 Lakeland PBS presents Common Ground, brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund and the citizens of Minnesota. Production funding of Common Ground is made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community, a partnership for generations. Member, FDIC. Welcome to Common Ground, I'm producer-director Scott Knudson. In this two segment episode, a couple from Winger, Minnesota share their love for the culture of motorsports and grant us a tour of their historic automobiles. Also, come along as we visit a couple of the rendezvous in our brainered viewing area. This is what I hauled my race truck with. Yeah, we really like it out here. I have 20 acres. Yeah, it's just a full-time job keeping the yard. Len and Sarah have been my friends since early teen years. Both of them are the most interesting people I've ever been acquainted with. Working with Len and Sarah out here in the shop that they've built, it's a fun experience because it's like working on a TV shop but you're, you know, next to the shop next door, you know. They were made for each other. There are a couple that really can put on a show. Well, he's a lot of wisdom. You know, he's been racing cars and selling car parts and doing bodywork for years and he picked up when you were young and we just started when we were 14 and he helped us with stuff, you know, when he didn't have to give us time. He gave us time, you know, and helped us all the way through learning and just seeing what he did and when things like that we learned from him, you know. And he did pickup pulling in, car racing in parts and just a good friend, you know, good person. Len is a very savvy businessman. I've only felt he's been honest, very, very well thought of no matter where you go. They've introduced a lot of people into the car club and the one thing about Len that's fun is that if he knows you're looking for a car he knows where all the cars are in the barns and the tree lines and he's always looking for a car for somebody and when he runs across one the bell goes off and it's like, oh, I know who wants that car and he's good about finding stuff for each one of us. Hi, I'm Sarah Luckin. We're in Winger, Minnesota at Luckin Motorsports. I'm married to Lynn Luckin and we've been into racing and cars and custom cars, hot-rod truck pulling. For as long as we've been married and that's a few years. Motor competition and anything to do with cars has been very exciting to us. We've met so many wonderful people interested in cars also. We've traveled all over the United States and Canada with our sport and our whole family has always been involved in motorsports and still is. Lynn and I were very young when we got married and our determination was to make it. We were determined to make it. We had the same type of goals in mind. He was the one that was interested in cars and, of course, that grew on me and as he was successful and our kids were growing up I decided I would join this group. We did have a lot of fun. We pulled for 10 years on the circuit and we had a successful, fun, adventurous and safe 10 years of truck pulling. I had a good friend who got me started. He asked us to come to a pull at the Farron Detroit Lakes and when we heard his truck start I immediately turned to my husband and said, that's what I want to do. And we were off and running. Lynn has always had a love for cars, especially custom cars. He was customizing cars before he was out of high school. He's won awards for his paint jobs on other people's cars. He's won awards for his own vehicles. He loves big engines. He loves racing. He's going to be 74 years old in August and he's still racing. So he just loves that speed, that power, the camaraderie at the tracks and from the other fellows that he knows that are into cars and our car club. It's his life. He lives and breathes old cars, new cars. He knows them all because he was in salvage business for 45 years. In Wingham, Minnesota, we have put up a shop for all our memorabilia and Lynn is going to take you on a tour as we speak. 1977 Ford F100, 400 automatic that we're restoring for my daughter. It's completely restored. We're just trying to finish it. I've got the box left to do, but it's turning out great. It's an original 1977 Ford, one owner that I bought in Holly, Minnesota. It's a green metallic with a silver insert. It's going to be all original other than restoring it. So it was in the barn when I got it. And the motor was stuck, they said, so I bought it that way, brought it home. We pulled the spark plugs out of it and put Marvel mystery oil in it. The next day we got it loose. It runs absolutely brand new. There's the inside of the truck. There's still parts sitting in there to put on it, but it's very, very clean. That's just the way I got it. Haven't done nothing with it. I used to go to Arizona every year. Hall is Harley, come back. He passed away. I bought it from his daughter. She said she couldn't afford to fix it, so that's how I ended up with the truck. And I said I'd never buy a car on the internet and I ended up buying two of them, so there you go. But everything else is original. The bumpers, the grille, everything. All the sheet metal. And I'm trying to get the box done. The boxes are ready to get painted. There is a lot of factors you have to take into consideration when you paint stuff. You have to go by the humidity in the air because the humidity is not good for it. You want good drying time, and mostly when you're spraying clear, it has to be just right. That should be quite a truck when we're done with it. My daughter's pretty excited about it anyway. All three of my children are into hot rods. And they're really involved in it. So back when I was really young, I worked at a gas station when I was 12. And all these hot rods had come from Grand Forks. I lived in Mentor. And I just got into them. After 14, when I started racing and had a car, I had a job, so I was making money. And there was a gentleman in Mentor that was in the scrap business. And he cut a deal with me. He asked if I knew what aluminum and copper was. And I said, yes, I did. He said, well, how about if you come and go through my scrap pile and we'll split? Wow, what a deal for me. Then the guy said, oh, this is... you're making too much money then. I said, no, the thing is, I know what that stuff is. Nobody else did. Look at what I made you. He wanted to cut a better deal, see? And I said, no, deal's the deal. That's the way it ended up. So that's why I was able to do some of this stuff. And I had a job all through high school. I only race five to eight times a year, but I truly enjoy it, or I wouldn't do it. Between racing and restoring, that's a tough decision. I guess I'd have to say restoring. In the building here, I keep some of my memorabilia. In the work area here, it's just all got history behind most of it. We're going to go into the showroom back here where I have a few hot rods and show you what we have back here and explain a little bit of it. We'll start with the 56th Thunderbird that I give my wife at our 40th wedding