About Bob Larivee Sr.“We’re talking about 25
years of two kinds of relationships, one with cars, the other with people. It
took both to make the championship succeed.”
Bob
Larivee, Sr.
Group
Promotions 25 Anniversary Banquet
The Midwest came alive in 1951
with the formation of the Michigan Hot Rod Association, which
included twenty-two clubs and four hundred members at its highest
point. Street racing had become a problem for all legitimate car
clubs, and the MHRA wanted to organize clubs and provide a safe
place to race. The goal was to build and operate a first-class
racing facility of their own, but financing was nonexistent.
By cooperating with local law enforcement agencies, the MHRA had
public streets blocked off to traffic, and the first races were
held there.
In 1952
the MHRA held its first Autorama car show at the
University of Detroit Field House. The efforts of all the
club members in producing and promoting the show made it
a success. Right from the start, the MHRA proved that
funds could be raised for a drag strip by holding a
quality auto show. As the Detroit Autorama grew in size,
it moved from the University of Detroit Field House to
the State Fairgrounds to the Artillery Armory and back to
the Fairgrounds.
In
1956 the MHRA decided to hire a professional promoter in
order to increase the show in size and stature. Don
Ridler, a local promoter specializing in band and
sporting events, was contracted to handle the next
Autorama. Under Ridler's direction, the Detroit show
developed quickly. By adding bands to the show and
scoring with major publicity stories in the news media,
Ridler quickly succeeded in developing the Detroit show,
generating funds needed to build the dream raceway in New
Baltimore, Michigan.
Bob Larivee, a member
of the board of MHRA, was selected to manage the new
racing facility. All the members gave whatever free time
they had to grade the raceway and construct the building
that housed the equipment and announcer's tower. MHRA
secured loans to pay for the concrete racing surface, and
Michigan's first official drag strip was reality.
This would prove to be
only a starting point for Bob Larivee. He would go on to
play the most dominant role in conceptualizing and
developing the International Championship Auto Shows
series.
Larivee's love for the
automobile started with his participation in the Soap Box
Derby in 1946 and continued on to his early racing days
in an MG TD in SCCA events and road rallies to circle
track racing. He was always the driver in several racing
partnerships, including one with his friend and Soap Box
Derby competitor, Ron Ekholm.
In addition to racing,
being a board member in MHRA, a president of MMAC (MHRA
membership club), and managing the race track, Larivee
worked in the family sign painting business, attended art
school. and raised a family of four children in Harper
Woods, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit. He also found time
to work on the Autorama show, becoming good friends with
Ridler and learning the business of show promotion.
In 1959 Larivee and
his brother Marvin, an attorney, decided to produce auto
shows in other cities and they founded Promotions, Inc..
Spurred on by the success of the Detroit Autorama,
Larivee felt he could provide other cities with quality
rod and custom shows where local clubs had neither the
means nor the experience to hold a show themselves.
Promotions, Inc., would help the local club, and cover
the costs of the show without risk. Larivee was an auto
enthusiast first, a businessman second. He believed that
strong and solvent clubs would enable the hot rod sport
to grow.
