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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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