Page 42 - Oct 2022

Once Upon a Time there was a young man named
Bob who loved everything about sports cars. Like
most young men, sports cars were not in his budget
but they did occupy corners of his brain. Being
around them, reading about them, dreaming about
them was how he liked to spend his free time.
Luckily for Bob, a man named Bill, who had the
resources to own sports cars, became part of his life.

"Bill Clark and his best friend, Gene Baker, were
serious sports car lovers and racers in their time.
Likely some of the older members of the club will
remember them, " Bob reminisced. " I met Bill when
he raced cars at Harding Mall autocrosses on Sunday Above: Bill Clark was a well known figure in the
back in the 1960?s. Then, I got reacquainted after middle Tennesee sports car community beginning
my best friend started working with Bill in the early in the '60s. He became a sort of mentor for Bob.
1980?s."
Clark's soon to be ex-wife got the Italia as part
When Bob discovered that Bill Clark was into vintage of the divorce settlement. According to the
sports car racing it was only natural that he story, she left it pretty much to sit, until she
gravitated to him , both to see and talk cars. Soon finally decided it had been sitting long enough.
he found himself going to Road Atlanta with Clark She called her father and had him return the car
and became a "go-fer" in the older man's pit crew. to Bill, where it would eventually remain parked
outside his rental house, exposed to the
"I just loved hanging out with the sports car guys, "
elements.
Bob says. " Over the years Bill raced a TR3, one of
the Triumph TRS, a Le Mans car, a unipower GT, and "Bill was never specific about the time frames
a number of Fiat 650?s among other cars." with what happened with the car, but my guess
is maybe he got the car back from the divorce
Then there was the Italia 2000.
in the early to mid 1970?s. It came back with
According to Bob Bill first saw a mention of an Italia mechanical problems. I know there was a period
that had participated in the 1960 Sports Car Graphic where it sat for a year at an upholstery shop in
road test. Clark was a long time Triumph owner and Smyrna because Bill couldn't pay his bill. Then,
decided that if he ever saw a used one for sale, he'd he stored the car for 10-15 years outside his
buy it. rental house. That's where I saw it and where I

A math teacher at Hume-Fogg, when an Italia bought it ," Bob remembers.
showed up on the used car side of John Tune Import Here's the car that Bob saw and bought:
Motors in Nashville, Clark crunched the numbers
and bought it. He drove the nimble, stylish little car
for years as his daily driver, parking what was, even
then, a rare car, as only 329 of them were ever
produced, on the street in front of the high school ,
leaving it there all day long. He autocrossed it on
the weekends.

Somewhere along the time line, Clark ended up in a
divorce, which, if what happened to the Italia was an
indication, must have been a less than amicable.

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