With loh, it's

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Catching up with Vic Loh isn’t easy and I seriously doubt if it ever has been – in person or in a car.

I was lucky to connect with Loh, a former professional race car driver turned busy investment advisor, who jets back and forth to the East Coast. Fortunately for me, last week he had to cool his heels in Boston’s Logan Airport for a few minutes.

A blip appeared on the radar when Loh moved to Fallbrook last May and joined the Fallbrook Vintage Car Club. After residing many years in Laguna Niguel, this affable, high-energy man said it was the open space and ability to have horses that prompted him and his family to relocate here. “We have four horses and I have built a riding arena at our home,” Loh said.

Using humor to compare the family’s horses to his race cars, Loh offered some of his observations. “I just want to say [horses] make race cars seem cheap,” he said. “I never had a race car require a vet bill from just sitting there.”

The father of five, Loh says two (Sean and Brittany) of their five children live here with him and wife, Jannett. Jannett and Brittany are avid equestrians and enjoy English hunter/jumper endeavors.

Loh’s only son Sean, 17, a senior at Fallbrook High, appears to have gotten the car racing gene from his dad. “Sean races Formula V cars,” Loh said.

While Loh admits he hasn’t met too many of his fellow Fallbrookians yet, he is interested in getting involved in the community and that’s why he joined the Fallbrook Vintage Car Club. He got a pleasant surprise when he found out who one of his neighbors down the street was.

“After I moved to Fallbrook, I found out the guy who builds my race motors moved down here from Orange County too,” Loh said, laughing. “He lives just down the street from me.”

The owner of Loh Racing, a consulting and race business based in San Juan Capistrano, Loh said he began racing when he was only 10 years old.

“I started off with go carts then moved up to motorcycles,” he explained. “I grew up in the Central Valley, in Stockton.”

Loh minimizes his many talents by joking about his career options. “My only trump card in life is my hand/eye coordination skills,” he said. “I had to race; I didn’t have any other skills.”

Loh turned professional in the early 1970s and his expertise in Formula 5000 racing and Manufacturers’ Championships took him all over the world.

“I drove for the Ferrari factory and won Daytona in 1975,” Loh said. “Racing has always been a passion of mine.”

These days, Loh said he does only vintage racing and devotes a few hours each week to it. “I’m doing a lot of vintage racing now, because I’m just a vintage guy,” he said.

Loh has been racing a bright yellow 1980 March 802 race car of late. “The last race I was in with it was at the Pacific Raceway in Kent, WA, in 2007,” he noted.

Loh brought two of his cars to the annual Vintage Car Show last year – the 1912 Ford C Cab Pie Delivery Wagon and the 1980 March 802 race car.

About three years ago, the Pie Delivery Wagon won both the George Barris Show and the Good Guys Show. Loh has owned that particular vehicle for 18 years, he said.

“This year I think I will enter the Cobra and one of my other race cars,” he said.

Decisions like this aren’t necessarily easy ones for Loh because his current inventory includes 15 cars. A few of the notables include a 1976 Porsche racer, a 1971 Lynx Formula V, a Chevron Formula Atlantic car and an Anson SA6 Atlantic car.

What could possibly be next for this new Fallbrook resident?

“I’m building a 20-car garage,” he said sheepishly.