Marty and Diane were together forever since we met them back in the 80's. Marty was a big sprint car fan and long time Wagtimes supporter. They moved to Northern California for a long time when he found a good job up there, before returning to Southern California to live and work again. Marty was sponsoring several cars over the years including Leonard Lee even after Leonard moved to Iowa to race. Locally, his sponsorship was with the Venard racing team, including a Mopar motor that was in the Venard owned sprinter that Brian Venard drove until Buster moved to Northen Nevada and parked the cars. In recent times, Marty had enough serious physical maladies that he had to retire and physical therapy was a big part of his life until September of this year when he passed away.

They were so much a part of our racing life that it truly hurt me when I found out today that he passed. Over time we have lost other Wagtimers, and we are never ready for that, but I wasn't prepared for that news. We thought about them alot, but since we don't travel much anymore, we didn't get a chance to go visit them. Marty was Mr congeniality as he was always smiling and trying to be helpful in anything he got involved in. The last time we saw him, they had come to Las Vegas for a Wagsland get together and that was before he started being affected by the Parkinson's Disease and Multiple System Atrophy problems that put him in a home in July to be cared for until he was gone.

It's always hard to say goodbye to a long time friend. Goodbye my friend Marty, may you rest in peace. We won't forget you and the good times we had. My prayers go out to Diane for her loss.

Created 12/16/17