[Keith Seymore]

Some insights into Dick Jesse:

"One of the drag cars was at Royal at the same time and was being tuned [so that it would be "stock"! ] and painted the way Wangers wanted it to be. It was given a Bobcat paint job and Charlie checked the engine, the lash on the valves, the carb jetting, pulled the fuel filter and replaced the distributor with one Frank had reworked.

"In a conversation with Jesse he said that Gil Kohn was going to let Royal use Detroit Dragway for the test and I came down I could go with him. I remembered it being on a Monday morning but in a conversation with Roger Huntington he said no, we met on a Sunday. I can also remember being in a hurry to get back to Flint to go to work so that would explain that (Sunday was double time!).

"In 1960 Standard Oil came out with the Atlas Bucron and it was better than a lot of the recap slicks were. Vogue had a good tire, too. Jim had Vogue tires on the car for Royal but they changed to the Bucron's at the strip but it was cold and he had traction problems. I stayed to watch a few runs and Roger was making the runs with Wangers and then I left. Jack Watson was still working for Pontiac at this time and had a '61 with a 421 in it and I think he gave me a ride back to Royal Oak.

"The test car was very impressive in looks, too. I thought '...this is a race car?'. Power radio antenna, the interior even the steering wheel was deluxe and with the Royal paint it was a pretty car.




"As pretty as this car was and even the way it ran this was not the car campaigned in 1962. I think this car stayed in the Detroit area in 1962 and Royal had a big display at the Autorama in January of 1963 with a car in it and I think it was this car, the one used the previous January for the road test.

"In 1962 Royal cut back and only campaigned one car, a red 4 speed car. I kidded Jesse and said it was because Pontiac didn't build any automatics so he could drive one. But at one time Royal had a line of Super Duty's that extended the whole length of the north side of the agency and one of them was a red automatic. Jesse and the other salesmen were concerned about what they were going to do with an automatic. Jesse sold this car but the buyer wanted to see it at the strip and Jesse took it to Motor City [Dragway] and again it was a Sunday when I happened to be there. Jesse asked me if I wanted to make a pass and I said 'sure'. Later he told me I sold the car for him because he told the other guy that I was interested and going to buy it."