At Barrett-Jackson our fans mean everything to us. They are the driving force of our auctions. To celebrate our amazing collector car community, we put out a request for our #BJACSuperFans to share their favorite stories with us on social media. This is the first in a series of many more to come.
The Townley family is a regular at Barrett-Jackson auctions, having attended for over 30 years through three generations.
Jared Townley remembers coming to the events as a child with his two brothers, Chad and Scott, and their father, Wayne, a Korean War Veteran who served in the Army. In 2016, the brothers decided to celebrate their dad in an unforgettable way: giving him the ultimate Barrett-Jackson experience by building a 1958 Dodge Power Wagon to sell at the 2017 Scottsdale Auction.
“It was a really proud moment for him to see us build the truck and see it in the tent during the big show we all love and grew up going to,” Jared said.
To accomplish their build, the brothers enlisted the help of two others: Jared’s best friend, Josh Logan, and Ted Brooks, who supported the project financially. The truck was purchased in 2016, but their schedules only allowed work on the restoration in the evenings and on weekends in their at-home garage.
They each also have full-time jobs: Chad works for the Mesa Police Department, Scott works for the City of Scottsdale, and Jared and Josh both work for Empire Machinery. To make the build of the Power Wagon even harder to keep on schedule, they didn’t get all the necessary parts back from the painters until after Thanksgiving. This gave the group roughly a month and a half to complete the project before the 2017 Scottsdale Auction.
Once the truck was finished and passed through the consignment process, it was given a Friday prime-time Lot number. “We were completely blown away when they told us when it would cross the block.” Jared said. “We were like, ‘Oh yeah, Barrett-Jackson knows our truck is sweet.’”
The truck happened to be the first vehicle to cross the block after the sale of Steven Tyler’s charity car.
“I got to drive it up on the block,” Jared said. “Our dad got to see it, and it was a full-circle thing for him because he took us to the auction as kids and then we were like, ‘Hey Dad, look what we did,’ and built a truck ourselves out of our family shop in our spare time. We were all so grateful for that.”
The truck sold for $115,500. Once the gavel fell, the Townley family thought their project was over — that they would never see it again.
As Barrett-Jackson celebrated its 50th anniversary during the 2022 Scottsdale Auction in January, Jared decided to create a slideshow video celebrating the 5-year anniversary of his family’s build. He published the video on YouTube, sent it to his brothers and his two friends and forgot about it.
In May 2022, Wayne passed away at the age of 89 after a long battle with dementia and Alzheimer’s. “He was buried with a 2017 Barrett-Jackson lapel pin from the auction so he could always have that with him,” Jared said. He added that the culmination of their build was one of his dad’s proudest moments, and it was an amazing opportunity to be able to give their dad the experience of selling a car the brothers built at The World’s Greatest Collector Car Auctions.
As fate would have it, six days after his father passed, Jared received a notification on Facebook from the person who bought the Power Wagon at the 2017 Scottsdale Auction.
“I was completely shocked. To us, it completely fell off the face of the earth for five years. And then, six days after my dad passed away, suddenly this guy comes out of the woodwork,” Jared said. He added that the owner told him he was ready to sell the truck and had been looking at photos of other Power Wagons online when he stumbled across Jared’s YouTube video. The incredible moment made Jared feel like his dad was already working “upstairs” to reconnect his sons with the truck that meant so much to their family.
Not only did the Townley family reconnect with it, but they were also able to buy the truck back.
“It was all a whirlwind really because we were dealing with funeral arrangements, and then after the funeral my brother flew to Ohio to look at the truck and verify that it’s still in the condition it was in when we sold it,” Jared said. “I mean, it’s like a time capsule. It only has 180 more miles on it since it left the Scottsdale Auction. It’s unbelievable.”
We love hearing about the many special moments at our events that are created by people who share our passion for cars. The gratitude we feel towards families like the Townleys for bringing us into their homes and lives is heartfelt. To share your superfan story, tag us on social media with #BJACSuperFan.
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