Tuesday, December 8, 2020

 Pro racing returned to Meadowdale for the USRRC races in 1964. Ken Miles easily won the Manufacturer's race from teammate Bob Johnson. Chuck Stoddard's Alfa TZ beat the Lotus Cortinas of Dave Clark (no, not the Dave Clark 5 drummer) and Trevor Taylor.

Jim Hall was on the pole for the Drivers race and he qualified the sister car, to be driven by Roger Penske, with the third fastest time. Penske had to start from the back of the grid because he did not arrive at the circuit until Sunday morning. When the race started Ed Leslie, in the Shelby Cooper-Ford, got off the line first to lead the first lap from Bobby Unser and Hall. By the third lap Penske had moved from the back of the grid up to the lead Leslie, Unser and Hall. After 11 laps Leslie was out with a broken suspension. Hall took the lead, won by 40+ seconds from Penske and clinched the '64 championship.








Wednesday, February 6, 2019

Tennis Anyone?

I know, this is not a tennis blog.  But I need a place to post the following article my girlfriend wrote about her father's tennis career.  2019 will be the 80th anniversary of Don McNeill's around the world tennis trip, which culminated in him winning the French (now called 'Open") National Tennis Championship at Stade Roland Garros, in Paris.  We are starting a Go Fund Me campaign to raise money to send Margaret to Paris for this year's Semi-Final and Finals matches.  I have linked the Go Fund Me campaign to this page because the articles and photos won't fit on the GFM page.  Thanks for your patience:

If you are interested in donating, here is a link to the Go Fund Me campaign:

https://www.gofundme.com/don-mcneill-memorial-trip-to-french-open





Below is a copy of a letter Don wrote to his fraternity brothers from India.  It was published in the February 1939 issue of Kenyon College magazine HIKA.



Chaparral & Cobra Winning Ways Continued at Watkins Glen





Here is an interesting sequence of Hal Keck having a moment at Watkins Glen:





Thursday, February 8, 2018

Good Race, Sad Weekend at Pacific Raceways in 1964

The 1964 USRRC Driver's race at Pacific Raceways (often mistakenly called "Kent") was a very good race between Jim Hall in his Chaparral 2 and Dave MacDonald in a Shelby King Cobra.  I won't spoil the story here, so you can read about it in the page photos.
Also, I'm moving this weekend and have updated my book order info page with our new address.  So, YES, there are still some copies of my book available.







Monday, January 8, 2018

Grids On The Honor System

Qualifying for the 1964 Laguna Seca USRRC race featured rain.  It got into the timing equipment and an MG ended up with the fastest time.  That obviously couldn't be right.  Even in rain a Chaparral or Shelby Cooper-Cobra would be faster than an MG.  So the officials had the drivers turn in the fastest lap their crew timed them at. Most of the drivers agreed that the grid looked like it should.







Sunday, August 27, 2017

1964 Riverside USRRC - Skip Hudson benefits from Chaparral brake failure

Here is the story and results of the 1964 Riverside USRRC race.  This was the third race of the series and produced the third different winner.






My book includes 13 additional photos (on 4 pages) of Hall's Chaparral, Hudson's Cooper, Titus' Cheetah, MacDonald's Lang Cooper, Hulette in the Townsend Special, Miles' Cobra, Wester's Porsche 904, Arundell's Lotus Cortina, Leslie's Cobra leading Cordts' Falcon.