| Pete Ruff remembers Dave Ridenour:
"I found your site by plugging Costin
Lister Jaguar into Google. I grew up across the street and then up
the block from Dave in San Francisco in the '50s. I was probably 5 to 10
years younger than Dave. He was the guiding force in my buying an
XK120, my first car. It had been badly treated before I got it, and
seemed to break weekly.
Dave was my mentor during those times.
He was gracious with his time, advice, and tools. At that time
he was racing an XK140, light and dark blue; the dark blue was the same
color as the blue on his Lister.
One day when it was still BRG, I accompanied
Dave to Vacaville
with the Lister to act as a pit-boy, and was lucky to get a ride for one
lap around the circuit. After we left the track, we met up with Joe
Huffaker (senior) at the Nut
Tree.
Hearing of Dave's death on the radio
was my first close encounter with death, and it affected me deeply.
Dave was and always will be a hero to me. He was a class act, friendly,
polite, funny, and always willing to share a story, or anything else he
had."
(2-26-08) From Barry Novak
"I can't believe I found this site. Me
and my friends were only about 16 when we met Dave at Westwood (near Vancouver
B.C.) about l963 or 4 and we loved him, he was our favourite!
What a neat guy he was! He let
us into the pits and was so gracious to us. We were devastated when we
heard he was killed in rollover in an old chev or pontiac in a low class
stock car race because the rollbar broke. (I heard he was clawing his way
back to the bigger leagues after he had lent his
Genie-Comet to a friend in S.F. making
a commercial who inadvertantlly wrecked it.)
I think he was the son of a doctor in
S.F. It's a long long time ago, but I remember things--------------- I'm
so glad that there is some memory of him
on this site----------------right now
I'm in tears, I can't go on.
Thank you,
Barry Novak
(1-7-12) From Matthew Kelleher:
"Thanks for this great collection of
car photos ! The "starting line" incident that DQd Dave's Lister
at 1961 at Laguna Seca was not his fault. As I remember; Sid Colberg
(starter and racer at Laguna) had a beautiful, white Jaguar XKSS that was
staged in front of Dave's car. When the flag dropped; Sid's car jumped
to a stop and Dave's car went over the top of the Jag. Sid "popped
the clutch" and stalled his car; while Dave drove on and on top.
I was there working the pits for my Uncle
Jack Flaherty in his Lister Jag under the watchful guidance of Joe Huffaker.
Sid's XKSS was one of the most stunning cars I've ever seen." |
