Ken Miles was a legendary racer in the world of motorsports. Miles’ exploits were brought into the public eye thanks to the hugely successful movie Ford vs. Ferrari. The motorsports legend had a lot of fans during his time and one of them was veteran NASCAR commentator Mike Joy. The 74-year-old always had a love for motorsports and when his attention was drawn by a Shelby Cobra, Miles himself tried to help him get his hands on one. However, it was not meant to be.

Mike Joy is a name that casual viewers of the sport may not be very popular with. However, that does not take away his status in the motorsports community. Joy is a man well respected by his peers and everyone involved with American motor racing. Fans are used to him narrating on-track stories of other people but this time, he shared something quite intriguing about the time he was a teenager.

How did Mike Joy manage to get a reply from the legendary Ken Miles at just 14?

At the time, Mike Joy was only 14 years old. His parents had given him a typewriter which he used for completing school assignments and writing papers. But that’s not all he used the device for. The NASCAR commentator had a passion for cars at a very young age and at the time, the Shelby Cobra was all the rage. So he wrote a letter to Carroll Shelby, asking about the vintage automobile.

He got his reply about three weeks later by none other than Ken Miles. “Miles writes, “Dear Mr Joy, thank you for your letter on March 31 in connection with the supply of competition vehicles and equipment.” Goes into what’s available, that it’s going to cost. Competition cars from $6200 all the way up to $9250 for a fully equipped race car,” Joy said.

After a few more letters, the winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring called up the Joy household. Mike Joy’s mother must have been a bit perplexed at a British man asking after a teenage boy. However, for the NASCAR commentator, it was a huge deal back then.

“It’s Ken Miles and he’s calling from Shelby American. We talked for a but about my letter and was I still interested, yes I’m very interested and was I interested in the competition model or the street model, probably more a street model and it’s okay, how can we make an appointment to get you down to Williams Ford right there in West Hartford which had a Cobra on display on the floor,” Mike Joy said as he described the phone call.

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Things were going quite well until this point but it was after he visited the shop that Mike Joy’s teenage dream came crashing down. It must have been heartbreaking at the time as the 74-year-old described with a hint of disappointment in his tone.

NASCAR veteran’s dad crushed his dream in his teenage days

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There were three reasons why Mike Joy’s father refused to buy the Shelby Cobra. They were all good reasons, but for a 14-year-old boy, it may have felt like the end of the world. The Shelby Cobra or AC Cobra did not have roll-up windows, and its aluminum bodywork was more susceptible to damage, and it was only a two-seater. Additionally, the Joy family, at the time, had six members, so it was never going to work out.

“Then on the way home came the big letdown. The Cobra was not going to work because it only had 2 seats, it really wasn’t practical, but more than that, it didn’t have roll-up windows. It had side curtains like old British sports cars. My dad had been an aeronautical design engineer…and one thing he knew was that a stressed aluminum skin like what forms the bodywork of the Cobra could be easily dented. So for those 3 reasons, there was no Cobra in our future,” Mike Joy added.

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Although he did not get what he wanted, the memory of it will forever live in Mike Joy’s mind. The veteran NASCAR commentator got to talk with one of the biggest motorsports athletes in the world, and looking back, that itself was pretty special.