​Legendary Oregon Region racer Monte Shelton has passed away at age 85. His professional racing career included appearances in the US Road Racing Championship in 1965, 1967, and 1968. He raced regularly in Can-Am from its inception in 1966 through 1974. Shelton also raced in the SCCA Pro Racing Formula 5000 series.
 
But it was in the Trans-Am Series that Shelton achieved his greatest professional racing success. In over 40 starts between 1976 and 1987, Monte racked up five victories, two pole positions, and 14 podium finishes.
 
On the amateur side, Shelton won the Portland, Oregon Rose Cup race a record seven times, along with nine second-place finishes. He raced in the very first Rose Cup race in 1961, and his seven victories were spread over five decades.
 
Shelton entered the SCCA National Championship Runoffs four times, beginning in 1968 at Riverside International Raceway. His best finish came in 1975 with a second place in A Sports Racing driving a McLaren 8F, which he also raced in Can-Am.
 
Outside of SCCA, Monte competed 10 times in the 24 Hours of Daytona including a 3rd place finish in 1979. He also competed several times in the 12 Hours of Sebring, and in the IMSA Camel GT series.
 
Shelton was a life member of SCCA, and was one of the six founding members of Oregon Region, SCCA in 1962. In recent years, he raced a Volkswagen Rabbit at the regional level, and held a current competition license this year. “I have held an SCCA competition license for 60 consecutive years, and never had a waiver,” he said a few weeks ago. His final race was in March of this year.
 
When he wasn’t racing, Shelton was Portland’s premier British car dealer, selling everything from MG to Rolls-Royce over the years. In retirement he maintained a small business dealing in specialty vintage sports cars, known as “Monte’s Motors” after his first-ever car lot.
 
Shelton is survived by his wife Sue, daughters Darla Krieske and Jamie Martell, sons Tony and Neil Shelton, and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
 

Longtime Oregon Region steward Steve Archer passed away in May. I knew Steve for 25 years. I was not yet 30 when I started training to be a steward, and Steve was a mentor to me as I raced and learned the challenges of managing an SCCA race weekend.


The thing that always struck me about Steve, and what made him such a great person to work with, was his calm demeanor and
positive attitude.


I never saw Steve lose his temper, and I’m not sure I ever heard him raise his voice. Far more often, he’d be smiling and bringing people together. He always had a big hug for me when I’d see him at the track - and I always knew Steve had my back.


One occasion I will always remember happened when I had a small tangle with a close friend on track. We both arrived in post-race impound with dented cars. Steve was on duty and I could see him walking our way. I took off my helmet and said “This was my fault.” Then my friend said it had been his fault. Steve broke into a big grin and just laughed. If there wasn’t a problem, he wasn’t going to create one.


In my case, Steve showed me how to keep cool when things got rough, and to remember that we’re all friends at the track - or at least we should be.


It’s said - often in memorials like this, that people come to SCCA for racing, but they stay for the people. That’s certainly true with Steve Archer - if you knew him, he was a reason to keep coming back to Oregon Region events. I am lucky to be able to say Steve Archer was my friend.

Larry Curtis Bergman, 70, died on Friday, January 6, 2017 near his Sellwood home.

Larry was born November 14, 1946 in Eugene, Oregon to his parents Herman and Freda. He grew up in Canby, Oregon in a home built by his father, where he lived with his parents and his younger brother Bruce. Growing up, Larry frequented the Canby Southern Pacific train station, where he discovered his love of trains and machinery.

He was “employed” at an early age gluing labels on freight for Dad in the depot. Cub Scouts and Zoar Lutheran Church activities framed his early years. When he graduated from Canby Union High School in 1964, Larry was active in band and basketball and was an Eagle Scout. In 1968, he graduated with a BS in Engineering from Oregon State University, where he also earned his private pilot’s license.

