Phil Hill: Racing the Jag at Carrell

By Pete Vack and Jim Sitz
Photos by Strother MacMinn, copyright Bob Ames

As we have seen in the past, link, Strother MacMinn was photographing the automotive scene in Southern California and took many images never before seen or published. Bob Ames now owns the MacMinn archives, and through Dale LaFollette has allowed us to present these rare photos from Carrell Speedway near Los Angeles.

As we reviewed the photos, we realized that the first few sets of negatives told us very little. We knew that some were taken at the dirt track called Carrell Speedway, and others taken at an airport event, probably Palm Springs. And for the most part, the negs were of Jags and MGs, hard to identify or place.

We knew Jim Sitz could piece this together. “I was friends back then with Phil, McAfee, and Roger Barlow, who operated the dealership where Phil was the mechanic. We were all pretty young; Phil was 23, Barlow 38, John Bond (of Road & Track) also 38, Jack McAfee was 28, MacMinn 32 and real man- about-town, driving his Rolls Phantom II down to black neighborhoods for their jazz clubs.”

Jim Sitz again came to the rescue, and for the Carrell Speedway shots he called the date – October 15th, 1950, and knew that the number 2 Jag was driven by Phil Hill. That in turn led us to the December 1950 issue of Road & Track. From there it became clear that MacMinn had focused on Hill and the Jag in the main event. Once that was determined, we realized that the photos were taken after a run it with another Jag driven by Jack McAfee; both Jags were dented in the process and both hit on the left front fender. Sitz recalls that McAfee’s Jag was red, owned by Tony Parravano and was acquired second hand just in time for Santa Ana Races on June 25th. Jack’s son verified that number 19 was definitely McAfee. We also got help from Tony Adriaensens who is working on volume 2 of Weekend Heroes, the study of early road racing in California.

MacMinn’s photos only covered the 20 Lap main event and a couple of the MG races earlier in the day. Sitz: “MacMinn dreamed of getting a black XK120 just like Hill’s but ended up with a red one he kept for rest of his life. He bought it second-hand 1953, drove to our publishing office, and had Italian dinner to celebrate his purchase from Hollywood photographer Carlyle Blackwell, who raced Jag C and D types.

As we put this all together the MacMinn images became a snapshot of emerging stars, including Hill, McAfee and Bill Pollack. Hill had replaced his MG with an XK 120 while in the U.K. getting a mechanic’s education. He brought it back to the States and went racing, entering a handicapped event at Carrell in October.

“Phil’s Jag was black with biscuit colored leather interior”, recalls Jim Sitz. “He shipped it to New York from the U.K., and then drove it to the Indy 500 where he met up with Richie Ginther. At the track, Phil had a pit pass, but Richie did not and waited for a guard to turn his back then made a wild dash for it and was lost in crowd! They drove back to California, arriving home Friday night, and in the next day’s paper Hill read about death of friend who raced midgets, Doug Groves. Just imagine; both Hill and Ginther began with MGs, and they ended up in Grand Prix racing with Ferrari, BRM and Honda. Want to figure the odds on that one?”

Hill also told Sitz about another episode with the black Jag. “Hill told me of parking the Jag at a Coventry Hotel after he picked it up in England and asked a friend to meet him there for dinner. Up pulls his friend and Hill, standing away from the parked Jag, suggested the two should ‘borrow’ the Jag. Hill jumped in, the friend almost passed out until, with a devilish smile on his face, Hill showed him the keys to the Jag. Hill was very funny sometime!”

William F. Nolan, from Hill’s 1962 biography had this to say about Hill’s drive at Carrell: “Hill won the three lap unlimited head race by outsprinting the other drivers in a Le Mans’ type start. He was the first into his car and was never headed. But trouble beset him in the Trophy Dash when he spun in front of McAfee’s Jaguar and was soundly clouted. He borrowed a suspension unit from another Jag driver, entered the 20 Lap main event and finished fourth.”

“I was disgusted with myself,” said Hill in his biography. “A spin at Santa Ana, off the road at Pikes Peak and then another spin at Carrell. I was driving too hard and although the Jag was well prepared, mechanically, I was pushing it beyond its limits.”

Hill took the Jag to Pebble Beach. Sitz recalls, “The car was completely thrashed by then but Hill won anyway. Hill remembered selling the Jag and handing over the keys to a customer at International Motors where he worked as a mechanic for Roger Barlow. By November of 1950, Phil had submitted his bid on the Tommy Lee Alfa 2900 and that bid, for $1500 was accepted.”

Hill wasn’t the only one having a tough time at Carrell. According to Road & Track, “Amateur drivers, accustomed to paved road, experienced a bit of trouble in the turns. Spins were frequent…When Basil Panzer spun off the course in his Allard J-2 and came to rest in the pit area, Phil Hill presented him with a road map to the great amusement of pit attendants.”

Basil with the interesting last name would have won the feature, his Allard easily overpowering the Jags, as expected. But he didn’t exactly win, as it was a handicap event that went to the MG of Erb; second was another MG of Armstrong, then Panzer followed by Hill in fourth and McAfee in fifth. Sitz again. “Phil drove Panzer’s Allard at Pikes Peak in summer of 1950. Years later I suggested to Phil that he write something funny for Road & Track, like driving up the Mountain in an Allard. And his terse (few could be as terse as Hill) reply was, ‘So you think that’s funny, Sitz?’ “

Other interesting characters of note running that day were Henry Manney III, Bill Pollack and Arnold Stubbs and Don Parkinson. Sitz recalls that “Arnold Stubbs was a good friend of Hill’s, and drove his new 212 Ferrari at Pebble Beach, and rode with Hill in the Mexican Panamericana. Don Parkinson married Phil’s sister Helen and Don was a very good driver himself. So was Helen. When Phil got his 212, he taught her how to drive. ‘She was damn good, too,’ Hill told me later.

“Parkinson worked for his famous family of architects in Los Angeles. His dad had the best cars prewar, Alfas BMW, Mercedes SSK. Don Parkinson got his own Jag XK120 late in 1949; it was silver grey and provided the car (and himself) for a Road & Track road test, doing the speed runs. I watched him win at Palm Springs in 1951, beating his brother-in-law Phil, who had a factory car built for Le Mans that year.”

Forty five years after the Palm Springs event, Hill’s black Jag surfaced in San Francisco. “I rang up Phil and told him the car was for sale. He was amazed. He thought the car was nothing but scrap by the time he was finished racing it. Mark Miller has it now, along with the Tommy Lee Talbot Lago ‘Stinky’.”

Our thanks to Jim Sitz, Dale La Follette and Bob Ames.