Book Review, Mid-Atlantic American Sports Car Races, 1953-1962

Mid-Atlantic American Sports Car Races, 1953-196
By Terry O’Neil
Dalton Watson Fine Books, February 2015
ISBN 978-1-85443-263-6 320mm by 240mm
393 pages, Hardbound with dust jacket
569 color and B&W photos
$155.00 USD, plus shipping
Order here

Review by Pete Vack
This is Terry O’Neil’s third book on racing in the colonies. The first opus covered the Bahamas Races and the second the Northeast SCCA region, 1952-59. His latest book covers SCCA races in the Mid-Atlantic Region from 1953 to 1962.

The Mid-Atlantic Region as covered by the book. O’Neil noted that although Kentucky and North Carolina were actually not officially within the SCCA defined region, it was best to include them in the book as well.

Along with Willem Oosthoek, Michael T. Lynch, William Edgar, Carl Goodwin, and others, O’Neil (who is British) has been trying for years to achieve what the SCCA itself failed to do; list the events, the results, find photos, get interviews, and put them in a cohesive and permanent collection. And no wonder the SCCA botched it; it is a daunting, time consuming, often frustrating project. We asked O’Neil what drives him:

A rare Rocco Motto-bodied MG, here driven by Sam Simlow to a first in Race 2 at Marlboro, October 30, 1955.

“When you approach a certain age it is essential that you have a purpose to get out of bed for. In my case it is researching a sport that I have always been interested in. My interest in SCCA racing came about through firstly my Bahamas Speed Week book, and secondly I wanted to research something that had not been done before. Europe had been covered so I turned to America and discovered how little had been done. It would appear that the early days of sports car racing in America had been dismissed and ignored.”

Suzy Dietrich was a formidable women competitor during this period of SCCA races, as was her husband Charles. Here she is behind the wheel of her MGTC at Cumberland in 1953.

Oosthoek has the South and East SCCA regions covered now, again from the same time frame. Did O’Neil and Oosthoek work together? “I’m not sure if Willem had already started on the southern half of America when I was doing NE America, but we did agree that there would be a specific north/south divide for our interests. Other than that we have gone our own ways, though the layout of the Mid-Atlantic book somewhat mirrors that of Willem’s books as it was published by Dalton Watson.”

The rest of the map

What is left to do? Northwest America has already been looked at by Martin Rudow, author of two acclaimed books about sports car racing in the Pacific Northwest. Rudow is author and publisher of “Long Straights and Hairpin Turns, The History of Northwest Sports Car Racing Volume 1: 1950 through 1961,” and “Weekends of Glory, The History of Northwest Sports Car Racing, Volume Two: 1962 through 1970.” And, btw, Rudow will speak at the International Motor Racing Research Center on Saturday, April 18.

Cumberland, May 20, 1956. That is Carroll Shelby behind the wheel of an Alfa. He ran in the G and H Modified class and finished 5th against Lotus and Coopers.

“I suppose that leaves the Mid-West to be covered…a huge task,” said O’Neil. “There are tentative plans to do the Mid-West book but at the moment I am trying to put together a history of sports car racing at Thompson Speedway and Raceway up to 1967 when the track under George Weaver’s management closed.”

Putting it into perspective

David Seielstad, noted author and racing historian who also contributed a significant number of photos to O’Neil’s latest, see the 1950s and early 60s as the ‘golden age’ of sports car racing in America. We asked him to put the role of the SCCA in perspective:

“It was a wonderful and exhilarating period when the U.S. was undergoing dramatic changes for the better, while the automobile industry resisted any idea of a different approach to building cars. Fortunately the British, Italian, German and French auto makers were happy to oblige with economical and sports cars that were a joy to drive. They were also tuned to win races, races that the new SCCA was eager to sanction. Attending the races rapidly gained a huge following (auto racing was second only to baseball in attendance) that in turn led to more people buying the imports that were filtering into the U.S. The Europeans saw a niche market and kept the crazed supplied with Allard, Porsche, Alfa, AC, Volkswagen, Fiat, Jaguar, Lancia, BMW, Aston Martin, Ferrari, Mercedes 300 SL etc. They were great cars, most of which were not overly expensive for two-car American families.”

