At the end of the 1965 race season, Peter Brock left Shelby American to start his own company, Brock Racing Enterprises, most commonly known in the racing community as BRE. Prior to this point, Brock had some pretty impressive successes in the automotive design field. While working at GM styling in 1957, he penned the classic forms that would eventually become the famed ’63 “split window” Corvette Stingray. Later, after moving to California he designed the body for the World Championship winning Cobra Daytona Coupe for Shelby American.
On his own with BRE, he not only was designing cars for companies like Hino, Toyota and Triumph, he started his own race team and literally put the Japanese automotive industry into the history books with his famed team of BRE Datsuns, winning two C Production National Championships with the 240Z and two 2.5 Trans-Am Championships with driver John Morton and his beloved BRE Datsun 510s.
Brock soon became entranced with hang gliding and after a decade long affair with ultralight flight and building the largest hang gliding company in the world, Brock returned to automobiles. He taught automotive design for two years at his Alma Mater, the Art Center College of Design in Pasadena and then in 1990 began writing a best selling book on the history of the Cobra Daytona Coupes. Upon the book's release, several magazine editors decided Brock might be a good person to cover racing for their periodicals and yet another career was born. Brock quickly became a well respected automotive photojournalist.
In 1997 Brock was contacted by Superformance about doing a redesign of the original Cobra Daytona Coupe, a project that has resulted in the production of a far more sophisticated and higher performance version of his original design.
Gayle Brock began her career in the computer industry. Some of the most successful US-based companies benefited from, and awarded, her contributions. She learned the computer business literally from the ground up, starting almost 50 years ago with roles in programming, engineering, marketing, and sales and ultimately led successful teams as VP of Marketing and Sales. Gayle moved to the Seattle area in 1993 to join Microsoft Corporation. She loved the dynamic environment and the independence the company gave its employees to run their own piece of the business. She often commented she could never work for another high-tech firm after Microsoft. It had spoiled her. But as a lifelong “car guy” as Peter refers to her, there were things beyond computers that interested her.
Peter and Gayle met at the races and married in the year 2000. In addition to her job at Microsoft, Gayle then spent weekends and vacations at races with Peter. “I had always gone to the races but now I was going to be with him on the photographer’s side of the fence. I said we should figure out something for me to do as I don’t “hang out” very well. Peter breezily said: ‘I’ll teach you how to shoot’…. and he did.” Gayle became a renowned automotive photographer in her own right with her work appearing in and on magazine covers worldwide. At the same time her business and computer background came in handy as she led their transition from film to digital photography, even helping the magazines they worked for make the move.
In 2005 Gayle left the computer industry to join Peter and BRE full-time. Her immediate goal was to archive the vast array of BRE’s photographs, posters, and other memorabilia. Seeing the cult following Brock and BRE had, she decided to create the BRE website to share BRE’s rich history and archives. First came the ability of fans to order reprints of BRE archive photos and posters, then reproduction team apparel was offered, then scale models of BRE race cars. New BRE products are continually launched to the delight of BRE fans around the World.
Using their photojournalism skills, the Brocks soon began writing and publishing books of Peter’s automotive history. First came “Corvette Sting Ray: Genesis of an American Icon” which won several prestigious industry awards. This was followed by “The Road to Modena: The Shelby – DeTomaso P70 Can-Am Sports Racer” which also garnered several awards.
Brock quickly became a popular speaker at events with Gayle using her computer skills and their archives to create fascinating presentations. In taking their own sports car to many of these events, Brock decided they should get a trailer to transport their car to ensure it got to events safely and on time. Visiting various trailer manufacturers, Brock would be shaking his head, saying as he left "Why doesn't anyone in the trailer business understand aerodynamics?" Consistent with Brock's history, he took matters into his own hands and decided to design an aerodynamic car trailer. Brock created a 1/4 scale model of the trailer he wanted to build and soon found a builder of aluminum horse trailers in Canada to make his trailer design a reality.
Soon the Brocks were approached by other car enthusiasts wanting one of these trailers for themselves. Seeing the popularity of their Brock-designed trailer, Gayle’s spidey business sense kicked in. She named the trailer the “Aerovault” (meaning aerodynamic and secure) and founded Aerovault LLC which has to-date built and sold more than 300 Aerovaults. Gayle manages both the BRE and Aerovault companies in Henderson, NV.
The Brocks feel extremely lucky. Not only do they have a great time together but their skills complement each other. Peter is the designer and dreamer, the idea guy. Gayle turns Brock’s ideas into products, managing all facets of the business from manufacturing, sales and marketing. Together they delight their fan base, making ideas become reality.