Dick Guider’s eyes twinkle and his smile perks up as he reminisces about a recent drive on a French toll road in his Fiat coupe.
The 69-year-old had his 4-cyclinder Fiat cruising at 100 mph along the French countryside, until a BMW and a Mercedes Benz blasted past him.
He stepped on the gas to see whether the Fiat could catch the two more powerful vehicles. At 128 miles per hour, Guider saw the BMW and Mercedes fade into the distance ahead.
“That’s as fast as it will go,” he told his wife, and took his foot off the accelerator.
Guider is no stranger to speed.
The owner of Hidden Valley Automotive in Scotts Valley is a retired Can-Am race car driver who spent more than 40 years behind the wheel of racing cars and boats all over the world.
Guider built his first boat in woodshop in Oakland at age 11. He began racing, and in 1954, he won a Class 2 national championship in Florida and won his first sponsorship.
After several more championships, he moved on to land-based racing.
“There isn’t any money in boats,” Guider said. “They’re fun.”
He made friends with a high roller, Lance Reventlow, and wound up at a shop in Los Angeles, where he was eventually hired as a driver, starting his career in car racing.
In the next several decades, Guider drove Porsches, Alfa Romeos, McLarens, Lotuses, March cars and more on road tracks around the world. He tested his abilities against legendary English driver Stirling Moss, often finishing second to the Brit.
“He was in a class by himself,” Guider said.
It wasn’t until the 1980s Guider reached his heyday on the Canadian-American race circuit.
In 1982, Guider won the under-2-liter national championship on the Can-Am circuit racing handcrafted race cars. That same year, his team finished second in the over-2-liter championship.
In 1984, Guider hit water and wrecked during a qualifying run. His leg was broken in 31 places. After 16 operations and a year and a half in a wheelchair, the driver was walking — and racing — again.
He climbed back into saddle that year, but first, he got some advice from a former champion.
“Stirling Moss told me, ‘You’re the last one left, Dick. It’s time to call it quits,’” Guider said.
Guider did stop racing in 1986, but he got several more calls to drive, and it wasn’t until the 1997 season — after driving in the touring car championship for Mazda at age 56 — that he finally called it quits.
Guider has owned Hidden Valley Automotive since 1978. Today, he lives in Discovery Bay and commutes to the shop several times a week. He often travels to Europe to drive the boats in his collection.
“The worst thing is ‘I should have’ or ‘I wish I did,’” Guider said. “You only have one go-round; you might as well live it.”
