On Sunday May 8, Mike Allison changed series and decided to go and race with his heros. I first met Mike in 1977 when we were running in the Skip Barber Race Series, but his history in racing started long before that. BTW - If I miss something, Mike did not always brag about what he did, sometimes you had to pull it out of him.
In 1967 he ran in a Trans Am race in TX then left racing for the corporate world of banking. When an affordable and family friendly form of racing came along, the aforementioned Skip Barber Race Series came about, he jumped back in again and that was the start of his real racing endeavors. After a few years he became an instructor and mentor, before leaving the banking world to jump in as President of Skip's company. During this time he kept up his racing by running in the Series, special events and eventually the Barber Pro Series. After saying he would never own his own car he bought a McLaren F5000 car and ran this for a few years in vintage races.
Oh, and did I mention he ran at the 24 hours of LeMans! His team only finished once, 6th in class, but he finished in the car and talked about how the last lap was the longest in his life as the people poured onto the course.
Ironically he left the school in 1989 just as the economy collapsed - something he had told me would happen. He reinvented himself by working for the Resolution Trust Company - assisting in the closing and merging of banks. It was not a job he loved and kept him away from his family at times, but I am sure he did his best to save the customers, investors and the taxpayers as much money as he could.
In the 90’s he moved south and took his management skill back to racing, getting into NASCAR. running a Truck team and working with Brett Bodine which kept him busy until 2002 where he got together with some other people in racing to build a wind tunnel in Moorestown. AeroDyn Wind Tunnel is still going. When I asked him where the money came from to start it, he admitted many people had maxed out their credit cards….:D
Remember he said he would never own a race car? Somehow he ended up with a Crossle and Zink FFs, and an RX7. He made it to the 40th, and did not have a great event. This was the start of his health issues and he documented his travails in a post:
https://www.apexspeed.com/forums/showthread.php?35243-Thanks-to-Mike-Rand-amp-Steve-Beeler&p=222610&viewfull=1#post222610
He was always thankful to all the people who helped him at that event. Unfortunately, that was his last event. The last time I saw him in person was at the Skip Barber Reunion at Daytona in 2016. Since then we had stayed in touch but his health kept failing. He wanted to make sure he had everything in order for his wife, Sue, who put up with so much - not just Mike, but the racing and all the other personal tragedies that go along with just living.
I am sure I have forgotten something…
He started out as a competitor, then a friend and mentor, then my boss, and then back to friend.
The Jersey gang from 1977 is back together again - Mike, Mike O’Kane and Peter Kuhn. Have fun guys.
ChrisZ
https://jacksonfuneralservice.com/ob...-mike-allison/