​Quickly, he was then drafted into the Army and eventually sent to Vietnam as an E-6 Airborne Ranger. After only a few months, he was dropped from a helicopter into a pit of poisoned punji sticks, one of which punctured his lower leg. He came home via combat hospitals in Vietnam, Japan, and Tacoma, completing his military service as a mountaineering instructor at West Point.

After his service, Larry found employment starting up steel mills in Morocco and Argentina. In 1975 he returned to Oregon where he joined forces with his brother Bruce to start Bergman Photographic Services, which later became GeoTerra, Inc. The first airplane of many to serve the Bergman brothers was a 1939 Piper Cub. Larry’s piloting career spanned 50 full years with no accidents, accumulating 14,267.9 logged hours in the air.He helped launch many pilots into airline careers.

Larry and Bruce were avid gear heads and spent ten years racing classic cars at Portland International Raceway. He also loved boats, from canoes and kayaks to his restored 1962 Tollycraft, Dora Mae. Alongside his beloved partner Elizabeth Nugent, he enjoyed good food and beer, music, and gatherings with friends. Larry and Elizabeth loved spending weekends and holidays in their newly purchased home on Puget Island, which was to become their retirement haven. Larry is survived by his brother Bruce, sister-in-law Barbara, two nephews Matt and Jeff, along with their wives Rosie and Kim and growing families.
​
Larry left us too soon, and we will all miss him.

 When we hold the grand re-opening of PIR on February 23 of this year, we should have a moment of
silence in honor of Neil Swanson. Or maybe a moment of complete cacophony as hundreds of racing
engines are revved up together to celebrate the life of a man who did as much as anyone to preserve and
protect our race track. Neil would appreciate the subtle humor of the action either way.
Most of us knew Neil as the sound judge at PIR. Some of us have cursed his name unjustly when we
pegged the sound meter and he called us on it. But no one ever said that Neil Swanson didn’t know his
business, or that he wasn’t fair in his judgments - not anyone who actually met him, anyway.
On many occasions, I saw Neil spend his lunch hour conferring with drivers not just about the basic facts
of their car’s noise levels, but also about how to reduce their noise to avoid future black flags. Neil would
meet with neighborhood representatives and City Hall officials and every one of those people came away
with a better understanding of what we’re doing about noise, and with confidence that Neil knew what he
was talking about. It may have felt like he was in our way sometimes, but there never was a more
dedicated guardian of our sport.
Beyond his work at PIR, Neil served as the National Administrator of Sound Control for SCCA. In this
capacity he was the front line of defense not just for our track, but for tracks across America that face the
same challenges. Neil was a dedicated worker at the Runoffs, working under tremendous pressure there.
Neil also gave his time at the NORPAC and SCCA conventions each year, standing up and explaining -
always patiently - the science of sound control. People always finished a conversation with Neil holding
more information than they had at the start.
I worked closely with Neil for years. I saw his commitment to fairness at every event. If Neil said the
equipment was calibrated, you knew it was correct to the last whisper. If he said a car was too loud, it was
because he had three clear readings and no doubt about it. Sound control is a thankless, often tedious,
and completely necessary job. Neil accepted those conditions cheerfully, and so has his wife, Margie.
Together, Neil and Margie have given thousands of hours to Oregon and Northwest Regions, Cascade
Sports Car Club, and virtually every other racing event that has ever come to the Northwest. It’s fair to say
that the tens of thousands of dollars contributed to the Doernbecher Children’s Hospital over the years
would never have benefited so many kids if it weren’t for Margie and Neil’s steadfast work.
As I sat down to write today, I was struck by how little I really know about Neil. I know he used to be a
police officer at one time, I know he loved Margie deeply, and I know he was as reliable as the Earth. I
know he always had a pleasant word for people, and I know he loved his time at the track. This picture
says it all. There’s Neil, with more years of “Race Worker” patches than his jacket will hold, cruising
around at the Runoffs with a friend and a grin. That’s how I plan to remember him.