Bob Woodhouse
Enthusiast
To the memory of Paul Mumford:
Paul Mumford Lives ……in the hearts and minds of thousands of car enthusiasts ………. PMUM; as he became known to his automotive friends, began as his E-Mail address. The frequent readers of www.ViperClub.org forums regularly looked for his signature. They knew that there would be entertaining and controversial banter wherever they found the PMUM moniker. It was great entertainment to read his smack talk; the humor; the wit; the verbal tennis he would exchange with people like Ken Adelberg.
Midyear in 2002 I became ineligible to compete in Viper Days. (None of it my fault of coarse.) Paul calls and in a couple minutes we had an agreement. He would drive, Rick Maxell, Nancy Shanno and I would crew. Two races later, you know the story, he won Nashville VOI and the 02 Finals.
PMUM first came into the Viper Nation view in 1999 when at the Viper Days events his street car eclipsed the times of many of the race Vipers. By 2000 he was suspicioned to be one of the biggest cheaters around. They would exclaim: “Nobody could possibly be that much faster than the rest of us, it has to be the car.”
Paul was never found to be cheating; but the voice of his competitors never quit trying. This year in Speed World Challenge; after the second event, two of his competitors complained to SCCA. They were confident that his car was wearing traction and or stability control. They reviewed the video of the Laguna Seca WCGT race and determined that nobody can drive that smooth without help.
Wednesday evening October 1st 2003, the night before his fatal accident Paul spent an hour on the phone. He shared the concerns of his competitors; he wondered why he needed to spend money to defend against these allegations. We discussed sponsorship and the means to fund the 2004 season. He was confident that he could bring Dodge and himself a Season Championship in the Speed TV World Challenge GT series.
Words that help depict Paul’s character to me:
Tenacious, affable, friendly, driven, gifted, loving, fearless, confident yet humble, aloof, loves a gunfight, need to win, honest, caring.
From Erik Messley: “You know; Paul even loaned me his truck to use as long as I needed it, I hated to tell him he had given it up forever.”
When interviewed in August at Road America after starting 22nd and finishing 3rd, Paul was asked by the announcer if it made him uncomfortable going through the “kink” at over 120 mph. Paul responded by saying, “Well not really, you see I used to run here with the Superbikes. To go through the kink on two wheels at 165 mph, that made you pucker.”
Paul had called one day to ask how the broken wrist was coming; which was a result of an accident in that same R.A. race. He said; “yeah I broke that bone before.” going on to name the bone and explain the healing process which in his case took 9 months.” He said “that was the main reason I got out of racing Superbikes, I was beginning to run out of bones to break.”
We lost a gifted man. We will not be in his presence when he reaches full potential, one can only guess what he would have accomplished. God has Blessed you Paul. A friend..... Bob Woodhouse
Paul Mumford Lives ……in the hearts and minds of thousands of car enthusiasts ………. PMUM; as he became known to his automotive friends, began as his E-Mail address. The frequent readers of www.ViperClub.org forums regularly looked for his signature. They knew that there would be entertaining and controversial banter wherever they found the PMUM moniker. It was great entertainment to read his smack talk; the humor; the wit; the verbal tennis he would exchange with people like Ken Adelberg.
Midyear in 2002 I became ineligible to compete in Viper Days. (None of it my fault of coarse.) Paul calls and in a couple minutes we had an agreement. He would drive, Rick Maxell, Nancy Shanno and I would crew. Two races later, you know the story, he won Nashville VOI and the 02 Finals.
PMUM first came into the Viper Nation view in 1999 when at the Viper Days events his street car eclipsed the times of many of the race Vipers. By 2000 he was suspicioned to be one of the biggest cheaters around. They would exclaim: “Nobody could possibly be that much faster than the rest of us, it has to be the car.”
Paul was never found to be cheating; but the voice of his competitors never quit trying. This year in Speed World Challenge; after the second event, two of his competitors complained to SCCA. They were confident that his car was wearing traction and or stability control. They reviewed the video of the Laguna Seca WCGT race and determined that nobody can drive that smooth without help.
Wednesday evening October 1st 2003, the night before his fatal accident Paul spent an hour on the phone. He shared the concerns of his competitors; he wondered why he needed to spend money to defend against these allegations. We discussed sponsorship and the means to fund the 2004 season. He was confident that he could bring Dodge and himself a Season Championship in the Speed TV World Challenge GT series.
Words that help depict Paul’s character to me:
Tenacious, affable, friendly, driven, gifted, loving, fearless, confident yet humble, aloof, loves a gunfight, need to win, honest, caring.
From Erik Messley: “You know; Paul even loaned me his truck to use as long as I needed it, I hated to tell him he had given it up forever.”
When interviewed in August at Road America after starting 22nd and finishing 3rd, Paul was asked by the announcer if it made him uncomfortable going through the “kink” at over 120 mph. Paul responded by saying, “Well not really, you see I used to run here with the Superbikes. To go through the kink on two wheels at 165 mph, that made you pucker.”
Paul had called one day to ask how the broken wrist was coming; which was a result of an accident in that same R.A. race. He said; “yeah I broke that bone before.” going on to name the bone and explain the healing process which in his case took 9 months.” He said “that was the main reason I got out of racing Superbikes, I was beginning to run out of bones to break.”
We lost a gifted man. We will not be in his presence when he reaches full potential, one can only guess what he would have accomplished. God has Blessed you Paul. A friend..... Bob Woodhouse
