George Keck

As a young hot rodder in the Midwest, George Keck was given a test drive in an MG—and the rest is history. He immediately became a “foreign car guy” and started racing a Porsche in 1953 after moving to Seattle to work at Boeing. George got in with the Team Empire gang and raced with and against them for years. After the Porsche he was one of the pioneers in Formula Three racing and led the charge of those little cars for the next few years before getting hold of a Porsche 550 Spyder in early 1956. He remembers that the Formula Threes had given him a sense of security – “you could do no wrong in them” — and that approach didn’t work in the new Porsche, which he rolled in the old Turn One at a race at Shelton. The car was put back together in time to take third in the under-1500cc feature at Seafair that year, still in black primer. George ran the Spyder through 1957, taking time out of it to win the Evergreen Trophy in the Pooper. The new RS Spyders were out in 1958 and George traded up for a wrecked model that had run at Sebring, and just about rebuilt the car, which he ran as the “RSKeck”. While he was getting it ready, he ran a Fiat Abarth with success in modified and production. While this car was quite successful, George sold it to get the famed Ferrari x, which he found in a local newspaper classified ad! With this car George won several races, including the opening feature at Westwood, and raced it nationally for a short time as well. He quit racing in 1960 while on top of the game to take on additional family and professional responsibilities. Today, George is retired today and lives with his wife in California.