Tim Clark:  

My Story (Abbreviated to reduce the chances of drowsiness...) I Joined the Marines and left for boot camp a week after my 18th B-day in August of 81. Did boot camp and infantry training school and was assigned to Charlie Company 1st Battalion 5th Marines, 1st Marine Div at Camp Margarita on Camp Pendleton Ca. Did some traveling in 82 but spent most of 1983 out of the country deployed to the far east. Okinawa, Japan, Korea, Thailand, Philippines and 30 days on lovely Diego Garcia. (Not lovely) Returned to the States in Sept of 83 and was transferred to MSG Battalion in Quantico, Va for Embassy Duty training. On Dec 7th 1983 I landed in Sana Yemen to report to my unit at the American Embassy Sanaa. I was in Sanaa Yemen (Yes Darilyn Ive been to YEMEN!) for a year (ish) and was then transferred to the American Embassy Ottawa Canada. My year in Sanaa and my time in Canada were some of the best and most happy times of my life. The exposure to the American Foreign Service in the field was truly inspiring and the professionalism in that line of work, well I have yet to experience it again. I bought a new VW GTI in Germany on my way home from Yemen and took it to Canada with me. Do you know how much FUN it is to have a car with diplomatic license plates??? No tickets! I drove like a mad man and was pulled over all the time but no tickets....lol. I left Ottawa and the Marine Corp as a Sergeant in May of 86. I LOVED my time in the Corp and as the old adage goes 'You can take the boy out of the Marines but you can never take the Marines out of the boy¿! Yes I got tatoos when I was a Marine, to the amusement of Doug Darrow and to the sorrow of my Mom! ....Semper Fi! After less than a week out of the USMC I was in class at Wa Wa Tech. At the time I wanted to major in Poly Sci and join the State Dept, CIA or the DEA. However when I was posted in Canada I discovered auto racing by attending the 1985 F1 race in Montreal. I was hooked. I attended Wa Wa for a year and had applied to schools in the North East for transfer. While in New York city for my NYU interviews I stayed with Mike Merrill who was at that time getting his Masters in Journalism at Columbia. Unfortunately my cars window was knocked out and I had to drive back to Chicago (In December) with plastic and no radio. It was the main reason I declined my NYU invitation. Sorry I digress. I quit school sometime in 87 and bought a race car so I could start my all too short racing career. To succeed in that sport a driver needs two things. Both of which, I soon discovered, I was severely lacking. Talent and lottsa Money! NEXT! I bounced around for a year doing BS jobs and moved to Torrance Ca (LA) in Aug of 88 to accept a position with Tokico USA. A Japanese company that made shock absorbers. I was the motorsports sales coordinator and was involved with the IMSA racing series from 88-91. I met my wife Denise while working for Tokico when she came in to pick up shocks for her rally car. (Navigator) We were Married on the Queen Mary in Long Beach in April of 90. Doug Darrow was my best man and his brother Mark was there in his Navy dress Whites. Was a lot of fun or so they tell me.... While in California I had Gary Lindquist visit a few times to go to races as well as going to Phoenix to see him and F1. In Jan 92 I accepted a new position and moved to the Charlotte NC area. I was the Motorsport Manager for Performance Friction who at the time provided the brake pads to the majority of the NASCAR and Indy teams at the time. I am still in the Charlotte area and never plan on leaving. Y'all I LOVE IT here! I now have three kids. Kaitlin is 16, Maggie is 12 and my son James (Jamie) is 8. After severe burn out I left racing for a few years in the mid 90's and represented aerospace companies selling jet engine parts to the airlines. (95-98) I loved the work but am glad I got out as 9/11 has killed that Industry. I vowed to myself then, that I would never go back to racing.....so in 98 I went back to racing going to work for Mintex (a then British Company and now German). I developed, tested and supported at the track the Mintex racing brake pads that are still used in NASCAR, Indy and race series worldwide. At any given racetrack today half of the NASCAR field are using brake pads that I compounded. (Sorry had to crow a scoshi bit) Just call me the Tommy Boy of racing... I remember I was at a Indycar test at the oval track in Cicero (2001?) and I ran into John Matson in the Pits...(John where you be now dude?) In 2003 suffering burn out again I started my own company Brake Horsepower (BHP) Inc. Initially it was a testing and development facility for high end braking systems for road cars. i.e. Porsche. However the racing junk followed me and I have been doing brake pad compounding and dyno testing of racing friction (Brake Pads) for my old company Mintex as well as bedding in brakes for most of the Nasc...Expand for more