Automotive repair veteran honored on 90th birthday; Bob Lorkowski: ‘Del Hanson could fix anything’ | Free News

The yr was 1989, and Bob Lorkowski, the owner of L’Cars in Cameron, was nervous about a vacation he was scheduling to a basic auto contest in Pebble Seaside, Calif.

“They invited the best of the very best to contend,” Lorkowski said during a phone interview Friday morning, Oct. 29, 2021.

“We had a Bugatti 1938 Variety 57 entered in the contest. It was a fantastic honor, but I had to get the automobile there. I was going to trailer it with my Chevy Suburban, and I was going to push 2,500 miles from Cameron.”

Worried about the journey, and what he termed “the most important (typical car) competitors in the world,” Lorkowski was contacted by a mate, veteran Rice Lake automotive maintenance technician Del Hanson.

“Del explained he’d journey with me to California,” Lorkowski said. “That took the weight of the entire world off my shoulders. I understood that a man who could deal with everything was going to trip shotgun.”

The time they used jointly was priceless, he extra.

“It was like likely to college, 2,500 miles of technical classroom coaching,” he explained. “We wound up beating all people in our course.”

The automotive training continued on the return vacation.

“On the way back again, I stated, ‘Del, consider a crack, I just can’t take in fifty percent the things you are telling me,’” Lorkowski stated. “I know it is an previous indicating, but Del will actually ignore more than I’ll ever know about vehicles.”

By the time the 1989 Pebble Seaside contest took location, Lorkowski and Hanson had currently been close friends for a 10 years, having achieved for the first time when Lorkowski was working his first automotive store in Bruce.

It was the very first of a number of trips that Hanson and Lorkowski would make together, attending vintage car or truck competitions.

More than 4 decades later on, Lorkowski preferred to do some thing particular on the occasion of Hanson’s 90th birthday.

On Friday early morning, Lorkowski went to Barron Care & Rehab, picked up his mate, and took him to the L’Cars headquarters in Cameron, wherever Hanson was the guest of honor at a a few-hour reception attended by family members customers and mates.

Well wishers arrived from all through the area, which include Glenn and Roberta Thompson, former proprietors of an automotive garage in Prairie Farm, as effectively as good friends and extended household from the Rice Lake area.

At the party, Lorkowski re-advised his tale about that 1989 competition, and several other recollections were shared while visitors enjoyed sandwiches, snacks and an enormous sheet cake, all organized by Cameron L’Cars employees users.

“He’s a good mate,” Lorkowski explained.