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 Last year was filled with 50th anniversary activities for the Daytona Cobra Coupes winning the FIA GT World Championship. This year has started with another 50th anniversary for us, my founding Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE). After the 1965 season ended and the Coupes had won the Championship for Shelby, Ford and America, the Cobra program was disbanded. The deal with Ford was that all of Shelby American's efforts were to be on Ford's new GT40s. I was let go and immediately founded my own automotive race and design company, BRE.
BRE recently held a 50th Anniversary Reunion at the Petersen Automotive Museum in L.A. Attendance numbers blew out at 1000 (the museum had planned on 200). During a panel discussion with eight of the original BRE team I was reminded how many guys joined BRE from Shelby's. John Morton of course. Then there was George Boskoff and Bruce Burness . The automotive industry is a pretty close knit group. It's good to see some things haven't changed.
Below we share recent activities, upcoming plans, a new book I can't recommend highly enough and the latest in my Daytona Coupe 50th Anniversary model set.
Peter (& Gayle) Brock
(seen above at Amelia Island)
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Amelia Island Never Disappoints
This year was extra special with the P70 I designed in Modena in '64
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  Pictures don't do this car justice. It was especially satisfying to see it on the beautiful fields of the Amelia Island Concours. A special thanks to the owner, Mark Moshayedi and his transport driver Mort (and Mort's co-driving wife) for not only getting the P70 from Southern California to Amelia Island Florida but also for taking the car out on the Amelia Tour the Friday before the Concours. Yes, their restoration of this car has it running great and Mark and Mort driving in their matching period helmets drew crowds along their entire 30 mile route.
We can't share Amelia's future plans but let's just say that next year is going to be especially poignant for BRE. If you haven't yet made it to this bucket list event, make plans now to attend next year. We will see you there!
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I couldn't put down "The Special"
A must-have book that took me back to the early days of hot rodding
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 By serendipity this book ended up in our luggage coming back from the Amelia Island Concours. When unpacking, Gayle asked how I had gotten it and I had no explanation but it looked pretty interesting. I started to read and was immediately hooked! When done I called the author to share my praise. Turns out he had a rep at Amelia with a box of books looking to have a book vendor sell them there. Seeing us at a table selling our Corvette Sting Ray book a copy landed on our table. I then shared my copy with a local Daytona Coupe owner who returned it within a week (it's a large book but a fast read as you can't put it down) saying it is the best book he's ever read.
The book's journey starts with the true story of how the author, J. R. Pendleton, got a call from an elderly gentleman, "Babe", in Southern California saying he knew the author's uncle who was killed in WWII and he has the dry lakes hot rod racer Pendleton's uncle built with Babe's dad in the early '40s. The car was known as "The Special" and put the two men (and Babe as a young boy) right in the midst of all the race action at that time with automotive geniuses such as Harry Miller, Frank Kurtis, Ted Halibrand and America's greatest young racing talent, Frank Lockhart.
Babe explained the car was now in poor condition under a collapsed garage but if Pendleton wanted to come get it, it was his on one condition.... he had to listen to Babe's story about the men, the cars, the racing, a special lady and the events of WWII that changed their lives forever. So started Pendleton's journey, which he now shares with us.
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Art of the Car Concours, Kansas City June 25-26
Lots of activities going on behind the scenes
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 Seems like we're busier than ever but it's currently with a lot of things that won't be announced for a while or member activities such as the RRDC (Road Racer's Drivers Club) dinner held during the Long Beach Grand Prix. This year the honoree is a very deserving George Follmer.
So far, the next public event on the calendar for us is the Art of the Car Concours in Kansas City June 25-26. The Concours is Sunday the 26th. Preceding that on Saturday is a "Meet the Legends" panel on "Total Performance Powered by Ford". I will be on the panel with the good company of Bob Bondurant and Allen Grant. This will be followed Saturday evening with a welcome reception.
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CSX 2299 Started 1965 with a Win at its Namesake... Daytona!
The 5th model in my 50th Anniversary Daytona Coupe model series
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 The 5th model set in my 50th Anniversary series is CSX 2299 as it started 1965 with a win at its Namesake... Daytona!
Only 25 (numbered) of this model set are being offered. This model set contains the following items, with each displaying a matching numbered seal (e.g. 01/50, 02/50):
- Model: This amazingly accurate and detailed 1:43rd scale model of CSX 2299 as it ran in the new Daytona Coupe livery for 1965.
- Archive Photo: A high quality photo reprint from my personal archives showing CSX 2299 winning its first race at Daytona in 1965, setting the tone for the year the Coupes would win the first FIA GT Championship for America, Ford and Shelby American
- Detailed Description: A description I have written detailing what is unique about CSX 2299 in 1965 at this race compared to the Daytonas in 1964. I describe how a lot happened to CSX 2299 in the long arduous 1964 season as CSX 2299, along with four other Daytonas, was completely rebuilt over the winter.
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What Will Come Through in 2016?
 It's disappointing we can't share more upcoming activities at this time but we believe that once something is done (which means it's real) it's the right time. As you can imagine, we could be announcing some pretty cool projects every couple of months only to have to share that they fell through. It's the nature of this business.
With that said, there is something we're fairly in control of... my next book. This time I'll be sharing the story of the series of events that led to the creation of the DeTomaso P70 (yes, that beautifully restored car in the Amelia Island coverage above which I'm seen here working on in 1964 in Modena). It was an era of transition as Cal Club was leading the way to move club racing into the professional arena. Gayle has the first rough draft of my manuscript now. We're shooting for it to be done and released this fall.
Peter (& Gayle) Brock
BRE
779 Middlegate Rd
Henderson, NV 89011
702-558-3374
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