garretson Enterprises just from working on people's cars that he worked with and he worked in HP and at the time when he said, oh, I worked at HP, obviously I've heard of HP.
But ever since then I've learned a little bit more.
Hp, I guess back in the day was the place place to be like.
It was like the new innovative, like these were the cool guys.
Now we think about hp and it just sounds like an old, boring tech company.
Then from there it kind of became garrison enterprises, kind of became more into garrison racing and then even after he retired from the whole garrison enterprises and racing and he was retired most people don't knowitsen Enterprises and racing and he was retired.
Most people don't know that he was big into swimming and he was like an Olympic medal winner in the Senior Olympics or something like that.
So quite the life Anyway.
So here's Bob Gerritsen part one.
So glad I finally got it done and I can't wait to post it.
This has been a real thorn in my side because it's been really important for me to get it out.
But here we go.
The audio is not going to be great, but what can I do?
What attracted you to cars to begin with?
My father was involved in cars.
My brother was involved in cars as I was growing up, so it was just a natural thing.
Can I get you guys coffee or anything you want, tea?
So you were into.
You used to drag race right when you were super young.
Yeah, well, I was in just out of high school and in high school I got involved in drag racing.
Well, it was just getting started.
I mean, there was no NHRA training like that.
We used to just go up to Saugus, north Carolina, la, and race away.
And then one day there was a race in the San Fernando Valley at a place called Handsome Dam.
My high school buddy and I decided we'd go there and it looked like it was interesting.
They got to drive for 20 minutes of the run and we used to drive for 20 seconds if we were lucky.
And I figured there was a lot more in road racing than there was in drag racing.
So I immediately decided I wanted a sports car, a Austin Healy called 100, lm, 57, something like that.
Then I went to Homecoming at UC Santa Barbara after I was out of there and one of my fraternity brothers said you know one, austin Healy.
He got out of a Porsche and he said Porsche, you don't know anything about it.
He said, well, let me take got out a Porsche and I Porsche, you know anything about it.
He said, well, let me take you for a ride and I went out for a ride and that was it.
I had to have a Porsche.
So it took me until January 1958 to finally buy and get a Porsche.
What car were you?
Drag racing get a Porsche?
What car?
were you drag racing A 39 Ford Coupe that I built, a nice engine for.
So yeah, when I first knew Bob Gerritsen, it was like I just thought you were a race car driver.
Then I found out okay, well, he's got his own team or his own.
So then you were a team owner, you went to UC Berkeley.
No, then you were a team owner, you went to UC Berkeley.
No, I went a few places, but yeah, uc Santa Barbara first.
Then I had to go in the Navy and when I got out of the Navy I went to UC Berkeley, graduated from there and did some graduate work at Stanford.
And what were you studying Engineering, and then you you studying Engineering, and then you were kind of involved in the tech field too.
I read somewhere that you made like a probe for semiconductors or something.
Yeah, semiconductor.
I was working at HP at a party one night, talking to a guy.
He said, yeah, we're starting a new company.
Tomorrow we're leaving Fairchild, which was the semiconductor manufacturer in those days 102.
And he said we're leaving Fairchild and starting our own company.
And I said, well, I could be an engineer, somebody give me a call.
Well, they did.
About two weeks later they called and so I went to work for them.
In those days days, microchips, whatever you want to call them only had about eight to twelve inputs and output, and so they were all tested with little mechanical manipulators that you tested and repeated.
Well, the next step was 16 pins.
Well, the next step was 16 pins.
Well, now it was starting to get tight for these little mechanical things.
And then when they went to 22 and oh, 48 and all the way on up, it was just impossible to test them.
So I came up and patented a technique to any number of pins they wanted we could handle, and so that's well.
I worked for this company and they were going to be moved back to Philadelphia because they had been bought by Philco, which was another manufacturer, and I didn't want to go to the East Coast.
So I talked to a friend of mine and said let's go into business for ourselves, which involved raising a bunch of money.
And so we did.
