Wayne Arteaga

1934 - June 9, 2009

Please also read Tom Finan's tribute to Wayne, Hot Rod Heart, added 16 July 2009.

I can't say that I knew Wayne very well.  We never met face-to-face, but emailed a few times and spoke on the phone several times.  What I can tell you about him is that he was very friendly and generous with the fruits of his labors.  I do know a number of people who knew Wayne well and all of them have nothing but good things to say about him!

When I mentioned that he was generous with the fruits of his labors, here's what I wrote around 2002 for the Photos by Wayne Arteaga page on this website:

"I called Wayne a couple of months ago to ask if he would share some of his photos with the visitors to this website. Wayne hadn't seen the site before, so I asked him to take a look around and then let me know if he was interested in contributing some photos.  About a month or so later, having heard nothing from him, I was shocked to receive a package via UPS with 70+, 8x10 photos in it!"

It seems that that's the kind of guy he was.  On more than one occasion, he also supplied photos for people who wanted to build models of his old cars.  One example is on the Wayne Arteaga's Henry J page.  For a guy who made his living selling his photography, those were very generous gestures!

As far as Wayne's racing history goes, he started in the early fifties and was still turning a tire or two well into the nineties!  It included a couple of well-known cars like his Potvin-blown Henry J and, later, the Arteaga & Hellmuth B/GS Willys.

On top of that, his place was also sort of a "Midwest Pit Stop" for many of the touring Gassers during the 60's.  Guys like KS Pittman, Stone, Woods & Cook, etc. used Wayne's place as sort of a home away from home when they were in the area.

Wayne...you will be greatly missed by many.  Vaya con Dios.