Wheelspin: Hey, isn’t that Wayne Carini over there?

One of the advantages of living just a few miles down the road from the McPherson College Auto Restoration Program is getting to attend the annual CARS Club show on the school’s campus each spring.

You get to meet some incredibly bright students and see some fantastic cars brought in by fellow gearheads. And once in a while, you get to meet a real living, breathing celebrity.

That’s what happened last weekend as I was strolling through the show, looking for cars to feature on the Wheels page. (The ’57 Corvette story was one I lined up.)

Suddenly, I came face-to-face with a guy I have watched every week on the Velocity channel, none other than Wayne Carini of “Chasing Classic Cars.”

I waited until he finished the conversation he was having with another show-goer, then stepped right up, stuck out my hand and introduced myself with a line I’m sure he’s heard a million times before, “I am a huge fan of your show.” (It was the best I could come up with on the spur of the moment.)

He was pleasant and agreed to let me snap a photo and joked a bit about his chief mechanic, Roger Barr, who definitely has a mind of his own. What really impressed me was that there was no entourage or “handler” accompanying him.

He was doing exactly what the rest of us were doing: enjoying the cars, the company of other car lovers, the beautiful weather and the great setting. Just another car guy, and that is what makes his low-drama show such a welcome change from all the obviously scripted “reality” car shows on the tube.

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On a somber note, we learned of the passing of Denise McCluggage, often referred to as the “First Lady of Racing” on Wednesday. She was born in El Dorado and went on to fame as a sports reporter for the San Francisco Chronical and the New York Herald Tribune, before becoming an acclaimed motorsports writer.

But she not only wrote about cars, she drove them in competition: Jags, MGs and Ferraris. She won her class in the Monte Carlo Rally in 1964 behind the wheel, of all things, of a Ford Falcon.

John Pearley Huffman wrote on the Car & Driver website, “Denise McCluggage was godmother to all of us who write about cars.” She was 88 years old.

This story was originally published May 8, 2015 at 4:37 PM with the headline "Wheelspin: Hey, isn’t that Wayne Carini over there?."