Today the Old Grey Mare is still in good hands with Ben Bragg. But what is the Old Grey Mare? Read on…
Story and photos by Sean Smith
Where does it start, this love of cars? For Ben Bragg there always seemed to be an attraction, but there was one very strong memory.Ben’s maternal grandmother lived with his family in New Jersey on a fairly busy street. Ben has memories of sitting on the front porch with his grandmother car-spotting and she would name every machine that passed by. She taught young Ben to recognize each model; Buick’s had holes in the hood and Pontiacs had chrome streaks down the hood. She passed her love of cars onto her grandson. Every year she would hop in her Chrysler and drive from Battenville, NY to Florida to get away from the cold. Her car took her everywhere.
Ben loved anything mechanical. He would take apart alarm clocks and put them back together, and then he moved on to small engines. He built his share of Go-Karts and mini bikes, and this of course, led to cars. Around 1961 Ben read “All But My life” by Stirling Moss and Ken Purdy. Right then he knew he wanted to be a race car driver (his parents, on the other hand, didn’t think it would be a very good idea). Before driving on the road, he was doing “jungle racing” in the fields and woods near his home.
Ben was not drawn to the current cars of his time; it was the older cars that spoke to him. They just had more soul. In 1968 when he could have gone out and got himself a new Pontiac GTO for $3,500 he spent $1,800 on a ‘56 T-Bird that he still owns today. He went even further back in Ford history for his everyday ride. His daily driver was a Model A which he used on his hundred mile round trip commute to school for mechanical engineering. After graduating in 1969, Bragg applied for an apprenticeship in at a shop in Connecticut owned by Don Lefferts. Bragg spent the next 10 years at Lefferts’ shop steeped in the world of Bugattis.
Lefferts and his sons were involved with the Vintage Sports Car Club of America, so by the spring of 1973 Ben became a member and got track time in various customer cars. Ben had restored an MG TF 1500 that had become rare by attrition, so the Board of Directors allowed its entry and soon it was running in club events. By 1976 Ben was the chief scrutineer for the VSCCA.
After leaving Lefferts, Ben took an eight-year detour in his career and managed restaurants in Maine, but kept his hand in the car world by working on his MGs. The automotive world beckoned once again in the form of Competition Motors and Donald Koleman who finally offered enough money to entice Ben back to Massachusetts, where he spent 14 years working on a wide variety of pre-war machines. The Bugattis in particular fascinated Ben; he put his degree in mechanical engineering to very good use.
He also spent time behind the wheel of a Buick Indy car while at Competition Motors. Koleman had picked up this former Indy racer at a Scottsdale auction in 1990. He drove it for a while, but it scared him, a lot. Ben just sort of fell into the seat and it became his ride and he was 100% responsible for any maintenance or misfortunes on track. He had to make a very big payout from an incident at Lime Rock when another driver made a mistake and Ben collected him.
Another customer had a pair of 8Cs – one an Alfa the other a Maserati, and he wanted to see them both on the track, but he couldn’t drive both so he offered Ben the Maser to drive for a year. The owner’s only request was to keep it under 4000 RPMs. But in top gear at 4000, you were doing about 130 mph so Ben had no problem with that.
What is the “Old Grey Mare?” In Boston during the mid 1930s, Jim Rueter and garage owner Lem Ladd conspired to create an American car from junkyard parts that could compete with the best of ARCA’s foreign car lot. Max Balchowski’s “Ol Yeller” from a later era comes to mind.
In 1995 another VSCCA member came into possession of a very unique machine, the ‘Old Grey Mare.’ Sandy Leith’s father Bill had raced the car and told his young son stories of the exploits of the OGM and how it broke records at Mt. Washington during its stint with the prewar Automobile Racing Club of American (ARCA). After years of searching and then negotiations, Leith finally owned the car. At the same time, another very special car made itself available, the Scrambling Egg Bugatti. Sandy went for that too, and then had a wealth of racers. Sharing might be a good idea. Ben became an equal partner in the Mare and would become savior of the old warhorse. But she had to rest in the barn for a few years while other projects were completed.
