1960: C.P.’s Auto and Marine is born

After selling various engines and wrenching on cars in his parents’ garage, Banks opened his first shop under the name C.P.’s Auto and Marine in a little garage in an alley in Lynnwood, California. “I named my first company C.P.’s Auto and Marine because that is how I thought I was going to earn money to go to Cal Poly,” recalls Gale, “but man… was it tight! I was starving to death! Somebody gave me a free case of Sego diet drink and I lived on it for a month. Man, my skin broke out. I think that stuff was radioactive.”

Gale kept trudging along and actually came up with several innovations there, including the first inboard torsion bar setups for fuel altereds. It was the start of bigger things, and a learning experience that helped him forge his future.