DiMora Motorcar Becomes a Sponsor of
Bernard Juchli’s Race Team

Bernard’s dream job is to be the General Manager at the Big Dog Garage. This is where you and your crew must find ways to keep over a hundred classic automobiles and motorcycles, and perhaps an occasional fire truck, in perfect running condition. The morning may find you programming a CNC milling machine to fabricate a part for a century-old electric car. Your afternoon may be spent on the phone trying to locate tech data for a 60-year-old Rolls-Royce Merlin aircraft engine.

After you solve these problems and countless others, you are likely to get a suggestion from the garage owner in grease-splattered blue jeans: Wouldn’t it be fun to take a front-wheel-drive Olds Toronado and convert it to rear-wheel-drive with a thousand-horsepower engine?

A normal response might be to question somebody’s sanity or suddenly remember you’re late for an appointment across town. But if you are a car nut, a grin will slowly spread across your face as you think about building and driving such a beast. Yeah, that would be fun...

This is the life of Bernard Juchli. The Swiss-born aircraft mechanic and engineer simply loves the opportunity to explore automotive ideas that nobody else has tried. And the garage owner with the wild ideas is another car nut, Jay Leno.

For 20 years, Bernard owned and managed a Jaguar repair and maintenance business in Los Gatos, California. The weekends would find him out on the track racing his 1963 Jaguar XK-E. Competing against Corvettes and GT-350s, Bernard won the B Production class title in 1992, 1993, and 1994.

Jay Leno had a problem with his Jaguar XK120 and turned to Bernard for help. After solving the problem, Bernard and Jay became good friends. It didn’t take long for Jay to realize just how great a mechanic Bernard was.

At that time, Jay had a very large collection of outstanding automobiles. But he had most of the maintenance done at other garages. Jay realized that Bernard was the right guy to set up the in-house capability to maintain his diverse assortment of new and vintage cars.

So five years ago, Bernard became the General Manager of the Big Dog Garage. He found other outstanding mechanics to bring on board, and he collected the tools and equipment one would expect to find in an exotic auto shop.

Bernard is always acquiring more state-of-the-art tools and equipment. When he needs to fabricate parts that haven’t been made in the past 70 or 80 years, it helps to have a diverse set of tools. It may seem ironic to use 21^st century technology to make early 20^th century parts, but it works. Henry Ford never considered cutting metal with a computer-controlled stream of extremely high-pressure water; Bernard uses this process all the time.

So when you come to the track to see Bernard go for the checkered flag, don’t be surprised to see his friends from DiMora Motorcar or The Tonight Show cheering him on. Look for his red and white Number 34 leading the pack at one of these VARA events:

June 3-4, 2006 - Road Races at the Ranch
Spring Mountain Motorsports Ranch

June 24-25, 2006 - Member Appreciation Race
Willow Springs International Raceway

July 15-16, 2006 - The Golden State Classic
California Speedway

September 16-17, 2006 - Oktoberfest
Buttonwillow Raceway Park

October 14-15, 2006 - Jeff Saltman Memorial Race
Las Vegas Motor Speedway

November 11-12, 2006 - Big Bore Bash
Willow Springs International Raceway
For complete information on these races, please visit www.vararacing.com .