Jeff Hofslund and Foreign Affairs of Duluth

Jeff bought his first car in 1965, when he was 14. Over the following year he got it running before his parents even knew he had it, replacing an engine with a cracked block to do it. In 1968 he bought a 1960 Saab 96 and replaced that engine too.

His first job, at 18, was pumping gas at a service station. He fixed cars whenever he was not on the pumps. Around the same time he swapped the six-cylinder in a 1966 Tempest for a 389 GTO engine, which tells you most of what you need to know about how he spent his twenties.

He was one of the original employees at Grandma's, first in construction and then behind the bar. While he was there he looked after the owner's Porsche 911 Turbo and Mercedes, along with a number of boats. Starting in 1979 he opened a couple of small repair shops with friends, which they later sold.

In 1985 he became a technician at Sonju Motors, working on BMW, Jeep and GM, then moved to Metro BMW-Mazda in St. Paul. He completed 20 weeks of BMW technical training and became a BMW Master Tech. During those years he also ran the Corvette Challenge pit crew for Bobby and Tommy Archer and for Jimmy Vasser, winning several races and finishing in the top three many more times.

When Metro BMW closed in 1990 and became Motorwerks BMW in Minneapolis, the drive got too long. He turned down job offers from BMW to work at their training centers and started Foreign Affairs of Duluth instead, with a partner, in 1990 and 1991. He bought the partner out in 2000 and has owned and run the shop ever since, delivering the same service to the same customers for over 35 years.