ERIC’S STILL CRUISIN’
Many in Eugene’s hot rod community mourn longtime gearhead Eric Sanders

By Tim Christie

The Register-Guard

Published: September 20, 2008




Sometime early next month, the ashes of Eric Sanders will be packed into a parachute behind a 1953 Studebaker and be scattered into the desert winds of Utah as the bright yellow coupe rockets down a dry lake bed at top speed.

There could no more fitting requiem for Sanders, a lifelong gearhead, than the roar of an alcohol-fueled hot rod at terminal velocity on the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Sanders, a Eugene resident, died Sept. 7 of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a devastating ailment commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was 61.

News of his death was a tough blow for his many friends in the hot rod subculture of Eugene, who say he put a bolt on just about every hot rod built in this city.

“He was the ultimate old-school hot rodder and chassis builder,” said Bob White, owner of Graffiti Alley, a parts store for hot rodders. “He was a pillar in the hot rod community, bar none.”

He was extraordinarily knowledgeable about cars and hot rod culture and knew how to assemble a hot rod from the ground up, White said.

“He was way ahead of everybody else,” White said.

Sanders worked as a boilermaker and steel fabricator before starting a home business, Eric’s Garage, about 20 years ago.

He was a bachelor who kept a motorcycle in his bedroom and whose home was filled with carburetors, engines and various parts, said Rick Sanders, his older brother, who worked with Eric on building numerous cars.

When he worked on a car, he was patient and meticulous, taking the time to do a job right the first time, Rick Sanders said. If a project needed a part that wasn’t readily available, he’d build it himself.

“He was an excellent, excellent fabricator,” he said. “He only had to do it once. When it was done, it was done right.”

Earlier this week, on one of the last warm evenings of summer, more than 100 of his friends rumbled into Graffiti Alley on River Road, packing the parking lot with vintage cars, many of which he helped to build. The smell of grilling burgers mixed with motor oil as the middle-aged white men swapped stories and remembered their friend.

Many knew Eric from their high school days at North Eugene and Sheldon. These are guys who remember paddling down River Road when the Willamette flooded and cruising on it most any Friday night. Guys who remember when the Balboa drag strip in west Eugene was the place to be and for whom the Bonneville Salt Flats is the Promised Land.

Bob Drury, known as Low Ride to friends, said Eric inspired him to build his 1953 Studebaker and to run it at Bonneville.

“He was very good about helping people to do things mechanically they had never thought of doing themselves,” he said. “He was an inspiration to a lot of us.”

Drury recalled talking to Eric after he found out he had ALS. He asked him if he belonged to any support groups that could help him deal with his illness. Sanders looked at him, incredulous — what do you mean, support groups, he said.

“He said, I don’t need that,” Drury said. “My support group is my family and my friends and that’s all I need.”

The idea of scattering Sanders’ ashes at Bonneville arose a few months ago when Drury, who now lives in Vancouver, Wash., was visiting Sanders. Drury asked him if he’d thought about a funeral, and Sanders said no, he just wanted to be cremated.

Drury told him he’d be honored to scatter his ashes on the salt flats. Sanders smiled and, with a twinkle in his eye, said that would be really cool.

“This is perfectly in tune with Eric,” Drury said.

Eric’s family endorsed the idea, and after Eric’s death, Drury began making plans to head down for World Finals of Land Speed Racing, Oct. 8-11, but a problem arose. Drury had to spend $3,000 to repair the transmission on his tow truck, which he needed to transport his Studebaker, and he didn’t have the cash to go to Bonneville next month. The spreading of the ashes would have to wait until next August at Speed Week.

Then Drury got a phone call from John Woodrich, a friend of Eric’s for more than 40 years. Eric can’t wait until next summer, Woodrich told Drury. What do you need to go? Drury told him, and Wood*rich offered to underwrite the cost of trip.

The Bonneville Salt Flats in northwestern Utah is a remnant of Lake Bonne*ville. Its flat, hard surface is a mecca for speed enthusiasts, a place where hundreds of speed records have been set and broken.

Weather permitting, sometime on the morning of Oct. 9, Drury will fire up his Studebaker, which boasts a whopping 830 horsepower, put the pedal to metal and start building speed on the five-mile course. Some time between mile four and five, Drury hopes to hit or exceed 250 mph, at which point he’ll deploy the twin parachutes and send Eric’s ashes whipping into the dry desert air.

“We’ll put some nitro in the tank so he gets a good whiff on his way out,” Drury said. “He’ll be with his heroes forever.”