DUFFY LIVINGSTONE PASSES

[chuck giacobbe]

jim, i wouldn't be surprised if gus trader already has  a piece right on the other side of the pearly gates.  so as soon as we go thru those gates there will be a vintage karting event on the other side.

jeff, thanks for posting this. do you know how old he was in the pictures you show. i had the chance to talk to duffy a couple of times at different events. truly will miss talking to him.

[Brad Rose]

A large part of vintage karts to me is the history. I never had the priveledge of meeting Duffy but he was a large part of karting history.

Sad to hear he passed away!

[Don Tommaso]

Duffy at Riverside 2010, showing a bunch of us his picture albums.
He was one of the greats and a very colorful guy, great stories!!

That was such a great event,(and continues to be) but will probably be my most memorable Event as I had the good Fortune to be there and participate ( Thank You Louie Figone) and to be included at Faye's Lovely Home afterward for a most memorable evening of Karting Lore. Can still see Tom Smith looking through picture after picture on the pool table

[David Luciani]

another great one is gone.
imho the worst part about being involved in this sport is so many of my buddies are way older than me.
seems to be a life pattern for me but i sure hate to say goodbye.
i'm confident theres another place we're all headed kinda wonder if they allow karts.
of course if they ain't there duffy will be sure to start making them!


i was lucky enough to meet duffy a few times one of my true heroes!

[Randy Dacus]

Seems like we've lost many of the icons of this sport, as well as special friends this year .

Many of us on the west coast attend the Adams race because we know that is the event that the oldest karters
come out for a visit , but every year it's a smaller group that is able to come .

Faye Pierson still comes out to make laps, people line the fences just to see her and she's not just putting around either!

Duffy, Faye and many others that were stars when all this started back in the fifties are celebrities , but they are approachable .

As has been mentioned, you can sit down and have a wonderful discussion as if they had known you for years.

I hadn't talked to Faye since I was a young guy buying parts from their location on Irwindale in Azusa near Duffy's track . That was a good fifty something years ago, but during the evening meal at this years Riverside event we had a nice long chat . She told me to call her anytime and invited me to come over to see her Bug Museum at their K&P location.  She has closed the kart shop, rented most of the buildings, but still has her Museum/ office on the property.

This is how it is at Vintage Events and why it's so much fun to visit and listen to all the great stories and make a few laps on the old machines ......we're all getting older so these events are special because of the people still involved  !

Knowing that Duffy is gone is painful, but he'll always be a part of those we remember for the memories he has left us with .

[Jim Waltz]

In case any of you were wondering, the other autograph on that replica polka dot helmet - is Faye's. I got her to sign it "In Duffy's Honor" some years ago. Faye and Duff have always responded so positively to the various requests we karters have put to them. For that we are blessed.

[Randy Forbes]

Rest in Peace. We owe you a lot.

[Randy Dacus]

"Randy Forbes....Rest in Peace. We owe you a lot."

So very true, when you examine the history of events that took place back in 1956 or there- about's......Ingel's fabbed up
a "cart" from quarter midget specs at Kurtis Kraft where he worked .
He acquired a power plant from surplus McCulloch lawn mowers that were defective . Of course the West Bend 750 two cycles worked just fine and being of no use to produce anymore Mac Mowers, Flexo purchased them at a huge discount from McCulloch .

As the story goes, Art took the "Cart" out to the sports car races at the Pomona Fairplex or Los Angeles County Fair grounds where Duffy Livingston was participating .

Inspired by what Art had designed up, Duffy fabbed up his own "Cart" to have some fun, and we all know the rest of the story, everyone that saw these little Carts wanted to give them a try .

Duffy being in the muffler business at the time had the equipment to make a few for others, so he asked Art about
building them for sale and because who knew if there was any money or big interest in the endeavor Art had no objection.
We have to remember this all came about because of what all these guys liked to do and what they did to earn a living.

Without those surplus engines being so affordable would Duffy or Art have built these first little racing machines ?

I feel the turning point was Duffy's passion for racing and his desire to make a few kits for others to go racing .

Karting got off the ground because of the passion these early guys had, it was pure Hot Rodding and the desire to have fun .

