If you would be so inclined, take a moment to say a prayer for the wife and family of a long time friend of mine who recently died from a heart attack.... His name is Don Sterzinger, he was 66 years old. About 25 years ago I gave him and his son Todd some help with their circle burner and as a result we all became friends and raced together for a few years. Unfortunately, Todd died 5 years ago from cancer. Don pressed on through all of it, building engines (usually for the cost of the parts) for a lot of the younger racers and supplying parts (usually with just enough markup to pay the light bill) at any hour of the day or night when someone had a broken race car.

Don also built 2 T-buckets, one for him and one for his grandson to cruize in and attend car shows and generally just hang out and have fun. Don spent his entire life in and around hot rods and race cars and gave a lot of free help and advice, along with some very reasonably priced parts to anyone and everyone new or established in local racing. When the out of town guys were around for a two or three day show, he also made his shop available to them for necessary repairs between race nights, often staying at the shop with them and doing the majority of the work on their cars!!!! Most of the time he refused to take a dime for his time when helping out....

I miss old Don, all the time we spent arguing Ford vs. Chevy, chassis setups, head and cam combinations and all the other things we discussed at the shop and at "coffee time" for so many years. I sincerely hope that a lot of us Hot Rodders and Racers can some day do as much to help others new to the sport as Don did!!!!!