He backed out at the last minute after I'd quit my job and stuff like that.
So I was stuck on my own and the guy that we were going to buy the equipment and stuff from.
So I don't really want to retire, I just don't want to work here.
So he and I became partners and that was a company called Rucker and Coles and I went on the steel wheel system tomorrow but I sold out in 1981.
So what's it?
So you were doing that, you were also racing and you had your own shop.
Well, when I worked at HP, I got to HP and I was married with two kids and we were all short of money, and so there were seven Porsches in the parking lot and they didn't really have any place to have them worked on, so I used to take the cars home at night and do whatever had to be done.
They didn't really have any place to have them worked on, so I used to take the cars home at night and do whatever had to be done and bring them back the next day.
When I was at HP I met a guy by the name of Bruce Anderson.
I'm sure you've heard of him and he had a 60 coupe, 62, I guess it was.
He used to race all the time going back and forth to work, so he used to come around, hang around and watch what was going on.
Finally he said, well, why don't you watch parts and all this stuff?
So he got familiar.
Then his brother, Clark Anderson, graduated from the University of South Carolina State, couldn't find a job, so I said, well, why don't we go into business full-time?
Clark didn't work at the business full-time, Bruce and I would work the evenings or whenever we had to.
So we rented a shop and got started.
We went to Mushroom, a bigger shop, and outgrew that.
And finally my brother and I built a building in Mountain View, going a little to the road, which the building still stands, but there's no more Closed down.
Well, I moved to England and well, finally some guy came along, a banker, a 550 spider.
He said, well, look, I'll buy the business and I've got the business since I'll run it, we'll run it all and keep it going because I mean it was thriving, we more business we could handle, plus then.
So anyway, I'll finish this story.
Then, coming back from the UK, and they said God, we just don't have any cash, can't figure the whole thing out.
Well, finally I found out that the bookkeeper was embezzling money.
So I said I want out totally.
So they walked me out and that was history.
But in the meantime, in 77.
So when did you get bought out?
Well, I think in 87, I think Okay, but in 77, we weren't doing any racing other than autocrossing and a couple of unbeatable cars.
I was at Monterey Racing one day and a friend of mine from Southern California, who I competed against, had a brand new Porsche 934, 934 and a half, I don't know what it was.
It didn't race and didn't finish.
And so I joked and said to him I said well, the only way you're going to get an upgrade is to pair your car.
He said no, no, no, you have a full-time mechanic that does it and all this stuff.
I don't know.
You have a full-time mechanic that does it and all this stuff.
Well, the next time I ran into him was at Sears Point, and again he broke down.
I said, dick, you're messing up, you ought to let us take care of the car.
And he had enough.
I mean, he had everything loaded into the truck and brought it to everybody.
Well, we didn't have room to do this, so we had to rent a building back through the back fence of Jason that's where Gerritsen Racing started and we prepared his cars 78, 79, 80.
And we won John Fitzpatrick won the driver, his head driver won the IMSA championship, and then.
So in 1980, he kind of ran out of funding and I sold the business and so I had my thoughts that I was going to race it on my own.
And so in 81, I put in the bill myself and did all right, won the world championship in 81.
And then started out in 82 and said what more can I do?
And I've done it all, plus the fact that bringing the cash is pretty quick.
So I sold the car to Wayne Baker in Southern California, california.
So he lived there and he converted or we converted it for him into a 934 so he could run in the GTO championship at Indochina.
But he won the championship.
So that's basically the reason.
When did you start Garrett's Enterprises?
That was what like.
Like 77 you said Well, garrison Enterprises started on my house in about 1960, I guess 61.
And it moved into.
The next couple of moves were in 70, and then we moved into a big building, the one that my brother and I built in 77, I think it was.
You kind of answered that one.
What attracted you to Porsches?
It took me a while and I decided this car had potential.
Yeah, what was it again?
He had a 53 or 54 Super.
And then my next question was how did you get involved with Porsches?
So you kind of decided to buy your own and you need to start kind of racing on your own.
