Children Get a Big Lift Out of Race

When April Thomas learned a couple days ago that she’d be riding in an electric car as part of a road race Wednesday, one minor fear immediately leaped to mind: What happens if the electricity runs out?

So the 10-year-old Westminster girl showed up at the starting line with a little insurance.

“Look,” she said, opening a small brown paper bag, “I have Energizer batteries for it.”

The batteries weren’t needed. The car, a GM EV1, made it to the finish line, as did 12 vintage cars, a 1941 former Navy training Stearman biplane, a Bell 47B helicopter, and the Goodyear blimp.

The event was designed by developers trying to prove that the Coto de Caza planned community, being carved out of the hills at the end Oso Parkway, isn’t as remote a location as commuters might think.

But the promotional tones of the event (corporate sponsors included the Times Orange County, KFWB-AM, Goodyear and Nextel Communications) were overshadowed by the involvement of Make-A-Wish, which allowed more than a dozen children with a variety of illnesses to take a rare outing in vintage cars.

The idea also stemmed from the fact that several Coto de Caza residents refurbish and race vintage cars. The race evolved from a friendly competition over who could get home from the airport the fastest without breaking traffic laws.

Before the race, the smart money was on Alan Sherman and his 1962 Corvette, because, well, it was a Corvette. But then translucent green liquid began pouring from the radiator overflow.

“Yeah, there’s definitely something wrong,” said Sherman, 59, who bought the car about 20 years ago and restored it himself. “I never did one before,” Sherman said of the restoration. “It must have been my midlife crisis.”

Sherman made the trip along the Foothill Corridor in 20 minutes, engine steaming and brakes smoking by the time he arrived. But the winning time was 19 minutes by Guida and Danny Quon of Laguna Beach, driving a 1934 Ford Coupe.

The fastest time overall was 12 minutes by the 1941 biplane, piloted by Gene Gast of Torrance. Gast, as a flight instructor, took along for his co-pilot Joey Bernard, 12, of Fountain Valley, a non-Hodgkins lymphoma patient.

Before taking off from John Wayne Airport, Joey promised not to use the co-pilot’s dual controls to try hammerhead stalls or other tricks he had seen at the El Toro Air Show a few weeks ago. “I wouldn’t trust myself,” he said.