By Jeff Allison
One of America’s finest and most popular drivers, August “Augie” Pabst Jr., died on October 9, 2024 at 90, leaving a legacy of excellence in racing in the U.S., Canada and internationally at Le Mans, Brands Hatch and Nassau. He was the great grandson of Captain Frederick Pabst, who became the president of the Pabst Brewing Company in 1872. In an interview with Forza (April 2013), Pabst mentioned “… I used to work at the brewery in the summertime in the packaging department,” but that was his only association with the brewery until much later in his life.
The first race the 20-year old Pabst attended was an SCCA national at the Janesville, Wisconsin airport on August 23, 1953. Reminiscing with the author on several occasions, Pabst remembered this was when it happened. He watched Jim Kimberly, in his Ferrari 340 America (0204A), dicing with other Ferraris, Allards and Jaguars and knew this was something he wanted to do. Pabst recalled (Forza), “Someday, I’m going to be driving a race car… so I bought a Triumph TR3. My first race [SCCA regional on May 20, 1956] was at the Wisconsin State Fair Park [Milwaukee]… I’d drive the Triumph to the races, get out, take the muffler off so it sounded like a race car, race it, put it back together and drive it back home…”
Pabst was putting food on the table with his imported automobile dealership, Pabst Motors, in Milwaukee selling BMW Isetta, Borgward, Fiat, Jaguar, Mercedes-Benz, Morgan and Triumph cars. In 1956, he raced the Triumph and a Morgan and then moved to an AC Bristol, a special called the Comet, and a DKW in 1957. His first international race was the 1958 Sebring 12 Hours co-driving a Corvette SR-2 with Jim Jeffords. In 1958, he bought a Ferrari 500 TR (0612MDTR) that had been fitted with a more powerful 2.5-liter engine. With the Ferrari, he won his first national championship race at the Wisconsin State Fair Park in 1958, remembering it as the “car that taught me how to drive.” He later drove a Mercedes-Benz 300SL at Meadowdale.
By 1959, he had earned his stripes. In a twist of irony, Harry Heuer, manager of a newly-formed racing division for the Peter Hand Brewery Company invited Pabst to drive their newly-acquired Scarab Mk. II-Chevrolet. Ironic, because the Pabst Brewery Co. was a rival of the Peter Hand Brewery. The Scarab was dubbed “Meister Bräuser I” to promote Hand’s Meister Bräu beer, but it was a Pabst was driving the car! Pabst recalled (Forza), “Can you imagine my name, being a beer name in Milwaukee, driving for a beer company in Chicago!” With the Scarab, he won the 1959 United States Automobile Club Road Racing Championship. Thus began his long and successful association with the Scarab. Pabst drove the Ferrari and the Scarab in SCCA and USAC races in 1959.
In 1960, Pabst raced the Scarab 18 times winning ten times and finishing in the top four places 15 times. To illustrate his talent and versatility, he drove a number of other cars in 1960 with 28 starts and 16 finishes in the top three places driving GT and sports racing Ferraris, Moretti and Isis Formula Juniors, a production Alfa, a 1500-cc OSCA, a Ford Fairlane stock car and even a 3.8-liter Jaguar sedan. In 1960, he won the Sports Car Club of America B-Modified Championship with the Scarab and was awarded the coveted Kimberly Cup as the “Most Improved Driver” in the SCCA. One of his best years in motor racing ended when he was invited to the Mercedes factory and drove the legendary Type W196 Grand Prix and 300SLR cars.
Before the 1961 season, Pabst was fired from the Meister Bräuser Racing Team despite winning two national championships with the team. He commented (Forza), “My name did it. Every time I won, the newspaper would say something like, ‘Pabst Wins Blue Ribbon,’ and the Meister Bräuser people said they couldn’t afford that kind of publicity any more.” Harry Heuer recalled (“Augie Pabst – Behind the Wheel,” 2016), “The reason Augie left our team was because of the Schlitz Beer slogan – ‘The Beer that Made Milwaukee Famous.’ Some wag sports writer wrote that our (Peter Hand Brewery) slogan should be ‘Meister Bräu, the Beer that Made Pabst Famous.’ It was too much for our board of directors and clearly Augie had to go.”