The rest of the story to how Karting spread was because of Petersen Publishing's Automotive Magazines......the young guys that wrote about what was happening and all the capable people that got involved to make it into a viable Motorsport .

No doubt about it, Duffy designed Racing Karts that were genius in simplicity and soon enough there was an industry
of karts and parts for all of us around the world .

A huge thank you to all those guys that made Kart Racing happen !

If you know the story of how Faye Pierson one Christmas got to drive one of these very first carts, then you can understand how Bug was started .  The saga continued on company by company....ups and downs, changes, karts evolved......but it all had to start with guys like Art Ingels, Duffy and their friends.....

[Romero Llamas]

Some videos of Duffy Livingstone from youtube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flBTTmEZ_Pg

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZHINgy0miQ

[Randy Dacus]

From Michael Edick on the VKA Facebook website a nice Tribute to the "Man" we all know as Duffy !

By former IKF Director Doug Stokes:

August 19, 2017: Frank "Duffy" Livingstone passed away earlier this week at the age of 92. He was, as he once confided in me, and as his closest friends always suspected, a Martian.
There was always a wry look in his eye that told you he was in possession of far more information (about anything) than he was putting out at the time. That cockeyed smile, the quick wink (... or did I just imagine that he winked?), and then reaching into his pocket to draw out a quarter and hand it to me all without a word, always gave him away.
Duffy and John Strauser with an unidentified admirer, Willow Springs, circa 1998
That he was in fact: "...not from around here," was pretty evident. Not that he ever had any trouble at all acting like an actual human; it was just something that was part of the general surrounding ambiance every time that we ever spent any time together ... background music, if you will, no little twitchy antennas (at least not visible ones).
He was also one of the true "fathers" of American Karting and, perhaps the best damn welder who ever shook his head to have a mask fall into place before making welds that looked like DaVinci or Michelangelo had painted them.
In fact, he was such a master of light metal welding that a couple of high-zoot aerospace companies thought so much of his work that they regularly dropped off mysterious packages at the back door of his SuperWeld shop in Costa Mesa very late at night and came back the next night to pick up the finished pieces of some very exotic parts (er ... "critical components") which (I'm quite sure) Uncle Sugar thought sure the big-dollar aerospace guys were doing at their digs.
Duffy (or "Due-Fay", his preferred pronunciation) was a (seemingly) laconic fellow who was just "having fun" most of the time, (no ... make that all of the time). But that mind, that remarkable, wonderfully diverse, brain of his was always on, always alert, always tracking.
His lasting contribution to the sport was the International Kart Federation. He understood early-on that the sport needed solid rules and guidance if it was not only to grow, but to be taken seriously. He lived long enough see that and more.
When I served as the Executive Director of the IKF from 1979 to 1984, my first official act was to give our bookkeeper, Rosemary Judy, a dollar bill and ask her to cut a check to me for that same amount. Duffy was then the IKF treasurer and, at that time, both his and my signatures were needed on organization checks. One of my heroes and me, signing the same check! Wow! I wish that I still had that check (it's probably around here somewhere) to show people.
A few years later, after getting a couple of threatening letters from some high-powered Hollywood attorneys representing the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, I indicated to the association President, the late John Strauser, that we needed to stop referring to our Pete Millar-designed Grand National Championship award in print as: "Karting's Oscar". John agreed, I then suggested naming it for Duffy and (of course) the board of directors agreed.
Duffy once told me that he was at an IKF GN event in the Pacific Northwest and found himself looking at the trophies that were lined up and on display before being handed out. There was a little boy there marveling at the statuettes. Duffy asked the youngster what all the fuss was about with the solid bronze trophy that was a statuette of a man in a karting suit and helmet holding a smaller version of himself, who was holding a yet smaller version of himself (and so on until all detail is lost).
The kid's eyes got very wide and he related a wild tale of derring-do and heroism that had the man (whose nickname was given to the award) fighting dragons, curing disease, and most likely changing the course of mighty rivers in his spare time.
"He was from a long, long time ago," the kid explained to Duffy. "He was a really great man."
You know what?
He was.
- Doug Stokes


Michael posted this image of the FKE Mole, another Duffy Original now residing at the NHRA Museum at the Los Angeles Fair Plex in Pomona, California .