13 replies to this topic

[chaparrAL]

I reconnected with an old Detroit racer who passed word to me that both are deceased. Not a surprise considering their lifestyle choices. 

 

Both made USRA and slot car history. Wherever they went, a party broke out.

 

Last I heard Mikey was on the "inside." 

 

And the last time I heard from JT, well, he was a mess, It was in midday and he was already loaded drunk. 

 

I Googled obits for both and found nothing. But Cheater has his ways! Maybe you, sir, can beat your usual bushes and turn up something. Thanks in advance.

[Cheater]

Al, 

 

The central issue here is the common nature of their surnames. If you can supply where they lived, even just the state, it would help. I'll give it a go when I can.

Bet you would be surprised how many people have the same name as you...

 

And the publishing of obituaries is way down in recent years.

[MSwiss]

Detroit.

[chaparrAL]

Detroit is for Mike, but JT may have been from Grosse Pointe. 

 

So Mike was an amazing drummer. I remember in his basement he had a twin bass drums and gobs of toms and cymbals. I remember when he played a gig on Friday night Detroit, drove all night to Momence to race. He arrived with a very pretty girl and they smelled of cigarettes, booze, and sex.

 

Justin of course was the first under 3 seconds on a blue King. Made the G7 main as Pro one year as a Koford racer. When he worked for Stu, he fixed me up with a highly suspicious G27 Armature. It was... um... fast! 

 

When he got out, JT gave me a bag full of Limpach tires. When he raced HO with us briefly one race, we fixed him up well. Rick Derosa and I crashed and burned, and JT won with my practice car! Those were some good times.

[MG Brown]

Back in my digital forensics training one of the suggested websites to find information about people is www.fastbackgroundcheck.com

 

The use of the website is free for basic information, usually enough for most purposes, but if you need more specific information they have a pay per use option.

 

This was some time ago that I completed my training, and there might be better free websites now, but even today I find it to be very useful.

 

Since it really is a one-page summary of public records, if an obit has not been published for that person, who you are searching for might still be indicated as being alive.

[bbr]

Fast girls and fast slot cars – got to love that.  

[chaparrAL]

Details of Justins 2.9 car: Paul Pfeirfer chassis , Koford motor, OS body, Limpach tires.

 

I helped out pitting for JT and Bill Metros at USRA races and they loaded my gun in G27. 

[Dave Crevie]

Any chance this is the guy you're looking for?

 

 

 

Instagram; @mike_pearl_drummer

[chaparrAL]

No, that guy looks way too normal. And Mike would be my age  70-72 ish. Plus his face had much more angular features and wild hair.

 

Last I saw Mikey he was all tatted up. The lifestyle was showing some.

 

The first time I saw someone smoking from a glass pipe was in the parking lot of Dan Thorne's raceway in Bradley. Mike in his car and Puruvian marching dust.

[Dave Crevie]

Well, it was a shot in the dark. I ran across it this morning while doing some other research. Saw the picture of the double bass drums and thought "maybe."

[Cheater]

A long-time OH racer, who prefer to keep a low profile on the web, sent me this infomation on 'Mike Stephens':
 
"I was cruising through Slotblog the other day and saw a thread mentioning the late Mike Stephens. Here's some information that may be of interest to the slot racing community.

1.31.18: Detroit drummer Mikki Stevens has died

 

Michael Joseph Gerbino, January 22, 1954 - January 25, 2018

 

Everybody knew him as Mike Stephens, but obviously it was an alias. Quite a character. Lots of rumors circulated about what happened to him, mainly revolving around substances and the justice system.

I was acquainted with Mike in the early '80s and found him to be a likeable guy. It was sad to learn of his path to the finish line. 

 

He was a fixture at many of Parma's races in the early '70s."

[MSwiss]

I've seen this article and have had mixed feelings about posting to it. I'm not a big person on telling the same story I would while race directing vs. putting it in "print." Cheater seems to be fine with it so I'll let it rip.

 

I got back into the slot racing in late '81, just when Justin and Mike were in their prime. It was a great time to get involved with technology evolving and a lot of excitement about breaking 3 seconds and breaking world records.

 

Mike was an interesting and likeable guy as people have alluded to. He liked to smoke cigarettes and hang out with girls in tight clothes. The one he would show up at the races, at least a few times, was said to be a model for a B-league gentleman's magazine like "Gallery."

 

As far as his smoking, I can recall back in the days right before European rotation, being next to him at Grand Raceway and pleading with Jerry Kulich to please make him stop, because I couldn't tolerate eight heats of standing next to someone smoking.

 

When I hear Mike's name, I immediately think of a time while I was marshaling the deadman and witnessed him making one of the all-time great marshals in the finger.

 

As far as his rock and roll career goes, I recall him saying he played on the same circuit as Bob Seger, and IIRC, Iggy Pop.

 

What I'm kind of surprised of, is no one mentioned his nickname, 'Crude.' I don't recall if that was given to him by Paul Pfeiffer or Tony P.

 

On to J. T...

[MSwiss]

When I first met J. T./Justin Thomas, he was still racing out of the Detroit area. He would always show up at the races with his wife Kathy,  a nurse. What struck me first about him, was with his horn rim glasses and jerky style at the driver's panel; I always thought of Elvis Costello.

 

He was an upper echelon racer, always someone that could make the main at a bigger race. But what really put him on the map was when he was the first person to break 3 seconds on a King. That made him a celebrity.

 

Somewhere  in that timeframe, Stuart hired him to be his GM at Koford. J. T. and his wife relocated to Chicago, moved in with Stu, and went to work for him.

 

JT's work ethic, or lack of, was how I wound up as Stu's GM. After I started at Koford, I came across old time cards and JT was usually good for a 16 to 24 hour work week.

 

Stu eventually had enough of that and hired me. Surprisingly, even after he fired him, J. T. and his wife still lived with him and I think JT got a job at a local big box sporting goods store.

 

He eventually moved back to Detroit and somewhere along the way, he and Kathy divorced. Last I had heard, he had called fellow Detroit area slotter, Jim Spoviero.

 

"Hey. Spove, you want to go take a ride with me and the Captain tonight?"

 

"JT, who's the Captain?"

 

"Captain Morgan." 

[chaparrAL]

It was Dan Camalari of PK that assigned the nicknames. Mike was Punk Chicken because of his wild hair style. Bill Metros was Foghorn Leghorn, and I forgot the rest of them.

 

Cheater, that is a great picture. Thanks!

 

And Thanks Mike for sharing those memories. Those were some times!