CAREER HI LIGHTS

Terry’s interest in fast cars and competition began in 1963 while in high school. His family built a 16 ft. flat bottom race boat with an injected Hemi Chrysler. He competed in drag and circle races, and also was part of a pit crew with endurance racing boats at the Parker Nine Hour and Salton Sea 500 mile races.

One of his most vivid memories with boats was flipping and sinking his family’s boat during a race. It took divers a week to locate and bring it back up to the surface. The boat was sold shortly thereafter. That was the end of boats and just the beginning of a long list of cars!

In 1965 he built a 1957 Ford pick-up truck with a full race Cadillac engine for street use. People took note of his workmanship and abilities in constructing the truck. Soon he was bombarded with requests to build headers for them. A new side business sprouted.

In 1967 Terry, wife Annie and daughter Kelly, began playing with sand buggies. It was during this time he named his side business Palmer Custom Speed Equipment. He built Corvair intake manifolds and custom sets of headers. Terry also won his first drag race in a sand buggy at the Coral Pink Sand Dunes in Utah. He built a controversial two-seat buggy shown here with racing partner Frank Schwartz. It was raced in the trail and dune class. Frank sold the buggy and later on it won the national championship event held in the Phoenix valley. The car was controversial and caused the national rules for it’s class to be changed.

Terry became the head technical inspector at the drags and hill climbs sponsored by Arizona Competition, Inc. (sand buggy club). These races were held in the river bottom outside of Phoenix, and at the Cinder Rally in Flagstaff, where the famous ‘$100 Dollar Hill’ was named. Later the club moved the races to the newly established Canyon Raceway that was built and run by fellow club member Tom Timmons.

Due to the continuous growth of his side business, Terry quit his regular job in 1973 and dove full speed ahead into making Palmer Custom Speed Equipment a successful full-time venture. His main focus was off-road racecars and trucks. He designed, built and maintained cars that won every major race and two national championships for famed racer Larry Ragland.