Richie Ginther Tribute Part 1

Sometimes size does matter, as at Santa Barbara on June 1, 1958, when Richie Ginther got behind the wheel of John von Neumann’s ungodly beautiful #211 Ferrari 250 TR capturing 3rd OA, but 1st in DM. Ginther was bested that day by Lance Reventlow in his Scarab Chevy in 1st, and Max Balchowsky in the Buick Ol’ Yeller in 2nd. Both were class BM, where size does matter.

Palm Springs on November 3, 1957 was the location of this shot of Richie Ginther in John Edgar’s Ferrari 410 Sports s/n 0598CM 56. Ginther finished 6th OA and 3rd in CM. It sold at the RM Sotheby’s auction in Monterey on August 20 for $22,005,000.

Paramount Ranch August 19, 1956 finds the telephoto lens on my Canon trained on Richie Ginther in a Porsche 550 Spyder. Since Ken Miles helped lay out the course it became an ideal place for the nimble under 1.5 Liter cars. Unlike me, Ginther was getting noticed for his talent as a driver. This day they let him race with the big guns in Over 1.5 class which he tooled to a 3rd OA & 1st FM. In the Under 1.5 race he scored 1st OA & FM.

Santa Barbara on September 2, 1956. (Actually, the Santa Barbara Airport in Goleta CA.) Again, they let him race with the big guns in Over 1.5 L. In this shot Ginther is heading for Turn 3 and finished with a 7th OA.

This semi-color shot is from the same day as the previous shot but in the U1.5L where Ginther finished 7th OA & 7th FM. The car following Ginther is a Lotus IX, easy to spot with those high finned ‘Mickey Mouse’ rear fenders, and the number looks like it could be the #159 of Dr. William Eschrich who finished 4th OA & 4th FM. The good doctor replaced the Climax motor with a Porsche powerplant re-branding it the “Potus”. Google it.

While driving to Pomona on January 20, 1957 I began to notice little drops of water hitting the windscreen of my ’52 MG TD. As any good sports car driver would do, I started with the canvas down. Sure enough, those raindrops kept falling on my head so I pulled over and popped the canvas up. Fortunately, when I got to the track the rain had stopped, but the track had many pools of water, including a Reflection Pool. I thought that might make for interesting photos. With cat-like reactions, I squeezed off a number of shots of the drivers at the Reflection Pool, one being Richie Ginther in Joe Lubin’s Aston Martin DB3S, coming in 2nd OA and 1st DM. If you look closely, you won’t see any dings or bangs in the bodywork, not like the Ferraris of John von Neumann and Phil Hill. Maybe it was just early in the race.

After the rains left Ginther dried off his Dunlop’s and went north to Paramount Ranch on March 10, 1957 for his second ride in Joe Lubin’s Aston Martin DB3S, coming in 3rd OA and 1st DM. I was thinking about where this was taken at the Ranch. Then it hit me, if I’m looking down at the cars, and there are two flagmen, Phil and Fred, on the other side of the track (yes, those two white posts are flagmen) then this could be at the end of the loop coming from the Start/Finish line, and going under the bridge, to Turn 3. Another photo episode confirmed this. I remember I had a series of shots of Frank Monice hitting the concrete bridge support in his Lotus XI. I was on the Turn 3 side of the bridge at this point. Sure enough, there are the two flagmen, ol’ Phil and Fred, and a dusty knoll on the other side of the track.

Richie Ginther at Riverside on November 17, 1957 in John Edgar’s Ferrari 410 Sports s/n 0598CM 56. Ginther finished 5th OA and CM. In this ‘pan shot’ if you look closely, you can see that the pylon and the nose of the 410S seem to merge.

The cast of characters in this one runs deep, and the deeper you go, the more exceptional characters are recognized. These next few slides are all from Pomona on February 9, 1958, taken at ground level near “The Bridge” and Turn 3. By the numbers: #11 John von Neumann Ferrari 625 TRC, #59 Bob Oker Aston Martin DB3S, #211 Richie Ginther Ferrari 500 TR, #184 Frank “Duffy” Livingstone, Eliminator Chevy Special, and #70 Eric Hauser Balchowsky ‘Ol Yeller. Ginther won.

