Over the years I’ve given informal talks to clubs and schools that I enjoyed tremendously but in the last few years this activity has evolved and increased in depth to a more professional level.  This has happened for two reasons: First, Gayle has been going thru all of our BRE materials; organizing and archiving them.  This collection has provided us a wealth of visual material that wasn’t readily available to me before.  Second, Gayle is a presentation master.  During one period of her time at Microsoft, she was in charge of keynote presentations for Microsoft executives and she’s applied these skills to my talks which have improved them considerably.  For BRE, and our clients, she’s been able to scan our archive images and create professional presentations that have allowed me to convey some really interesting pieces of history of which few have been aware.  Some of my more recent presentations have included:

The History of BRE Datsuns and the Rise of Japanese Racing in America 

Few people know that the history of Japanese racing in America started with a small support race for the Riverside Grand Prix in 1968 called the Mission Bell 100.  Driving a little known car called a Hino Contessa, I happened to win that race, in front of some important press from around the world (who were there for the Grand Prix).  As a result, I became an immediate hero in Japan with headlines reading: “Brock Wins Riverside GP in Hino”. I hadn’t won the GP, of course, but having the little Hino win in front of some 85,000 fans became a really important event in Japan. My world changed at that point and America’s auto industry was about to change as well.  I share that history in this presentation with photos that capture the progression from underdog to winner in the 2.5 Trans-Am series of ’71-’72 with John Morton winning both Championships in the BRE Datsun 510s.