The Baytown Sun from Baytown, Texas • Page 10

10-A THE BAYTOWN SUN Thursday, March 5, 1987 VEOPLE Dan's day Superstar brightens town By JIM KYLE Dan Pastorini turned every head at The Baytown Sun one day last when he rolled up in the parking lot in his Jeep Wrangler, driving over from his Richmond home. Baytown oil man Larry Enderli, who is a partner of Dan's in his race-driving ventures, had invited him over for a visit here. They've been close friends for more than 15 years since Larry started supplying fuel for Dan's racing boat. When you meet the former Oiler quarterback, it only takes a couple of minutes to know Dan Pastorini for what he is, real people, good ol' boy. nice guy and as one female admirer described him "The Incredible Hunk." He charmed everyone at The Sun office, especially the women.

Coincidenlally. we were having a going-away party in the newsroom in honor of Linnea Schlobohm. Proofreader Ruth Foster's banana pudding has always been a favorite of The Sun gang, but now it really belongs in the Hall of Food Fame endorsed by Dan Pastorini! Alter his second helping, Dan stood in the middle of the newsroom and announced for all to hear: "Ruth, that's the best banana pudding I've ever lasted." The (j-foot-2-inch, 200-pound former Santa Clara, Ail- American has lost none of his youthful looks or zest. At 37, he is running with the fastest "top fuel dragsters" in the world. He has run over 271 miles per hour on the quarter- mile strips and is ranked number seven in the world in the dragster division.

Being a race driver didn't just happen to Dan since hanging up his football helmet. He ran in a soap box derby at age 8 and through the years has kept interest in racing all types of vehicles and boats. He has come a long way from that soap box derby to a $750,000 investment in a top fuel dragster car and crew. The Coors Silver Bullet Dan's blue, silver and red car always brings a roaring cheer from the crowd as he sits waiting on the green light to thunder down the quarter-mile drag strip. Pastorini is in the process of expanding his racing enterprise.

He and some business friends are looking at some areas around Houston to build a first- class racing facility. He has hopes of having both an oval and drag strip when the plan is finished. He also is expanding to having Daytona-type stock cars along with a top stock car driver. When he accomplishes these goals he plans on moving into Indy-type cars, too. The former Oiler quarterback grew up in Sonora, with a population of 1,100.

His parents, both in their 70s, still live there where they've operated a small cafe for years. His dad's full name: Dante Pastorini Sr. "My dad was a great baseball catcher in his youth," Dan said, "and would have been signed by the New York Yankees had his mother not shunned athletic careers. "Our Italian heritage is one that believes only in hard work to making a successful life. Dad had to lay down his catcher's mitt and become a butcher which he did for 25 years before he opened up the cafe." Dan wasn't the only athletic son in the Pastorini family.

His older brother was an All- American linebacker at Santa Clara. Besides visiting with folks throughout The Baytown Sun building, Dan was a guest at the Kiwanis Club meeting. Later that afternoon, the Stefani brothers and all the employees of the beer distributorship on Decker Drive who represent Coors in Baytown were thrilled when Dan dropped by fora visit. He told them a few stories that happened on the football field and talked about helping with the Easter Seal campaign. There were no official pro- cjamations or dignitaries on hand to make it Dan Pastorini Day in Baytown.

He made the day on his own. DAN PASTORINI and the Coors Silver Bullet br- He is ranked seventh in the world in the dragster ing a cheer from the crowd as he waits on the green division. light to thunder down the quarter-mile drag strip. OLAN'S Regular, Big MEN'S WEAR and Tall Men! Entire Stock of Short Sleeve Sport Shirts Pull-Over knits Button Up Front, Big-Med-Tall to 4X Tall Shifts Reg. OFF SPORT 1 HURRY! LAST 3 DAYS OF SALE! Entire Stock of Jaymar Rudy Sans-A-Belt Slacks, Belt Loops Slacks Shorts Slacks Reg.

30 to 60 Waist to 5 OFF Please Bring This Ad! Sale Ends March 7th 2709 Strawberry Pasadena, TX 77502 Hours p.m. Thurs. till 8 p.m. 941-4270 PETE STEFANI, left, and Larry Enderlt, right, enjoy visiting with Dan Pastorini. The racing star and former Oiler star stopped by the Stefani beer distributorship in Baytown after being interviewed at The Baytown Sun and going to a Baytown Kiwanis Club meeting.

(Sun staff photo by Jim Kyle) Drag racer Scott Finley on right track toward success By JIM KYLE Dan Pastorini, during his visit to Baytown, told Scott Finley he hoped he looked over in the other lane at a drag strip some day and he would be next to him. That was quite a compliment to a young man whose dad doesn't know the working end of a screwdriver. Scott has come a long way in the mechanically- demanding sport of automobile racing. So much that, in only his second year of drag racing competition at Houston International Dragway, the 1981 Ross S. Sterling High School graduate is the early-season points leader in the ET Class.

