![\"Conely](\"https:\/\/www.gannett-cdn.com\/presto\/2018\/09\/25\/PDTN\/76ae7fb9-f302-451d-ad2f-d01181e983cb-conely_sisters-indycar.JPG?width=534&height=401&fit=bounds&auto=webp\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Whitmore Lake<\/em>\u00a0\u2013 Metro Detroit is\u00a0America\u2019s capital of auto entrepreneurs, tinkerers, and motorheads. For every legendary engine shop like Roush or Lingenfelter there are dozens of small shops with men and women obsessed by the horseless carriage. And when they pass to that great\u00a0garage in the sky, these enthusiasts leave behind\u00a0automotive treasure chests to remember them by.<\/p>\n Jack “The Brighton Bandit” Conely\u2019s chest is a bit bigger than most.<\/p>\n This Saturday\u00a0Conely\u2019s massive automotive belongings will be auctioned off here in Whitmore Lake. Conely died in 2017 at the age of 87. He\u00a0left\u00a0behind a trio of open-wheel racers, a Supermodified oval beast, dozens of production vehicles, Dream Cruisers, trucks, jalopies, as well as hundreds of engine blocks, heads, and exhaust manifolds (even an engine dynamometer)\u00a0that he collected over a lifetime.<\/p>\n If metal could talk, they\u2019d tell the colorful story of a self-made, Michigan Hall-of-Fame driver and engineer whose automotive passion built a career, raised a family, lifted him from the Great Depression to Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and introduced him to automotive royalty like Petty and Parsons.<\/p>\n It was a wonderful life. It was a classic Detroit life.<\/p>\n \u201cIf you\u2019re into automotive, it\u2019s neat. There are rare things that we\u2019re not even sure what they are,\u201d said Conely\u2019s daughter, Jeri, sitting in front of two warehouse rooms packed with cars and parts. \u201cThere was no will, there was no trust, there was no list. We just don\u2019t know what it\u2019s worth. My dad was working right up until he died.\u201d<\/p>\n Jeri and her three siblings have been assembling their father\u2019s estate for months \u2014\u00a0all of it going up for bid Saturday in an auction supervised by Tim Nahri and Associates. The auction will be simulcast on the worldwide web.<\/p>\n \u201cThere are estate auctions like this all over the country every year,\u201d says Ken Lingenfelter, owner of Lingenfelter Performance Engineering, a successful Chevy mod shop that, like Conely, has its roots in racing. \u201cThere are small treasures in these collections for someone who is looking for a car and has the passion to restore it.\u201d<\/p>\n Dusting off their father\u2019s collection has given the Conely family a comprehensive look at a man who was both well-known and intensely private.<\/p>\n Conely\u2019s children say he never spoke of his difficult youth. In his 20s, Jack flew planes in the Korean War, returning to his home state to raise four kids on his own.<\/p>\n All his children knew growing up was the race track. One of the race cars on auction is Conley\u2019s 1962 Supermodified Roadster, a ferocious-looking monster with slick tires as wide as steamrollers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were at the track as soon as we were born,\u201d chuckles Jeri. \u201cWe lived in the pickup. We left Thursday night and got home Monday. We all grew up working in the shop. My sister Jackie sorted (connecting) rods, I sorted pistons, and Kimberly was the parts washer.\u201d<\/p>\n That was the racing life of the 1960s, long before the posh, infield motorhomes and big TV contracts of today. A talented driver, Conely raced wheel-to-wheel on oval tracks with future NASCAR legends while the kids slept pickup-to-pickup at night with their families.<\/p>\n \u201cHe was good friend with Benny Parsons, and (Richard) Petty was in the same series\u00a0\u2014\u00a0they also slept in their pickups and brought the whole family,\u201d recalls Jeri.<\/p>\n Back home in Brighton, the kids worked at Dad\u2019s race shop when they weren\u2019t in school. \u201cThe shop was our baby-sitting service,\u201d says Jeri.<\/p>\n One of the auction warehouses is knee-deep in Chevy small blocks \u2014 next to rows of heads and intake manifolds. With a dozen employees at its height, the Conely Speed Shop on East Grand River pumped out hundreds of race engines.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I was a little girl, (the police) would just shut down Grand River in Brighton and my Dad would test the cars,\u201d remembers Jeri.<\/p>\n Popular in the pits for sharing his engine expertise, the straggly-haired Conely was known as the \u201cBrighton Bandit\u201d for stealing the show wherever he went. He set track records and won races across the eastern U.S. from Jackson to Sandusky to Toledo to Oswego, New York.<\/p>\n He took a shot at the Indy 500 twice but failed to make the 33-car field with an engine he built himself. That #89 car will be on auction Saturday \u2014\u00a0sans engine. Next to it in the warehouse is one of Gordon Johncock\u2019s (another Michigan original) Indy cars, and perhaps the most valuable car in the collection \u2014\u00a0an Eagle Mk 5<\/a>, made by legendary American driver\/engineer Dan Gurney for the 1970 F5000 series.<\/p>\n Nahri and\u00a0Associates says bidding will start at $50,000-$100,000 for the open-wheel racers. The Eagle needs a lot of work, but rare finds pop up in the strangest places.\u00a0Renowned collector Miles Collier found<\/a>\u00a0an abandoned, 1968 Porsche 907 family heirloom in Europe in 2014, and \u2014 after three years and 3,000 hours of labor \u2014\u00a0restored it to original form. Estimated value? North of $3 million.<\/p>\n There are hidden gems here for Dream Cruisers, too: a 1963 Corvette Stingray, a \u201967 Camaro, and a \u201834 International pickup truck.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d like them to see (Dad\u2019s cars) restored. I\u2019d like to hear them again,\u201d smiles Conely\u2019s daughter Jeri.<\/p>\nAbandoned by his father in Michigan, young Jack Conely was found on the streets of Chicago and sent to Father Flanagan\u2019s Boys Town in Nebraska during the Great Depression. It was at the orphanage for boys that Jack\u2019s love for autos grew.<\/div>\n