Ray Evernham Collection offered at Mecum’s Indy auction

When one talks about headliners at the upcoming Mecum Spring Classic Indy sale, certainly at the top of the list is the Ray Evernham Collection, Evernham the NASCAR Hall of Fame crew chief and team owner who has been running pretty hard at collecting for more than 20 years.

“I have enjoyed finding these cars, rebuilding these cars, restoring these cars and telling the story of these cars," said Evernham. "Now it’s time to open up some of my space and some of that capital because there are other cars that we want to do -- freeing up time, money and space.

“You get attached to a lot of them, but there’s a little 1947 Kurtis that was driven by a guy from New Jersey, where I’m from, campaigned by Jim DiMarco, and it reminds me of the cars that I watched race when I was growing up. It was a successful car with New Jersey history, and it was the very first collector car that I bought. It reminded me so much of the Mickey Rooney movie The Big Wheel, because that was the movie that really pushed me into the open-wheel cars. It’ll be a little bit tough to see that one go.

“And the Gurney Eagle is really special to me because I got to be friends with Dan and I really admired him. Being able to honor Dan and Mario [Andretti] and A.J.[Foyt] and getting these cars out there so other people see them is important.

“There are going to be cars that go across that stage, and you hope that they do well, and more importantly, you hope they go to someone who is going to appreciate them as much as I did."

Read the full story and view more cars from the collection at VintageMotorsport.com.