A Great Friend Has Passed

[vandornjim]

For those of you who might be interested, Paul Zazarine passed away January 3rd. Paul was a very good friend of the ZR-1 since day one. Paul was one of the media invitees that attended and experienced the Geneva Press Show back in 1989. He also had something to do with resurrecting one of the crushed ZR-1 prototype convertibles from the UK.
I met Paul back in 1992 when we had our first west coast ZR-1 event at the Millard Fillmore in Tempe AZ. Don Fisher and I had invited Dave McLellan and we interviewed him for the ZR-1 Registry newsletter. After we did the interview, Paul came up to me and asked who we were and what we were doing with the Chief Engineer and I explained. He asked if he could buy the article when we were done with it and he introduced himself as the Editor of Corvette Fever Magazine!
Later I sent him the article and Paul asked if I might write some other ZR-1 related articles and news for CF and that was the beginning of my writing career. He once told me not to change a word in my articles because I wrote in a comfortable "conversational style" which he enjoyed. I wrote some 30+ feature articles covering technical items, events and most memorably, our Thunder At Stillwater LT5 Homecoming, The Legend Lives Last ZR-1 ceremony, and my trip to LeMans with Doug Rippie in 1995. If the truth be known, Paul was a backbone of support to all of us doing things in the Corvette hobby.
I also wrote for Chevy Truck Magazine when Zazarine was involved with that launch. Paul knew I was all ZR-1 and challenged me to find an article about Chevy trucks and ZR-1's. I called the Mesa Proving Grounds and Jim Contes offered me the chance to do a complete article on the "?Submarine". A Chevy Suburban with a Mercury Marine LT5 in it. Later, at Bowling Green, I was given the Submarine to drive for an entire weeknd. J
Paul called me once and asked if I was interested in his press kit from Geneva. Duh? We made an agreement and he sent me the entire kit which included the letter Chevrolet sent out inviting him to the show, a black leather "flight bag" with a Corvette logo on it, the hard bound press kit w/slides, brochures, plane tickets everything he had saved from that grand debut. Paul also had a private collection of slides he took in Europe. He sent them to me one time and I thoroughly enjoyed them. Some had pics of breakdowns and remedies, scenic places, local residents and lots of goofing off by the whole crew.
One day I told Paul we were thinking of going racing with a ZR-1. He gave me some valuable advice and then offered to cover us in CF. He asked what our name was and I told him we didn't have one yet. He asked if we had any GM support and I told him no. Then he said, "So you guys are going solo as privateers huh? Do you know who were the most famous privateers of all time were?" I had no clue.
"They were the Pirates!!" He said. So, Pirate Racing was born in 1998. We raced until 2001 when SCCA handicapped us so badly we couldn't win. Paul was with us for the entire journey.
Paul also served on the NCM Board as one of their first Directors, then later sought the manager's position but ran into some political obstacles with the NCM regime.
Although his all time favorite brand was Pontiac, Paul Zazarine was a true car guy and a big fan of the ZR-1 from day one. He was a true friend.
Paul passed away from heart failure and is survived by his wife Alexis and daughter Trina. He will be greatly missed.
God Speed Zaz.