Pete Van Iderstine

[over4T]

The long time Jersey speed shop and car owner passed away a day or so ago at 89 in his west coast home in Santa Ynez, CA. Coming west several decades ago with a big background with the NE center steer Mods he quickly made friends with Doug Fort, the late promoter and builder of the Central coast Santa Maria Speedway, legendary 1/3 dirt track, and after several conversations they agreed to buy a bunch of the cars from the NE and try to get them going out here. They ran them for a few years around northern Cal in the '70s but they never caught on and were finally dropped before I could get one and join the fun. I'd been running LM Sportsman type stuff for about 15 years and really wanted to try them but, unfortunately, never got another chance. Pete went on to own and/or sponsor many cars, mostly LM and some Modified stuff, for the next several decades. Good guy Pete was 89 and will be sorely missed by his many friends on both sides of the country. Another Legend gone.

[BTExpress]

RIP. Pete also helped Modified great Brett "The Jett" Hearn with sponsorship when he was 16 years old and just starting his career. I think he still owned a DLM and would have his car at The Wild West Shootout every January at Arizona and New Mexico.

[over4T]

Yep, he did, mostly with hot shoe Cody Laney, behind the wheel.

[pushin cushin]

Throughout the years when the WWS was/is held in Az., occasionally if my wife and I saw an out of state race team eating at the same restaurant we were eating at after the races, we would ask our server to give us their bill and we would take care of it. I remember one night in Tucson I saw Pete and his team at the Triple T Truck-stop. I asked our server to grab their tab and we paid it. They left before we did and Pete stopped at our table along with Clay Daly and one or two other guys. They all thanked us, and Pete insisted on me giving him our address as he wanted to send us a little something. A couple weeks later he had sent us a calendar that he’d made custom with his car. The really neat part was, he sent us one the following December for the next year. The fact he remembered and thought about us the following year was super cool to me. We always made a point to go say hello to him in the pits every year during the WWS when he was there. He was such a down to earth genuine person.

RIP Mr. Van Iderstine

[Josh Bayko]

RIP. Pete also helped Modified great Brett "The Jett" Hearn with sponsorship when he was 16 years old and just starting his career. I think he still owned a DLM and would have his car at The Wild West Shootout every January at Arizona and New Mexico.

I’m old enough to remember when his speed shop in Jersey still existed.

[Snake X3]

RIP. Pete also helped Modified great Brett "The Jett" Hearn with sponsorship when he was 16 years old and just starting his career. I think he still owned a DLM and would have his car at The Wild West Shootout every January at Arizona and New Mexico.

I used to see him run back then. I also remember hearing the Van Iderstine commercials on the radio. Sounds like a good guy.

[84wedge]

Yep, he did, mostly with hot shoe Cody Laney, behind the wheel.

Was Pete the car owner of the Laney ride that had the light on top so he could follow it on track?

[over4T]

Don't really remember that but, knowing Pete, probably so.

[Josh Bayko]

Was Pete the car owner of the Laney ride that had the light on top so he could follow it on track?

Yes he was. He has an eye condition that made it hard to see at night.