anniversary. And it's just an awesome car. We take it to car shows. It's got a 292 with an automatic. And it's just a nice car roll. I've just put new tires on it last year. So, yeah, it's been awesome. We just got done servicing it, so it's ready to go to the car shows. Well, this is a 1963 Falcon. It's the first year they come with a power roof and a V8. And it's got a worked over 260 cubic inch motor that runs excellent. It was a one owner when I bought it. I bought it out of Minneapolis in the garage. I seen the back end sticking out when I was driving by in my truck and I drove in and said, is that car for sale? And he said, well, yeah, maybe. Well, I said, I'm a player. He told me a price and I bought it right there and I had my buddy with me and he thought I'd lost my mind. What are you going to do with that old car? I said, I've been looking for one then forever. There it is. That serves, too. This one here is my daughter's car. This one is a 66 Mustang 2 plus 2. And we put a 2008 Mustang GT46 in it and we pulled it back out and now we're fitting everything and it's going back in. That, I hope to get done. This, me and my friend Danny Holden, three years ago, I bought a kit for it and it's a 50 Mercury front with a 47 Pontiac grow with Mustang park lights and a 50 Ford rear. And me and Danny put it together and I spent like three weeks making door jams to everything fitting but it turned out really good and I drive that quite a bit. I got the late model ride with the old style look. It really turns heads. It's got a 3.8 supercharger on it with a five speed and it goes down the road real nice. You know, a lot of these parts that I come into down at the yard will work on these cars and that's why we've done that. We're going to a 1957 Ford custom 2 door that's kind of special. I'll open the hood here so Scott can see what's in there. It has a 390 board 40 with a good set of heads on it and it runs real well. It's lowered four inches. It's got a roll pan on the back and it's got color keyed front bumper with the bar grill. It's a nice ride. It's got a 05 Taurus interior all leather with pockets and floor shift. It's got power doors on it, power trunk lid. It's all functional and all works. It's really a fun ride. This is my baby. It's a house of colors color. It kind of changes colors. It's a lot of metallic in it. Deep burgundy color. That's all trophies from car shows, racing, truck pulling. We have a lot more but we only have room for so many. Some of them are pretty hard earned and then I got a Hall of Fame ring. This ring is for dirt track racing with a F-150 Ford pickup and I have two of them. I have one for 2003 and this one is for 2012. Yeah, it's been a good run. I still go at it so to me, racing is an adrenaline rush. Big time. I haven't lost it after all those years. I still have that 30 year old head with that old body. My father worked for Burlington Northern section foreman and my kid brother worked for the railroad and my older brother Earl owned the truck yard down at this yard down here and none of them were into hot rods. I don't know how to explain it. I've been in it since day one and I love every minute of it. I don't know how to describe Lynn and I. Lynn and I basically grew up together. How do you describe your life in a sentence? I mean, we just did everything together. We supported each other along the way. We raised our kids to be like us. Honest, work ethic. I don't know how to describe something like that. You know what? She's just awesome. I can't say enough about her. After 55 years, we're still together and if you want to meet a successful man, he's got a good woman. That's just the way it is. I met my wife back in high school. She was from Fertl. I was from Mentor. I was one of the rebel rousers and she was the religious girl. We just hooked up, clicked. That's history. She doesn't complain when I come out here to work and I work every night. They're on the weekends or we go to a car show and she likes all of it and of course she's got so many hobbies. She's busy with her hobbies and we're still happily married. We belong to the Highway 2 cruisers. We meet at the end of every month and we have a very good car club. The Highway 2 cruiser is out of Boston. It covers about 6 towns. I think over 100 members. So a lot of nice hot rods. And I would like to encourage people whether you have a car or not. Go to a car show. Even if you don't belong to a club or don't have a car, you can go and join a car club. They need your assistance. They would love to have you if you want to learn about cars. Go and visit one. I've been in a recycling business for 50 years. Originally I called it a junkyard. Now they call it an auto recycling. And we do lots of it. And I sold out to my nephew in 2012 and I stayed on and I worked for him. I do all the buying and selling and the salvage out at the yard and recycle and sell parts. And it was good to me and it's good to him. For the people that have older cars that can't afford to buy a new car they usually buy the starters, alternators that keeps them going or transmissions or motors. And that's where we come in. To save and collect classic cars first you need a love for what's there. What was. What you'll never have again. And then you need to reminisce as you fix this and polish that and choose a paint and then take pride in that finished object there is nothing like it. Nothing. I got real lucky. I've been lucky my whole life. So. And that's how I got into all the racing and I mean one thing just led to another. Yeah, we thought we'd come check this out and we're heading greener. The colored yarn in it so that you can when it twists you can see the yarn. Okay, let's see. Okay, we'll get this all back. This is called the spreader. Okay, and you need to burn it all the way down to the end. Wait a minute, hold on. Oh, wow, wow, he's turning. Yeah, and that weight will come up and you'll see. Nice. And pretty soon all three of these will twist. So then. Watch this now, watch this go. You can see how it's starting to twist up. Oh, yeah, yeah, Tim, look at it. Now it's starting to twist. Into a roll. Wow, that is so good. You know, everything can be made with a roll. And you just put in that one. Imagine the powder out. You don't need a lot of powder for this. So it's just for the noise. There's no projectile that comes out of it. So you need the compression. Ready for this. You do it. You do it. Oh, does he? Yeah, Mike does. And he just got it there. Join us again on Common Ground. If you have an idea for Common Ground in North Central Minnesota, email us at call218-333-3014. To watch Common Ground online, visit lptv.org and click Local Shows. The soeds are segments of Common Ground. Call 218-333-3020. Production funding of Common Ground was made possible in part by First National Bank Bemidji, continuing their second century of service to the community, a partnership for generations, and a member, FDIC. Common Ground is brought to you by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund with money by the vote of the people November 4th, 2008.