Bud has been a hands-on racer who managed Speed Warehouse, a distributor of performance equipment in Northern California. In 1993 he flipped his streamliner at high speed on the Bonneville Salt Flats trying to set a record. While he emerged uninjured, it unfortunately signified the end of his professional driving career. In 1991, he received the Pioneer Award from PWA.

Although the educational focus of Ray’s studies at USC were in electrical engineering, his knowledge of things mechanical, and specifically his interest in performance cars, enabled him to serve with efficiency as an associate editor, research editor, technical editor and eventually publisher of Hot Rod magazine. He was with Wally Parks on Daytona Beach in 1957 when Wally drove the “Suddenly” Plymouth project car into the record books. He took hot laps around the Indianapolis Motor Speedway in the 1967 Camaro that paced the Indy 500. He helped Mickey Thompson set speed records at Bonneville in a modified 1969 Mustang Mach 1. He covered the Pikes Peak Hill Climb more times than we can count. Ray also did Baja racing, Bashes Rally in Australia and other races as well as acted as judge at concours d’ elegance, including Pebble Beach. He was involved with starting the SEMA Show and in helping to form the National Street Rod Association.