Where I'm from:  I was born in Montana on the 24 of September 1950. I lived the first eight years of my life with my grand parents until my mom and step dad moved to Anchorage, Alaska in the spring of 1959 and we lived there until the end of 1977 at which time I moved to Oregon where I live now. The weather is a lot warmer here in Oregon, no more winters with 3 foot of snow and -50 degrees and that is without any wind chill factors included. Where I've been:  I have been to the states of Alaska, California, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and Washington. I have been in Canada several times while traveling between the Lower 48 (An Alaskan term) and Alaska. I have been to the Philippines, North and South Viet Nam, Hong Kong, Singapore, Okinawa and Japan when was in the Navy. I have been to the Arctic Circle , the Equator and the International Date Line. I would love to see the rest of the United States and some day I will.
	What I like:  I have always liked autos, or so it would seem since I have personally owned over 120 cars. I like computers a lot, I have had one since 1981 when I bought a Commodore Vic-20 which was called the first color computer for under $200.00. Since then I have had about 16 computers, I have had every thing from a Tandy PC-3 which is about the size of a check book to an IBM system 3 which was about 8 feet long and took up most of my living room. I like to travel but never seem to have the time. When I was in the Navy I got to see a few places of interest.
	Education:   I attended the first three years of my schooling in Kalispell, Montana, then my family moved to Anchorage, Alaska where I went to school from the fourth grade through the 12 grade. I took Electronics in High School since my dad owned a TV and Radio repair shop and I worked there every summer and during every vacation I had while going to school. I got straight A's in the Electronics Class.  While in the Navy I went to a 16 week School to become a Radarman. I was in the highest graduating class from that school ever. I got a 79% for the class and was 18th out of 25 there were three people who got 100% no other class ever had such a high average class grade.  In 1980 while working for C&K Petroleum I had decided I wanted to be a draftsman, from the time I can remember I liked drawing. It was about the only thing I liked to do. So to see if I was any good at all I took a non credit adult night class at Lane community college well when I was finished with the class the instructor said I should either try to get a job or take advanced drafting, So still not sure about my abilities I enrolled for a semester and took Drafting II at LCC. Well I finished Drafting II well ahead of time and got the instructor to give me some drafting I and Drafting III problems. The next Semester I took Drafting III finished it and took more drafting I and some new Drafting II problems that was when I got into Computers. The instructor would let me use an old Tektronix computer that LCC was given which had a plotter hooked to it, anything you wanted it to draw you had to program into it with X-Y coordinate, it had to be told every move it was like programing a CNC machine. The next Semester I took Architecture Drafting I and completed it in two weeks so again I did more problems from other classes. I also had some of my drawings used as masters to correct other peoples drawings. Well to shorten this story up from 1980 to 1982 I took 6 semesters of Drafting at Lane Community College where I had a straight 4.0 grade average. This was one of the most irritating things in my life I had more talent and could draw better than most people I ever meet I even had the assistant who was helping the instructor use some of my drawings in her portfolio, but because I had no job experience I could not get a job drafting I tried for about six months and finally gave up.  I took a home study course on computers which I got A's and B's in. I think my final grade was a B+, I only took that course to learn a little more about computers.   That is about the extent of my formal learning. I have learned most every thing else I can do by just doing it. My dads most favorite saying was "There is no such thing as CAN'T!!!! " and I live by that to this day.
	What I've done:  I worked in my dads TV repair shop, repairing car radios and other electronics , I did that after school from the time I was 15 till I went into the Navy in 1970.  I started welding in 1965 when I was 15 years old on a tracked machine my dad wanted to build for hunting.  While I was in High School my dad had me build two rooms in the basement of a house we had as a rental. I did this after school since it was only about 6 blocks from my school I would walk to the house and work on the two rooms till my dad picked me up after he got done working which could be any time from 7:00PM to midnight, he worked long hours and so did I, I think it took me about a month to frame in the two rooms then wire the electrical, hang the doors and finish the rooms, with no help from anyone, I would tell my dad what I needed for supples and he would have them drooped off.   While in the Navy from 1970 to 1972 I was a Radarman. The first ship I was on for 1-1/2 years was the USS Tulare LKA-112 . This ship carried 300 Marines for beach landings. The second ship I was on was the USS ElDorado LCC-11 this ship was the flag ship for the Pacific Fleet.   When I got out of the Navy in 1972 I went back to work for my dad in the TV store for a little while then my dad started a business Ceder Chalet of Alaska building Modular houses, I was the foreman overseeing 8 other workers, plus I did all the blueprints, wiring, pluming, trim work, and layout. I drove a pilot car when we transported them and I also did the installation.  Then in 1975 I started my own Business "Pats Performance" where I did engine swaps, general auto repair, and also painted cars. This was the time I did all my street racing, at which time I had the fastest street driven car in Anchorage, Alaska and did it at a cost of $1,600.00, not bad for a daily driven 11.25 @121 mph car.  Then in the December of 1977 I moved to Dillard, Oregon where I leased A Texaco Service Station. I operated the Texaco Station for a year pumping gas and doing general auto repairs before moving to Eugene, Oregon.  While living in Eugene I have worked for Auto Repairs Unlimited as an auto mechanic for a about 16 months. I then went to work for C&K Petroleum Co. doing service station installations and repair and operating a backhoe for 3 years. In the spring of 1983 I went to Alaska for the summer helping my dad install Satellite dishes. When I returned to Eugene that fall I went to work for Skookum Reforestation as a mechanic and welder. I worked off and on for Skookum through 1989. I went back to Alaska in the spring of 1984 and worked as a mechanic and helped my dad again with his Satellite dishes till fall then returned to Eugene, OR. I worked in a saw mill for a little while in Jasper, OR. Moved to Fall City and worked for Titan in Albany, OR as an Alternator rebuilder and while working for Titan I moved to Albany for a few months. Then in 1986 I moved back to Eugene, OR and worked as a machinist, welder and draftsman for an inventor, Bill King for a year on an energy project producing electrical energy using slow moving streams. In 1987 I went back to work for Skookum Reforestation but because they were a seasonal business and were not always able to keep me full time I then went to work for C&K Petroleum and then back to Skookum again. I was always in demand by people who have hired me.  And on April 17, 1990 Lyndy Thompson (Daughter of Mickey Thompson a famous race car driver.) and myself started Thompson Motorsports Inc. We have been build Street Rods and Race Cars ever since. We have worked on cars which were brought to us all the way from Washington and California.
Web Page by: Pat Blair	BACK

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