A half-hour of 1959 Road America footage? Yes, please.
With all the changes that happened to America’s great racing courses over the years, I am reminded what a treasure Road America remains. Riding onboard this Porsche in the opening minutes of this clip, it’s plain to see how much of the course is virtually unchanged. Turn 5 is still harrowing, complete with a little wiggle as we close the gap on another driver. We need some radical correction as we overcook it into the always tricky Turn 6, half-obscured as it is by the crest of the hill up under the Toyota Pepsi bridge.
Be sure to stick with the video until the main event, watching the Alfas of William Wuesthoff and Chuck Stoddard mix it up with the dominating Porsche Carrera GTs of Blanchard, Rickert, Collins, and Jennings might be one of the best things you do today.
We’ll go back onboard late in this video, and start overcooking it again through 5 and 6… well, at least it’s an accurate depiction of my own lines on Road America.
I still don’t know why this staccato rhythm of voiceover hasn’t make a tremendous comeback—even just for the kitsch factor.
Finishing order and more for the June 1959 Class F/G/H/I/J race at Racing Sports Cars.
0 replies on “Road America 1959”
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Chuck Stoddard was National Champion in ’59 in that Giulietta Veloce. Fast guy, fast car.
brilliant
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Sponsored by the company you can blame for all the droning generators in RV parks, a/k/a Onan.
Ah, at 13:03 I get it.
Great fun. I was just getting to know the sport then. Some of the names were familiar.
Frank: Harry Blanchard was killed a year later when he rolled his Porsche RSK in the 1000km of Buenos Aires FIA race. Jennings was, like Stoddard, a multiple National Champion, and went on to a few big-bore rides in the early days of SCCA pro racing.
Some great old footage. A close llok rveals some very interesting small-bore cars of the day – Berkeley, Fiat-Abarth, OSCA, DB, and I think I spotted a Guiar or Bandini in there somewhere…all of which are great fun to see at vintage events today.
Oops, sorry about the typos…my digits sometimes get ahead of my synapses!