“None of us is perfect” so said Joe E. Brown to Jack Lemmon in “Some Like It Hot”. And so, that’s true. But if anybody in CARC history has come close to perfection, it was the #19 team led by John Pachello.

John tried his hand at driving, and had some success, but realized that his strength was in car building and preparation. The first racecar he owned, actually co-owned with Tedo Spano, and was the #62 ’34 Ford 5-window coupe in 1958. Tedo drove and the car was mildly successful while John learned his craft. John owned his first car outright in 1959, painted it black and white and numbered it #19. It was built for the Ford Flathead V-8. We all had no idea how massively successful #19 would become.

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Pachello hired the CARC’s All American Boy, Jim Malloy, to drive the car and he became the CARC Champ in 1960, the first of MANY championships to be won by the #19 Pachello modified. John had built a new car to accept the Ford Straight 6. He kept the old car and would occasionally number it #49 to put Fritz Wilson in it on those big nights with a big purse.

It took John a while to repeat as Jack Thoms and Sam Sauer traded championships between 1961 and 1964. During that time, Pachello hired a young driver with a reputation for being upside down, Don Wilson. Wilson had been steadily improving his glass-smooth, consistent style, and reported for the 1965 season loaded for bear. He just truly ran away with his first CARC championship.

That was just the beginning, however. More championships were to follow for Wilson in 1967, 1968, 1969, 1970, 1971, and after a brief break to race late models, 1976. Most of those championships were runaways, with the battle for the points decided by mid-August. When Don Wilson moved to other forms of racing, Pachello needed to find a new shoe during the 1972-1975 break.

He did, with Jack Graham, late of Al Starr’s green #7. Jack jumped into the black beauty and was just as invincible with it as was Wilson. Jack won three consecutive championships with the #19 car, taking the crown in 1973, 1974, and 1975. After Wilson’s one-year reunion with the 19 car, he moved away from modifieds for good. Pachello again needed a new driver.

He found another very smooth, very patient driver in Terry Daniels. Terry had been racing at Lakeside since the early 1960’s after his return from an Army stint in Vietnam. Terry settled into the Pachello dream car nicely and won the track championship in 1980, 1981, and 1982. After this period, the CARC was virtually owned by Rick Carelli in his red #6 car, and John Pachello had won his final CARC championship.

How good were his cars? I don’t think we could begin to count the number of Main Event, Fast Time, and Trophy Dash awards won by that car, regardless of driver. His crew, manned by his brothers Dick, Don, and Mike, were very consistent. The car won the Best-Looking Car award several times, the crew Best-Dressed, and also Most Efficient. The car was always immaculately prepared and ready to go. An article in the 1967 Lakeside program touted John Pachello as Mechanic of the Decade, as up to that point, his cars had been sidelined due to mechanical failure only 4 times in the previous ten years! By the way, John’s cars also won track championships at Cheyenne and Longmont, too.

John Pachello was officially named the Mechanic of the Year six times in the decade of the 1960’s, and I’m sure many times after that, although I don’t have a number. His crews were noted in changing an ENTIRE REAR END of the #19 car in the infield during a red flag cleanup at Lakeside that took only TWELVE minutes! That was driveshaft – back! They could complete an entire engine swap (out of one car to the other) in as little as 75 minutes.

His fourteen CARC championships are definitely a record, and between 1965 and 1982, his cars missed the crown only five times. This is as close to perfection as one can get in auto racing. This why the number 19 has been retired by the CARC. This is also why the CARC proudly escorts John Pachello into the Colorado Motor Sports Hall of Fame, class of 2007. Few car owners have deserved it so richly!