Howie Maxwell has been involved with Corvettes since the mid 1980s. His friend was a salesman that had made a down payment on a ’67 convertible and suggested that Howie buy it instead. In 1988, he tested six Corvettes at Bloomington Gold with his youngest daughter and suddenly saw a ’61 out of the corner of his eye. He knew he had to have it. At this point, Howie was already heavily into judging, so he restored the ’61 and it’s won many awards since. He’s been buying Corvettes left and right since then.
He is both a founding and lifetime member of the Museum. He’s participated in many NCM events each year, but trouble with his company prevented him from visiting the past few years. When he finally was able to make it back to the museum, he heard about the Motorsports Park and said, “Hey, it’s the only way to make up for missing the last five years!” He was also extremely excited about the "C7" and felt it had very impressive numbers for a car right off the assembly line so he has arranged a museum R8C delivery for a Night Race Blue "C7" with Brownstone Interior!
Francis Richmond began collecting Corvettes in 1967 and the hobby grew from there. He and his wife Karla now have 19 Corvettes in a climate controlled garage, with lots of Corvette memorabilia! They belong to two Corvette Clubs as well as the NCCC. The Richmond’s have show cars, no touch “stay-in-garage” cars, autocross/race cars and daily driver cars. In the past, they have participated in car shows, parades, rallies and autocross as time has allowed. As their children grew and left home, they began autocrossing more, and in the past few years it has been many weekends and a big part of their life. Francis has also attended Spring Mountain driving school and is going back in December of this year.
As Francis and Karla became more involved in autocrossing, they have seen the decline in locations that allow them to use their space and they’ve seen many tracks close. Karla says, “In order to preserve the sport for us novice racers, it is important to support NCM and its dream of the Motorsports Park.” As their anniversary was approaching this year, they talked about what gift they could share as a couple. Many options came to mind, but they felt at this point in their lives, contributing to the NCM Motorsports Park was the best gift!
Only 27 acres remain in our "One Acre Club" program. When they're gone... they're gone! Will your name be on the wall? Learn more about how you can be a member of this group here.