Riverside International Automotive Museum - Riverside International Raceway - Legends of Riverside Automotive Film Festival and Gala

Those Who Are No Longer With Us Who
Contributed So Much To The History Of Riverside

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Phil Hill

1927 - 2008

Hill is known to enthusiasts as the first,and only, American-born driver to win the Formula 1 World Championship (Mario Andretti won the title in 1978 but was born in Italy, even though he was and is an American citizen). Hill won the title in 1961, driving a Ferrari 156 “Sharknose” mid-engined racer for the factory. That year Hill battled the entire year with his teammate, Wolfgang von Trips, but captured the crown during the second to last race of the season when von Trips was fatally injured in a crash at Monza; one that also took the lives of 14 race fans. With the manufacturers’ and drivers’ titles wrapped up after that awful day, Ferrari opted out of the last race of the season (at Hill’s “home” track of Watkins Glen), leaving Tifosi to believe the Scuderia sat out the last race out of respect for their fallen driver and the lost spectators, while Hill and others wondered if Ferrari simply wanted to save money having already captured the title. Like most Ferrari lore, perhaps not knowing the real story is the best story of all. What is known is that Phil Hill was one of the best racing drivers the world has ever seen. In addition to his landmark F1 championship, he was the first American to take an overall win at the 24 Hours of Le Mans (1958, driving Ferrari’s 250 Testa Rossa with Olivier Gendebien), the first driver to record a sub-9-minute lap at the Nürburgring, and one of only a handful of drivers who have won the 12 Hours of Sebring three times overall. Hill was successful, if not a winner, in nearly everything he drove. And he drove the sorts of cars that most of us have on our bookshelves in 1:12 scale form. Cars like the aforementioned Ferrari 250 TR, Ferrari 156, Ford GT 40, various Chaparrals, Cobras, Cooper-Climax T73s, Cooper T70s, and the McLaren M1.

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Chuck Daigh

1923 - 2008

Chuck broke into Grand Prix racing through the Reventlow Scarab team, by  virtue of being one of the resident engineers. Starting out working for Bill Stoppe and codriving in the Mexican Road Race Lincolns, Chuck went on to run stock car teams, raced in numerous southern California events and participated in six World Championship races,and one non-Championship Formula One race. Following the 1960 season, Chuck went on to contest races in the International Formula league, driving the previous year's front-engined Scarab. He finished eighth at Goodwood contesting the Lavant Cup, and finished seventh in an attempt at the International trophy . He had a successful career in sportscars, winning the Times Grand Prix in 1958, Sebring, Nassau and attempted to qualify three times for the Indy 500.

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Skip Hudson

1930 - 1998

Skip, a high school friend of Dan Gurney‘s from Riverside, began his racing career as a hotrodder and ran a '29 roadster at Bonneville as the S.Hudson and D.Gurney C Modified Roadster. He then got into sportscar racing with a Porsche 356, then a Corvette, John Edgar’s Alfa Romeo Guilietta Spyder and first went to Sebring 1958 driving the Marshall Motors' Porsche 550 RS.  He also drove Ferrari at Pomona, Riverside, Laguna Seca, Nassau and Daytona. He won the U2 class at Sebring in 1961. At Daytona in 1963, he. along with Gurney and MacDonald, drove Cobra's for Carroll Shelby. Chuck Jones signed him as a driver; first in the Maserati 151 coupe, then in the Chaparral. Other memorable rides included Daytona in a Corvette, a Lola T70 in the USRRC and Can Am. He also drove NASCAR stockers at Riverside on 4 occasions.

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Masten Gregory

1932 - 1985

Sports car legend Carroll Shelby called him "the fastest American to ever go over and race a Grand Prix car;" He scored a podium finish in his very first Formula One World Championship Grand Prix start (a first by an American) and was also a winner of the world famous Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race; Formula One legend and two-time World Champion Jim Clark considered him to be his hero. Other racing successes included a start at the Indy 500, wins in sportscars at the Nurburgring, Monza and in a variety of SCCA events.

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Richie Ginther

1930 - 1989

Riding with Phil Hill in the Mexican Road race, winning in southern California in an Austin Healey and later in the Von Neumann Ferrari's, Richie combined racing with a full time job as a mechanic. Ferrari gave him a chance in Formula One where he performed well, moving to BRM in 1962 as teammate to Graham Hill' then to Honda and AAR. After attempting to qualify at Indy in 1967, he retired.

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Ronnie Bucknum

1936 - 1992

Ronnie campaigned his own Porsche Speedster with enough success to gain the attention, among others, of Chic Vandagriff, then head of a growing sports car dealership, Hollywood Sports Cars. Ronnie just dominated West Coast racing, first in an Austin Healey 3000 in 1962 followed by the newly introduced MGB in 1963. In those two years Ronnie won 52 of 56 events. Honda then selected him for their newly formed Formula One team. From there he went to Ford, driving GT40's at LeMans, then to Indianapolis three times plus wins at Sebring and in the Trans Am series.