With his 1966 Chevelle humming along better than ever, Scott hopes to keep his personal hot streak going. "I kid dad a lot about his lack of mechanical abilities," Scott said of his father Jim Finley, district administrative assistant to U.S. Rep. Jack Fields and former managing editor of The Sun. "He never was what you might call mechanically strong and that is an understatement but he has given 100 percent support in my racing efforts and he and mom attend as many races as they can." Scott grew up in a family that loves racing.

His father-in-law, David Fewell (pronounced Fuel), drives a Chevy and has a background in oval racing as well. Together they make a great team. Scott's wife, Jackie, also a Sterling graduate, is not opposed to taking the dark blue Chevelle for a quick ride down the Houston drag strip on Wednesday nights. Jackie's mom is a frequent track visitor too. In 1986 Scott finished eighth in point standings at Houston International Dragway and qualified for the Division 4 Bracket Finals held in Ennis.

The event has competition from six states and Mexico. Scott has a great track record. This year in the opening week of Houston racing he made the semifinal round before being eliminated by his father-in-law. "I owe him one," Scott smiled. Scott, who works at Mobay full time, made the finals in his second week, but was "red- lighted" and finished second.

When red-lighted the other car automatically wins. He recently purchased a 1981 Camaro to get ready for next year's competition. In this car he will advance to the Super Gas Division. "1 am not going to rush it." Scott says. "I'm going to run the Camaro on Wednesday nights to get the bugs out and drive my Chevelle for points on Saturday nights." "I hate to lose," said the young man who's low-keyed, laid-back when he's away from the track.

Behind the wheel of a race car, though, Scott Finley is the competitor, in there to win. Meanwhile, he is continuing! his efforts to draw sponsors to defray costs. keeps telling me my time will come," Scott "Maybe he's right. 1 just hope it's soon." SCOTT FINLEY got to meet one of his favorite racing stars when Dan Pastorini came to Baytown the other day. (Sun staff photo by Jim Kyle) Farmer owns museum full of 'stuff REDMOND, Ore.

(AP) Rodney Rosebrook's buggy wheels hang in the lobbies of the Chase Manhattan Bank, the Rockefeller Museum and the Northwest Pipeline Co. Two spent a year at the Smithsonian Institution. The Redmond farmer, who recently turned 86, even has a New York City art agent. The New Yorker, driven to Rosebrook's property by a friend, decided the farmer's fence belonged in a midtown Manhattan gallery instead of along an Oregon highway. The fence was a series of buggy-wheel rims welded on the inside with a jumble of antique hardware.

He used coffee grinder parts, rusty flywheels, hay fork tines, branding irons, blacksmith tools and more what Rosebrook himself terms "junk." The art agent bought the fence and sold it back East for a tidy sum. He then signed up Rosebrook to produce individual buggy-wheel sculptures. Rosebrook gets most of his material from auctions and es- tate sales east of the Cascade Range. "Whenever anyone would sell out on the desert, why, I bought whatever was left," he explains. He and his wife, Mabel, still go on expeditions to various ranch auctions.

His purchases, however, aren't always just for his art. "Just a little bit ago we bought quite a lot of stuff, some real good stuff," he says. "I got a well drill that's run with a horse the horse just goes around and around. And I got a thing you hook five or six teams onto it and you run a thresh machine." That was intended to be part of his museum. The "Old Time Museum" is exactly what its name implies: a gathering of paraphernalia primarily from the days of the early West.

Some of it is very personal to Rosebrook. He has the porcelain doll that belonged to his mother when she was a child. He displays the wooden blocks he played with as a toddler, and a pair of spurs given to his parents for him before he was born. But most of it is just "stuff," as Rosebrook puts it: the elabo- rately bound cash journal that a Shaniko wool shipper kept from-. 1904 to 1906, horse bits from alL.

over the West and a collection or. barbed wire. There are sleigh bells, tools, carpenters' tools, dance: floor wax and typewriters. Rosebrook delights in guided tours of the museum. The museum is in a barm across the Old Highway from the Rosebrooks'- turquoise and white home.

Rosebrook has relied on wor'dv of-mouth to sell his sculptures? and draw museum visitors. says he doesn't want to be tied a schedule. But as it is, the museum become too much work, and': Rosebrook says he plans a day auction of its contents overj Memorial Day weekend this-: year. He says he's doing so with', his four sons in mind. "I'm getting up in years where I ain't gonna be here toot, much longer and if I leave it I'm afraid it'll be kind of a mess.

I'mv gonna put it into money and that-; can be divided up." Third party can settle remodeling issues WASHINGTON (AP) The path to successful home remodeling isn't always a smooth one. Now, however, if problems do arise between homeowners and contractors, they may be settled by a disinterested third party under a program called Remodelcare. The National Council of Better Business Bureaus and the National Association of the Remodeling Industry put the pro- consumer program together. The service is being imple-' mented through 172 Better- Business Bureaus and 55 na-I tional chapters of NARI, a trade" association of more than home improvement and' remodeling contractors..