Ginther is all by himself, for now. Someone told me after the race that he complained to von Neumann that the “Air Brake Helmet” really did no good at all. This was another attempt to add braking power after the first failed try in 1957. The first attempt was described in the article on Allen Kuhn’s von Neumann Gallery, issue July 4, 2022. Plus, it gave him a very sore neck. The ABH is just now being deployed to slow the Ferrari for the pass under “The Bridge” to Turn 3.

One of my finest shots of Ginther in the 500 TR. Von Neumann used the same number 211 on his cars no matter what the event and so trying to identify the car and driver by just the race number is folly.

Now to delve into the murky depths of the not so young, hippocampus part of my brain, I believe this was a very hard-fought battle between these two gladiators, #211 Ginther and #59 Oker on February 9th, 1958 at Pomona. My remembrance of this race is that it was the closest finish ever at Pomona. Ginther leads Oker by a car length and a half. I would attest to that as both cars are in the same negative, it has to be close. No Photoshop for this shooter.

I will reiterate a rumor I overheard in the pits. I’m at Palm Springs on April 13, 1958. In Los Angeles, CA, Ginther went to his “old friend” George Reis, Jr., asking him if he could borrow his, ready s/n fans, Ferrari 250 GT LWB s/n 0753 Berlinetta TdF to take his new wife Jackie to Palm Springs for the weekend. Being good friends George complied, but he may not have known that the SCCA Regional was being held on the weekend Ginther wanted the car. Don’t think George would have been too upset as Ginther finished 1st OA & CP.

Riverside, the date was July 19, 1959, at the Kiwanis GP at Riverside. Ginther finished 1st OA, over 2 minutes ahead of Sam Weiss in a 718 RSK who finished 2nd OA, and lapping Ken Miles 3rd place 718 RSK. Here is Ginther, coming out of Turn 6 for the roller coaster ride down and up to Turn 7.

Ginther is coming from the ESSES and heading for Turn 6 on lap number 12. This shot was used for the cover of Richard Jenkin’s excellent book on Richie.

We travel north on Highway 1 to the charming, quiet community of Monterey by the Bay on October 20, 1963. We take a hard right at Highway 68 to Laguna Seca for the races. What other route would you take if you had a Fiat Abarth Zagato 850? No need to say where these two pilots are descending, but in case the two or three people reading this are unfamiliar with it, I’ll say it anyway, the world-renowned “Corkscrew at Laguna Seca.” Those pilots are #211 Richie Ginther in Otto Zipper’s Porsche 718 RS 61 who finished 7th OA and 2nd in U2L. The #60 Porsche 718 RS 61 is Don Wester who followed Ginther into 8th OA and 3rd in U2L. “The corkscrew” was everyone’s favorite spot to catch the action. When we stayed at the track in our RV, we could see the lower section of it.

What has turned out to be one of the symbols of conspicuous consumption, Otto Zipper’s gorgeous Ferrari 250 GTO s/n 3987. The half man on the left is Mr. Zipper. The place is Riverside on October 13, 1963 when Richie Ginther is waiting for Mr. Zipper to show. This was the Gran Turismo race which included the Shelby Cobras, which finished one-two-three. If you don’t count the Cobras, Ginther WINS! If you count the Cobras, he was 5th OA & 5th in GT III.

One of the perks of being a photographer is you sometimes get to photograph lovely girls (that term, girl, was used in the ‘50s by the boys). One such day was on October 13, 1963 at the Riverside Grand Prix. The editor of the magazine I shot for, California Sports Cars, secured the charms of the always lovely starlet Lorie Campbell. We prowled the pits looking for some of the top American and foreign drivers. And boy, did we find them. They practically stood in line to have their picture taken with the lovely Lorie. I shot her with John Surtees, Graham Hill (a story in itself), Gurney, Shelby, Foyt, and a particularly fetching one with “The Captain” Roger Penske, who was just a Lieutenant then. Oh, also with one Richie Ginther, and his ever-present cigarette.

October 31, 1965 for the 8th Annual Los Angeles Times Grand Prix for Sports Cars. It was a typical October day at Riverside, warm with mild breezes. I can actually say that I had a better day than Ginther. He and some of his friends, Gurney, G. Hill, P. Jones, Bondurant, Hansgen, all came up with DNFs.

A close up reveals Ginther’s dissatisfaction with the Lotus.

Ginther’s Lotus 40 of Team Lotus had a faulty gearbox, lasting only 28 of the 77 completed laps. More than half the field didn’t have the wherewithal to finish. Carole and I stuck it out to the end. Then just stuck in traffic going home.