SCCA racing, then, served as an important catalyst to the growing imported car movement, which in turn would force Detroit to build much better automobiles. “These were the halcyon days for anyone in the U.S. who appreciated sports cars and road racing. Thousands were passionately involved in this mechanical wonderland. Eventually it ended. Detroit woke up and Total Performance cubic money crushed the Europeans and changed the nature of racing forever,” said Seielstad.

Making use of the book

Another question: Who might benefit from such books? How might they be useful? To a historian like Seielstad, the use is obvious. For the rest of us, well, it’s a lot of data. Publisher Dalton Watson and layout artist Jodi Ellis have gone way above and beyond the call of duty indexing ALL of the current crop of Dalton Watson books. Never has this reviewer seen such detailed indexing; by car, by model and by serial number where applicable; and every person mentioned in the book in photos, text or results. Here are a few examples of what I found looking through the incredible indices.

Many years ago I found an Abarth 750 GT Zagato in a rural area of Maryland. It turned out to be a long and funny story, but the point is that I bought the car and it was titled by a man named Kircherer; a name just different enough to remember. I knew the car had been raced but did not know where or when.

That was about 30 years ago. Last week, while happily browsing through Terry’s book index, I ran upon the name “Kircherer”, who entered an Abarth 750GT Zagato at the SCCA event at Marlboro in January of 1962. Whoever owns the car today may well benefit from that information, and it certainly made my day.

A couple of months ago I paid a visit to an old Abarth racer (and dealer) Sam Coronia, gathering material for a story. But 90-year old Sam didn’t remember all the races in which he participated. Opening Terry’s book to the index, I found out when, where, and what Sam drove in those years. It filled in the blanks quite nicely.

John Norwood was later the manager of Team Roosevelt, but here he is driving his Bandini Saponetta at Virginia International Raceway on May 4-5, 1958.

One can do the same with cars as well. While most of the production cars were not listed by serial number, a survey of the stories and cars in the index resulted in finding out more information about the hitherto mysterious Abarth Bialbero Devin entered by Team Roosevelt. The book may even have a photo of it; waiting now to verify this.

One doesn’t have to be a writer or editor to enjoy the search. Finding old friends, old cars, information for cars being restored or considered for purchase are just a few ways in which these books are helpful and enjoyable.

O’Neil provides an introduction for each year and along the way discusses the agonizing battle of amateur vs pro which dominated SCCA politics throughout the era. The SCCA was started in 1944 for the purpose of rescuing sports cars from the scrap metal drives. They then began to sanction races, but wealthy amateur drivers did not wish to see their sport soiled by starting money, prize money, or sponsorship money. A nice thought, perhaps, but within ten years it was clear that it would take money to keep the sport growing; cars were expensive and needed to be trailered; special purpose racetracks like Marlboro and VIR cost a fortune to run and maintain, while good drivers like Hill and Shelby went pro to earn a living, yet the SCCA wanted them to remain active in there events, where they drew huge crowds. Eventually, the SCCA established a fully professional series side by side with an amateur one. But getting there was painful.

David Seielstad took a lot of photos in that era, particularly at Marlboro.

The photos are all excellent, even though the photography of the era is not up to today’s digital standards, the photos are remarkably crisp and in focus. There is a good mixture of all classes; O’Neil didn’t just focus on the Ferraris and Maseratis. There is a text race report for every race, accompanied by photos and followed by results by class or race number. And while we are always acutely aware of our own problems with typos and errors in general, we also must note that this book is not perfect in that respect; there are credits mixed up, spelling errors and a few mis-identifications.

The cost of the book is $155.00, and only 600 signed and numbered copies will be printed. The book has 570 color and b&w photos, with 392 pages. That’s a great deal of information for the money.