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Peter Revson

1939 - 1974

Revson began racing while at Cornell University, first in a Morgan, then in a Formula Jr. In 1968 he was part of the new Javelin racing program established by American Motors. At the first Trans-Am Series attempt, the 12 Hours of Sebring, Revson and Skip Scott drove to a 12th overall and took 5th in their class. In 1970 he teamed with Steve McQueen to place second in the 12 Hours of Sebring. Also in 1970, Revson was teammates with Mark Donohue in the Penske Racing AMC factory-team Javelins in the SCCA Trans Am. Revson joined McLaren in 1971 and became the first American to win the Can-Am Championship. That same season he finished second in the Indianapolis 500 after posting the fastest qualifying time. He competed in the Indy 500 each year from 1969 - 1973. In 1972, Revson was named to the McLaren Formula One team. He remained with the team for two years, winning the British Grand Prix and Canadian Grand Prix in 1973, before moving to Shadow in 1974. He is the last American born driver to win a Formula One race (Mario Andretti, who won in later years, is a naturalized American). During practice for the 1974 South African Grand Prix in Kyalami, he was killed as a result of suspension failure on his Shadow DN3.

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Ken Miles

1918 - 1966

Moving from England, where Ken had raced Bugatti's, Alfa's and Alvis', to southern California, he then won 14 straight races in a row with his MG Special. He became a key member of the Shelby operation, helping to develop the Cobra and winning at Daytona and Sebring in a GT40. He was unfortunately killed while testing the Ford J car at Riverside. Ken was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2001.

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Jerry Titus

1928 - 1970

Jerry drove a Sunbeam Alpine at Sebring in 1963 and then went to develop and race the Cheetah with Bill Thomas. He then hooked up with Ford and had a great career in the Trans Am, winning the Trans Am Championship in 1967. Later he moved into Pontiacs in the Trans Am and was unfortunately killed at the Elkhart Lake Tran Am in 1970. 

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Carroll Smith

1932 - 2003

In the words of pro race driver Jon Woodner: “Carroll has been racing for a long time. When he started the only change you could make in the car was the driver …”  Carroll Smith passed away in 2003, but not without making his own personal mark on motorsports. A pretty damn fair racing driver early on, he was smart enough to know that, at the levels where he wanted to operate however, “pretty damn fair” was a DNS.

His natural tendencies as a scientist (my term for his inquisitiveness and methodic way of dealing with racing cars) took him out of the driver’s compartment and to the side of the racecar.  His use of logic in the pursuit of speed actually looked way too easy to many people. He built race cars as though he was going to compete (and survive) in them himself, he listened hard to the good drivers, he was a full partner with his best shoes (just ask any of them), and he always learned as much, and maybe more, from his mistakes as from his triumphs.  

His work for Carroll Shelby all but defines the legendary status of the marque.  Shelby put Smith in charge of the program to make the GT40 into a Le Mans winner and he and his guys fought all the way to a 24 Hour victory for Ford.  He was always fast with crediting others when credit was due. His work in 1969 with an up-and-coming Tony Adamowicz on his Formula 5000 Eagle netted the new team the U.S. Championship. A few years later, when he found himself working for Cal Wells on off-road racing machines, he just shifted gears and “tuned” winning machines there too.  

Near the end of his life Smith worked with many vintage racing teams on cars that were just out of the box when he was embarking on his career as a racing engineer.  He was sought after as a consultant and did a lot of work with Honda.  He also did some consulting for a small specialty car company located in Italy called Ferrari. Smith had worked very closely with his son Chris, a brilliant young driver who started on Karts and raced to a well-deserved Formula Atlantic championship in 1992.  Keeping close ties with SAE and their educational programs, Smith always made himself available as a guest speaker at many an engineering college assembly and seminar.  He was a particular favorite at Cal Poly SLO where his refreshing frankness about the business of being a hands-on race engineer inspired many.  

Smith was not real good at suffering fools (or the SCCA Tech inspectors who more than once failed his use of AN/MS jet nuts on a race car!).  That personality trait made him sometimes seem a little un-warm.  In truth he was almost shy, he really tried to do his talking with his race cars.  Of course, asked for his opinion, he could hold a serious conversation hostage for what seemed to be hours on end.  

But, above all of his achievements on the track, his influence on a number of generations through his essential series of books on the art and science of motor racing is his true gift to the sport he loved. On the first page of the first chapter of his seminal racing book “Prepare To Win” Smith flatly stated: “THERE IS NO MAGIC! The one basic truth of successful racecar preparation bears repeating. THERE IS NO MAGIC! There is only logic, common sense, forethought, vast amounts of hard work and a fanatic dedication to the task at hand.”  Ask anyone who ever worked with Carroll Smith and you’ll likely find that they would agree heartily with the third sentence of the above quote … It was how Smith attacked his work every day of his life.  

However, they might just differ with Mister Smith about there not being any magic involved.  His legacy is the true magic he performed in touching so many lives with his wrenches and his word processor.  

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