The OGM featured a Whippet frame, a Ford driveline, a highly modified Ford V8 Flathead engine, a body and radiator surround salvaged from another ARCA car know as the “Copper Kettle.” The Kettle was a Brescia Bugatti that was broken up for parts in 1934. Thus the Mare isn’t exactly a Bugatti but a race car nonetheless.
2004 was to be the centennial anniversary of the Mt. Washington hill climb, so in late 2003, recalls Bragg, “The organizers of the event didn’t ask me to have the Mare ready. They told me to have it ready.”
The Old Grey Mare right before restoration. A huge job to do! Photo courtesy Ben Bragg.
Ben got down to business getting the Mare ready for the Climb to the Clouds. By July 9th Sandy and the Mare were sitting at the starting line at the bottom of Mt. Washington ready to take on the mountain, 69 years from when the OGM first did battle there and 50 years since it had been out in public.
It was a special time for Sandy; he was racing a car his dad had raced and was making good on a promise made to the previous owner: that the Mare would once again climb Mt. Washington.
The Mare was shown on both ends of the continent, at Laguna Seca and Lime Rock Park in the Rolex tent, featuring The Great American Specials. It also did what it was built to do, race.
OGM At Briarcliff in 1935. The organizers didn’t really like the look of the car, a bit scruffy it was, but the entry was accepted, probably due to the neatly uniformed crew and the small entry field. After multiple pit stops to cool the steaming Mare, Rueter was happy to finish a very respectable sixth place and found that, when running, he was one of the fastest cars on the track.
Then in 2007 another special car came Leith’s way; a 1937 BMW 328. Ben bought out Sandy and was now the lone rider of the Mare. In doing that Ben was in a way repeating history. He became the mechanic/driver, just like the OGM’s creator Lem Ladd.
Lem Ladd with the car in 1938. It was successful far beyond the creator’s imaginations.
Ladd originally built the car for Bostonian John Rueter who campaigned the car for a number of years, breaking the record at Mt. Washington in 1935 with his special, built from 19 different cars. Then in 1936, Rueter moved from Boston to Atlanta and Ladd took over ownership and racing duties. Ladd went on to win enough races to be given the #1 for the 1939 racing season.
So history has repeated itself; Ben Bragg the mechanic/racer bought the Mare and like Lem Ladd before him, Ben shows other drivers how it’s done.
For more information:
Sean Smith on the Old Grey Mare, Vintage Racecar
American Road Racing: The 1930s by Joel Finn Racemaker Press
I had the great opportunity of being an apprentice at Vintage Auto Restorations at the time that Ben was there. Charlie Webb and Bob Swanson made up the rest of the crew. It was a great place that provided exposure to cars that you would only find in coffee table books.
Ben, Charlie and Bob were great intuitive mechanics; I spent most of my time at the parts washer. I believe that all of us are still involved in vintage cars (either professionally or as hobbyists); it was a great time.
Rick Rader, MD
(Eventually played boy racer, along with my brother Phil, competed in the Mille Miglia twice with our 1930 Aston Martin International.
I have the great honor of calling Ben my friend. Over the last 8 years or so, since I first met Ben he has been invaluable, first as a technical advisory when I began preparing my 55 Thunderbird for VSCCA competition, then ” lending” me an engine he had stored for 40 some odd years and next helping me learn the sport, the courses and the culture of vintage racing. I try to return the favor, by helping Ben whether it be the OGM or his tow vehicles and even one time helping with Sandy’s Bugatti at Thompson, CT. Also donating bits and pieces from my 55 Tbird to use on Ben’s 56 restoration.
Building and racing vintage cars is one thing but creating a friendship is much more. Right from the start Ben and his wife made myself and my wife feel welcomed in the vintage racing community. We enjoy the social aspect of the sport maybe more than the racing. Even when the Thunderbird is out of commission we will attend an event simply for the camaraderie only found in the VSCCA and most of that is due to Ben.
Mark and Vicki Riley