Chaparral

Augie Pabst in the Comet C-3 at Road America in September 1957, where he completed in the inaugural RA 500, driving with owner Glen Glendening. Photo Glen Glendening.

By Pete Vack

VeloceToday is often about connections, for ours is a small but happy world. The recent publication of the new Dalton Watson book, Augie Pabst, Behind the Wheel reminded the Editor that a friend here in Williamsburg, Dave Rex, had a once owned a fiberglass special called the Comet. While reading Bob Birmingham’s excellent book, a photo appeared of Pabst in a fiberglass special called the Comet and activated the aging synapses. Sure enough, as a quick email to Dave confirmed, it was the same car. Concurrently, the Editor went through his photo library, and found that he also had his own minor link to Pabst, which is recounted below. [Read more…] about Connections: Augie Pabst

The Storm before the Thunder

The United States Road Racing Championship, thankfully USRRC for short, was an amazing era that put an end to one epoch and played midwife to the next. For six years, from 1963 to 1968, the then-revolutionary professional SCCA series provided excellent racing and wonderful memories (as well as rock and roll songs and some not too bad grade B movies with notable stars).

The new series exploded with a huge noise which announced in no uncertain terms the dominance of the American V8. Ferraris and Maseratis would no longer rule the big bore classes, primarily because they weren’t big enough; nothing would succeed like cubic inches in this brave new world where over two liters meant unlimited displacements.

It was not just the massive influx of cubic inches but the rear engine revolution, a field in which Maserati and Ferrari were not exactly making great strides.

Good memories. This is the race program from the 1964 Mid Ohio USRRC.

[Read more…]