"In 1957 my friend, and now racecar collector, Charles 'Barry' Williams, lived next to Bill Thomas in Arcadia, Ca.. Thomas was a service manager at C. S. Mead Chevrolet in Pasadena, Ca.. Bill briefly road raced his white 1956 Corvette. Mr. Thomas became friendly with us kids, when he learned about our interest in Sport Car racing.

Sometime in June of 1957 Barry called telling me to come over and look at the strange red Corvette sitting in the Thomas driveway. He said " I have never seen a Corvette like it!". I took a snapshot of the car, which I still have. It was the first full RPO Corvette delivered to the west coast. It had special springs, shocks, and brakes that did not come on previous Corvettes, that we had seen. This, along with the brand new four-speed transmission and fuel injection motor, stunned us.

While we were looking at the car, Jerry Austin drove up in his Ford F150 towing his beautiful 'D' Type Jaguar. Jerry had been practicing at the yet to open Riverside Raceway. Austin went into the Thomas home. When he came out he was the new Mead race driver. Jerry asked to have the steering column shortened before the first race, to be held a week later at Pomona. Austin won the big production race on Saturday but lost control of the car late in the Sunday feature giving the win to Ron Ellico and his 300SL Benz.

Thomas then blueprinted the motor and installed a new camshaft, ground by Kenny Harmon, to supply more low-end torque than the Duntov unit. The car became almost unbeatable with Austin driving. Bob Bondurant later purchased the red Corvette and really made history with it."