Augie landed his next drive with the Briggs Cunningham racing team where he raced the team’s Maseratis, Coopers and Jaguars with mixed success. His career included international races, such as the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1961, when he scored an excellent fourth in a rear-engine Maserati Type 63 (002) at Le Mans in 1961. It was with the Cunningham team that he took the Hertz slogan, “Rent it Here, Leave it There,” a bit too far after racing at Laguna Seca. He told Forza, “… I went back to the Mark Thomas Hotel (with teammate Walt Hansgen). Roger Penske was there with Peter Ryan [a Canadian driver]. Somehow or another Walt got together with him [Penske], then Walt came over and said, “Hey mate, I’ve got $100 that says you can’t get Alfred Momo’s [Cunningham team manager] rental car in the pool. After some male posturing and raising the prize to $200, Pabst took Hansgen up on the dare saying, “I go out and get into Alfred’s Hertz [Ford] rental car. I had moved the pool furniture out of the way so I could go in parallel to the diving board, but I crashed the car on the other side of the pool – wouldn’t you know it. I landed right in the center of the pool! But it didn’t sink. I had wisely closed the windows and vents, so the car floated to the side of the pool. I got out without a drop of water on me. Suddenly, everyone came out of the banquet hall, where, unbeknownst to all of us, the awards banquet was being held. About that time, Walt said, ‘You know, mate, I think we’d better go. Alfred and Briggs are waiting for us at the Italian restaurant.” It’s redundant to say that Augie Pabst had a great sense of adventure and humor! However, before we think Pabst was a screw-off, we need to remember that he was instrumental in helping to change the SCCA mantra from amateur to paid drivers.
Everything wasn’t always fun and happy for Pabst. On February 8, 1962, while practicing for the 3-Hour Daytona Continental, he had an abrupt meeting with a wall when the crankshaft seized, locked the wheels of his Cunningham Maserati Type 61 (2459) and sent him crashing into the high banking at a very high speed. In what would be the worst accident of his racing career, Pabst was severely injured, but he was back racing on May 20, 1962 in one of Team Cunningham’s Cooper T-56 Formula Junior cars. In Forza, Pabst tells another story revealing his mischievous nature and fun-loving attitude: “I went back to racing a short while after I got out of the hospital… They weren’t going to let me drive after that [accident]. I was up at Road America, and I said, ‘If I can find my doctor, and he says it’s okay, will you let me drive?’ They said, ‘Alright,’ so I called up a friend and said, ‘Your name is Dr. Greaves. Would you please talk to the racing director and tell him it is okay that I race?’ And that is how I got to continue racing. Of course, frankly, I never should have.”
In 1963-1964, Pabst drove for the John Mecom Racing Team where he piloted such exotica as the Corvette Grand Sport, Ferrari 250 GTO, Lotus 19, Lola Mk 6 GT (forerunner of the Ford GT40) and Genie (Huffaker Special). At the 1963 Sebring 12 Hours, Pabst and Roger Penske scored a significant result in Mecom’s 250 GTO (3987GT). Competing with five other GTOs in class, Pabst and Penske won the class by seven laps and finished an excellent fourth overall ahead of a number of faster but less reliable sports prototypes. The placing helped Ferrari hold off the competition from Jaguars and Shelby Cobras for the 1963 FIA GT championship.
Later in 1963, racing the GTO at an SCCA regional at Lynndale Farms, Pabst learned that Mecom was going to sell the car. He asked (Forza), “How much do you want for it? He wanted $14,000, and I didn’t have it…” Later in 1963, Pabst was entered in the Mecom GTO with Roger Penske at the Road America 500. In the race, Bill Wuesthoff, a life-long friend of Pabst from school days, was becoming ill. Pabst jumped out of the GTO, jumped into Wuesthoff’s 1.7-liter Elva VII-Porsche that he’d never been in before and won the Road America 500 in a stunning upset.
Another significant win for Pabst was at the 1964 Road America 500. Pabst and Walt Hansgen were to share Mecom’s Lola Mk 6-Chevrolet (LGT-2) and 3.3-liter 250 LM (6047). However, Pabst retired the Lola with a split oil cooler and joined Hansgen in the Ferrari. The pair went on to win by a one-lap margin over a Shelby American-entered Shelby Cobra.
In 1965, Pabst struck out on his own driving a Chaparral, the one and only mid-engined Scarab and a McLaren M1A-Chevrolet (20-05) called the “Robert Bosch Special.” Successes were few and far between, and he retired from the sport after a drive with Masten Gregory in the Essex Wire Ford GT40 (GT40P 1010) at Sebring in 1966. In his words, “It just wasn’t fun anymore. It was as simple as that.”
After his racing career, he went to work for the Pabst Brewery Company on the condition that he sell Pabst Motors and quit racing. He didn’t want to look like he was arriving at the brewery with a silver spoon, so he attended the Siebel Institute of Brewing in Chicago to learn the business. He continued by working in each department to gain learn and gain experience, successfully rising to executive vice president and director of the Pabst Brewing Company until retiring in 1983. He recalled (Forza), “I started out with a $10,000 a year salary working in the brew house, and loved every minute of it. Then I worked my way up in marketing, and, in the very end, was executive vice-president , where I was second in command.”
