Five years after they met for the first time, Travis Brekken of rural Crookston, center, and Jay Leno, comedian and longtime TV nighttime talk show host, got together again last Friday when Leno performed at the Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen.
It was their shared love of classic cars and hot rods that first brought the pair together. Leno performed in March 2004 at Dakota Magic Casino in North Dakota and, with some help from KVLY-TV, Brekken and Leno were able to meet.
“I told him we were restoring a 1955 Mercury,” Brekken told the Times in an email. “He gave us a contact and said if you are ever in LA let them know and they would get us into the Tonight Show audience, so we did and they did one step better and got us in to see his car collection as well! When we went out to LA we brought him Chippers from Widman’s and a Crookston Classic Cruisers car show t-shirt!”
That was in September 2004.
