“The win at Phoenix ranks near the top for me,” said Follmer. “Finishing third in Spain in my second Grand Prix in 1973, winning in the rain at Mid-Ohio for Penske in the 917 and pulling off the Indy Car win in Phoenix are tops. Phoenix was the first win for a stock block, and it was satisfying.” In 1974, cementing the incredible versatility that was a hallmark of his career, Follmer grabbed the pole position at the NASCAR Winston Cup race at Riverside driving a Team Penske AMC Matador. He led early in the race before an engine failure dropped him out of competition. Earlier that same year, Follmer scored three top five finishes in a Bud Moore Ford at the NASCAR Winston Cup oval races at Atlanta, North Wilkesboro and Dover. To further put a stamp on his amazing road racing chops, he came out of retirement at the age of 52 to score a podium, with a third-place finish in a Porsche 956 at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1986. At the tender age of 59, Follmer returned to drive in the Fast Masters, a made-for-television auto racing series. Broadcast on primetime by ESPN on Saturday nights during the summer of 1993, Fast Masters featured winning drivers above the age of 50 at Indianapolis Raceway Park driving identically prepared, exotic $750,000 Tom Walkinshaw Racing Jaguar XJ220s. Follmer went into the final round with a chance to win the title, narrowly losing out to three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser. Over the many years since, Follmer has continued to drive competitively, by participating in various vintage racing events. He even served as the Grand Marshal for the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival SVRA Gold Medallion event at Sonoma Raceway Sears Point in Northern California in 2016. For his long list of accomplishments, Follmer was inducted into both the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in 1999 and SCCA Hall of Fame in 2019. Today, when people think of versatile racers who showed they could win in any type of car, Follmer is one of only a handful of drivers—along with some of the biggest legends in the history of the sport like A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Parnelli Jones and Dan Gurney—who come to mind. Off the track, Follmer leveraged his racing fame—and business degree—by owning a successful Porsche-Audi-Subaru dealership that was first located in Pomona, California, and later in Montclair, California. While the superb racing record of Follmer would alone make his choices of personal cars noteworthy, the 2013 Ford Mustang Boss 302 being offered at the upcoming Mecum Las Vegas Auction is a desirable car all on its own, representing the distillation of all that was good about the retro-styled fifth-generation Mustang and serving as a direct nod to Follmer’s 1970 SCCA Trans Am victory and Ford’s capturing of that year’s Trans Am Manufacturers Championship. The fact that it is one of only two special editions produced in School Bus Yellow with Gloss Black stripes and remains a prized possession of the incomparable Follmer, a man who conquered a variety of racing disciplines in the wide-open era of no-limits horsepower, makes it an even bigger find. OFFERED NOVEMBER 13 AT LAS VEGAS 2020 MECUM.COM • 37