In 1984, he became president of the 2600-acre Pabst Farms, which was a family business that included large-scale farming and a commercial drying operation in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin, until retiring in 2012. But as it seems with all really good racing drivers, the racing beast continued to stir within and Pabst returned to the track in 1983-1987 in the Sports 2000 series and International Sedans before really retiring from racing in 1987. He was the proud father of Augie III, who has carried on the Pabst legacy in racing managing the Pabst Racing Team – winners of the 2024 USF2000 championship.
Win or lose, Pabst always flashed his trademark smile. And, why not? He won two national championships, 24 overall feature races of which 15 were major events and 9 in club events (“Augie Pabst – Behind the Wheel,” 2016), drove for three of the very best private American teams (Meister Bräuser, Briggs Cunningham and Mecom), scored more victories than anyone in the fabulous Scarab and was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame in 2011. After racing, he kept his beloved Scarabs – the front-engine Mark II and the mid-engine car Pabst bought from Mecom in 1965. His stable also included a vintage Bentley to complement his classic Jaguar SS 100. In the 1990s, he was active in vintage racing with his Scarab and a Jaguar E-Type saying, “Vintage racing is fun, just like I remember racing (1950-1960s) when it was fun.” He also participated in several of the current motoring events, including the Colorado Grand, Copperstate 1000 and Mille Miglia Retrospective. In 1998, he and wife Joan, the love of Augie’s life, were recognized as the “Prime Motoring Fools” by the Colorado Grand for their indefatigable sporting motoring spirit and attitude. Pabst also gave back to racing what racing gave to him with years of dedicated service as an integral member of the board of directors at Road America.
Augie Pabst has been described as charismatic, impish, disarming boyish charm, polite, engaging, mischievous, impulsive, popular and he’s even been accused of being a gentleman. But don’t let Augie’s infectious, wide smile and engaging personality fool because when he put on his helmet, strapped in and took the flag, he drove hard to win with skill and resolve.
Augie and I were friends. He always ended our phone calls saying, “Goodbye my friend.” Now, to Augie, I say “Goodbye, my friend. You were one of racing’s true gentlemen and thank you for the memories.”
About Jeff Allison
Jeff Allison has served in editorial positions with Abingdon Classics (1982-86); the “Vintage Stuff” section in Automobile magazine (1989-1990); as feature correspondent, contributing editor, staff editor, photographer, senior staff, associate editor, assistant editor (1980 through 1991) and columnist (“Back in the Day”) and feature writer (2011-2022) with Vintage Motorsport; and as writer, photographer, assistant editor and editor of Prancing Horse, the quarterly magazine of the Ferrari Club of America (1991 through 2012) and currently as senior editor at large for Prancing Horse (2014-present).
Since 1980, he’s produced over 900+ articles in 50 magazines, over 160 articles for event programs for six race tracks and for web sites, including VeloceToday.com, relating to motor racing activities.
Currently, he is the senior editor at large for Prancing Horse, producing two recurring articles for each issue (“The Photographs of Ferrari” and “The Movers and Shakers of Ferrari”).
See more Pabst photos…
Mike+Martin says
Nice article Jeff. Thanks for the memories of a great guy.
Barrett says
Fine obituary, Jeff, with excellent photos. When I met Augie on the Colorado Grand, I was in awe. One year he drove his silver 300SL, so Bill Neale featured it in his painting for the event poster, etc. At the end of the Grand, the original art was auctioned, and it was going too cheaply, so I tried to shill Augie into buying it. He left me hanging at $3,200! The art still hangs in my office, and whenever I look at it, I think of him.
He was a guy who never seemed to age…
Willem Oosthoek says
Agie owned both a front-engined Mk 2 and the only rear-engined Scarab sportsracers. I wonder if the Pabst family will hold on to these cars.
greg glassner says
Growing up in southeastern Wisconsin, Augie Pabst was one of my racing heroes, even tho he was only 11 years my senior. I watched him compete at Road America on a number of occasions and even did an oil painting of him in the Scarab Mk II in high school art class. (Wish I still had that!). Even after we moved to Pennsylvania, I timed summer visits to friends with race weekends at Elkhart Lake, camping at the highway dept. garage where they did Tech Inspection. In 1963 I drove my first car, a tiny 1958 Fiat-Abarth 750 Berlina from Erie PA to Elkhart Lake and back. I remember well the fierce-looking but ill-handling Team Cunningham Tipo 151 Maseratis. It took a brave man to drive one. I thought I remembered Pabst putting in an inspired drive in a silver Ferrari 250 GTB in an SCCA race at Road America one year but cannot find a record of that one.