For more than 30 years, Ole Anderson, a retired Monterey, California, Volvo dealer and Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) racer avoided being "re-infected" by the racing bug by staying away from the sport.

Anderson, a member of the SCCA's San Francisco Region, said he had raced speedway motorcycles in Europe from 1950 to 1958. He finished third in the 1956 European Speedway Championships (think dirt ovals) and in the fall of the same year competed in the World Championship final at Wembley Stadium in London.

After emigrating to the U.S. at the end of the 1958 speedway season, Anderson raced with the SCCA from 1966 to 1973, piloting mostly a series of Volvos and Saabs. He was also a charter member of NORRA, the National Off Road Racing Association, and raced in the Mexican 1000 and Baja 500. When he retired from racing, he decided the best way to stay retired was to avoid racetracks. Period.

Except for excursions to Italy in 1990, where he piloted a 1932 Alfa Romeo 1750 GS Zagato in the Mille Miglia, and to Mexico in 1991, where he drove a Porsche 356 in the Carrera Panamerica, Anderson said he stayed true to his decision: He stayed away from racing and racetracks--perhaps an old-car event here and there, and maybe an historic rally or two, but on principal, no expeditions to racetracks.

In 2004, Anderson finally thought it was safe to attend the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races at nearby Laguna Seca, an event he had purposely ignored for years so as not to be seduced again by the lure of the sport.

Alas, Monterey wasn't safe, Anderson said, laughing. He so enjoyed himself that he returned home thinking that historic racing seemed like a lot of fun--and maybe it was time to renew his SCCA membership and get behind a wheel again.
"Those old Ferraris and Maseratis looked and sounded really nice," Anderson explained.

A call or two to a friend and a bit of eBay research helped Anderson locate an unusual historic racecar--a 1959 Byers-bodied tube-frame Volvo special that had been accumulating dust in a San Francisco-area garage for perhaps as much as four decades. Anderson decided it was the perfect car for a retired Volvo dealer. Besides, the price was right.

"It had an all-Volvo running gear and components of various vintages, none newer than 1961," Anderson said. "When I got it home and into my garage, I stood back and said to myself, 'What did I buy? What kind of mess did I get myself into?'"

Anderson spent 10 months reconstructing the chassis and the body and making the car raceworthy again."At one time it was even licensed for road use," Anderson said. "You couldn't do that today."

The Volvo special features a 1780cc B18B engine (which replaces the B16B unit that was in the car), a four-speed gearbox, and Volvo brakes and rear axle, Anderson said. He added that the car's safety items have been brought up to current standards.

"I won't race without a roll bar," he said.

Recently Anderson replaced the large roll bar he initially installed on the Volvo with a roll hoop fairing behind the driver's seat.

"The first five Byers had integral fairings, but my car lacked this feature," he said.  With the new features, "the car looks cleaner and better," Anderson said.

Anderson said his first race in the car was the HMSA Monterey pre-Historics at Laguna Seca Aug. 13-14, 2005. Since then he has raced the car "16 or 17" times, often with the San Francisco Region, and most recently Nov. 3 at Thunderhill Raceway Park in Willows, California. In August, he participated in both the Monterey Pre-Historics and the Monterey Historics themselves.

"The car has been just great," Anderson said. "I have finished every race I entered. I've had no mechanical breakdowns,"
Anderson said the handling of the car is "very neutral."

"The weight distribution is nearly equal, and driving it poses no problems. It's very enjoyable to drive. There are no tricks it throws at you."

On bias-ply tires, you can really hang the tail out, Anderson said, "but you can't overdo it because you'll run out of road."
Anderson said he is usually placed in sport-racing classes for under two-liter cars. There, because the special weighs in at a sturdy 1848 pounds, he said he's at a bit of a disadvantage.

"I think the guys who built this car must have been blacksmiths, because there seems to be a lot of iron in it. I think it needs to lose about 400 pounds."

In addition to continuing to refine the car, Anderson said he is also trying to reconstruct its history. The body was produced by the J. E. Byers Fiberglass Company in El Segundo, California. According to Anderson, the company produced a small number of fiberglass bodies for cars in the 1950s and early 1960s.

"Byers produced two models. The SR100, with a wheelbase of 100 inches, was made for big cars, and the CR90, with a wheelbase of 90 inches, was made to fit on a smaller chassis, like the ones on English sports cars," Anderson said. "The exact number of units built is not known."Anderson's body is a CR90 unit.

At some point, Byers sold the molds for the bodies to the Victress Manufacturing Company in North Hollywood, which continued production of the bodies under the Byers name for a period of time, Anderson said.

At races, whether with the San Francisco Region or at vintage events such as the Coronado Speed Festival in San Diego, his car draws a lot of attention, Anderson said. People enjoy its classic looks and smile when they learn that it's Volvo powered.

"The more people see the car, the better the chances are that I'll find someone who will say. 'I know someone who had a car like that.'"

As for that 2004 trip to the Monterey Historics, does Anderson have any regrets?

"Not at all," he said. "It's been a lot of fun. I'm no spring chicken--I was born in 1932--and I've been surprised at how much fun I've had, and at how much I can still focus and get things done. It's been very stimulating."