[VIDEO] Genius Garage Sells Winning 1969 Corvette Greenwood Racer to 25-Year-Old Mechanic

Earlier this year, Genius Garage founder Casey Putsch put out a call for young people interested in vintage racing to buy his 1969 Greenwood-bodied Corvette previously owned by William “Bill” or “Snoopy” Wessell, who won 97 races in SCCA, IMSA, and Trans-Am over a 30-year period, starting in the early 1970s.

For just $5,000.

Now he’s found the perfect recipient of his great deal for a piece of Corvette history: a 25-year-old mechanic named Sam Every from upstate New York.

“When I first saw Casey’s video putting Snoopy’s car up for sale it felt like he was talking to me,” Every says. “It felt like he was reaching through the screen and talking to me. I never thought I would have had an opportunity like this so early in my career. Until now, I have never spent more than $2,000 on a car.”

In an earlier YouTube video, Putsch had lambasted rich collectors that he says are inflating prices of vintage cars.

“I can tell you what [the future is] going to be,” he says to the rich collectors. “You’re destroying vintage and historic cars by inflating the prices beyond belief because the people who collect them and can afford to have them right now aren’t doing that much with them. And then when they die, no one’s gonna care because [they] never got shared and all those things were unattainable.”

That’s why he priced his 1969 Greenwood-bodied Corvette so low.

“This is a rather special race car,” Putsch said. “From the beginning, I wanted to make sure this car got into the hands of a young person who might not have had the financial means to purchase it while also helping to grow vintage racing.”

Every definitely fits the bill. After graduating from Vassar College in 2017, Sam pursued his passion and landed a job building vintage race cars and restoring old Corvettes at Jim Glass Corvette in Kingston, NY. He recently earned his full SCCA competition license in a 1965 B production Corvette he built on the job.

“The most important thing about Snoopy’s car is its history, the story this car could tell,” Every said. “I am looking forward to preserving its history and making some of my own. I have dedicated my life so far to vintage racing and turning wrenches. One day, I am going to roll that car in baby blue out of my trailer and show everyone in group five what I am capable of. This car means so much to me, I want to see more people my age in vintage racing so it can have a future. I love what the Genius Garage is doing for young people and the opportunity Casey has given me.”

Putsch is he is “so glad that this car is going to get the chance to take to a racetrack again and in the capable hands of young person like Sam who is as passionate about vintage and historic racing as I am.”

He said he is confident Every will carry forward the future standard for young men and women in the world of vintage racing.

Putsch, an automotive designer and race car driver, founded Genius Garage in 2014 as a college internship program to bridge the gap from academia to industry. The Genius Garage’s goal is to provides college engineering student with their “dream shot” to careers in the automotive and aerospace industries. The programs are set up to best cultivate and develop the student’s real-world hands on experience and problem solving by restoring and racing vintage race cars and building a BD5 microjet, restoring a Long EZ aircraft and a full-scale (38-foot) flying replica of a Pterosaur. The Genius Garage race cars currently include an IMSA GTO tube frame Corvette, a C3 widebody Greenwood Corvette IMSA racer and a ‘90’s carbon fiber monocoque Nissan prototype race car, all of which are the complete responsibility of students in their engineering and preparation. Click HERE for the Genius Garage Web site and HERE for several videos on the garage and student overviews.

To subscribe to Casey Putsch on YouTube go to www.youtube.com/user/putsch1 or follow Casey on Instagram.

Source:
Genius Garage / YouTube

Related:
Thirty Years Later: Jim Glass Still Restoring and Racing Corvettes and Camaros
Corvettes for Sale: 1964 Corvette Racer For Sale
Guldstrand-Prepped 1966 Corvette SCCA Racer Sells Quickly