Yeah, the problem is, you know, most likely you buy a Porsche and that's the cheapest thing you can do, and you have to take it to the dealer for maintenance and all that kind of stuff.
That's when I decided that I had to do it myself.
That's when I decided that I had to do it myself, and so I guess it would have been in 59,.
I started working on my own car and other people's cars and just went from there.
What would you say?
your highlight moment in racing was Winning the World Championship at Grand's Hatch in 1981.
You know, I was on the wrong of the but I didn't race all the races.
I won Daytona, the first race of the year, and then, you know, finished second, third, fifth, sixth at Le Mans that year.
I mean I'd give up, I'd quit in September or something like that.
And I got a call from Juergen Barth at Porsche saying, bobby, you're coming to Brian's Hatch.
And I said I don't want to go to Brian's Hatch, I'm not going to get a call over there and I'll listen.
He said well, you're leading in the world championship, you've got to come and run.
So I put the word out to my friends and stuff like that.
So I put the word out to my friends and stuff like that and amazingly, people just kept coming forward to make this all happen.
One of the guys I'd driven with at Riverside had a connection with Flying Tiger Airlines, which was a freight airline, and so they put their name on the car.
They flew the car to England and back.
It didn't cost me anything.
And then I had a friend over in England who had a shop I'd bet by then.
So he picked the car up at the airport and brought it to the track.
That was basically how it all went, so when you won the 24-hour Daytona, you guys did it with a 3.2
liter and I read somewhere that they thought that was kind of incredible because they'd been used to doing 2.8s
and 3 liters right.
Well, you've got to back up on the script.
Part of our success with Barber and everybody else was you've got to be smarter than the other guy.
We'd already figured out that turbos that Porsche provided were defects, because everybody lost a turbo once in a month.
So I had a brother that worked at Garrett Air Research in Southern California and that's part of their business is turbo charging.
So we sent it the turbo down to them and they looked at this and said, okay, this is wrong, that's wrong, and modified it so that they wouldn't fail.
Then the other thing was Porsche's exhaust system was just made out of steel and it was one pipe into the next pipe, into the next pipe, back to the turbo.
Well, that meant that the turbo was getting pulses at various you know.
You go boom, boom, boom.
So it wasn't any kind of rigger thing.
So we made new headers with all equally preliminary pipes out of 404 stainless, because 404 stainless is a poor heat conductor and you want as much heat at the turbo as you can get.
So that happened and we very rarely ever had an exhaust header.
Funny thing was we did it, they told me.
So anyway, backing up, since we figured that we had figured a lot of the problems out that people have, and by running only 1.2
boost with a bigger engine we weren't straining things as much as these guys running 2.4
and stuff like that on the small engine.
And so that was our trick to reliability.
We ran in 1982, we ran 19 hours on three cylinders at Le Mans, because I don't know, I can't remember what happened.
We lost a cylinder or something like that.
But you know, we managed to do a finish to 11.
But we didn't finish.
Okay, so is it true that up until that Daytona 24-hour you were kind of scrambling?
Oh no, I just ran for well, my own butt's sake, I was always.
I managed Dick Barber's team as well as Joe, who was a lead driver in the second car, and what he would do to make the finances basically is he would rent a ride to other drivers.
I had to drive with whoever came along.
I had to drive with whoever came along.
Like with Sebring in 78, one of the drivers was paid for by Volkswagen of America, which was the Porsche importer at that time, was Brian Redman, because Brian had had a huge accident in Formula 5000 and was just coming back from driving.
So he was looking for a ride and Volkswagen America paid us to let him drive with us.
The only two races I ever won outright, brian Redman was a co-driver.
Then the other guy was a guy that happened to own Sebring at the time and was just a weekend warrior kind of guy, and here again we outlasted everybody and won the race.
What was your favorite race car?
Well, 935 K3.
What about your least favorite?
Least favorite race car?
Yeah, 944, turbo 944?
Yeah 944 Trayvon.
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