Walt Hansgen was the “Master of The Bridge”. He either won or broke and this weekend he won the feature race.
Walt Hansgen dominated The Bridge. Always, calm, focused and fast. His protégé Mark Donohue shared those traits.
Fred Gamble's longtail LeMans birdcage leads Hansgen and Holbert to eventually finish 3rd overall
Alan Connell was a rancher and “oil man” from Fort Worth. He got the racing bug from his friend and fellow Texan racer Hap Sharp.
Connell led Hansgen for a while and was very fast, but the maestro won in the end with Alan a fine second.
Alan Connell and Hansgen just having the best time in their T-61's on the very fast front straight.
Porsche legend Bob Holbert in his RS-61 in a long drift. Close to taking a ride in the sand, but he stayed in control to finish 4th behind the 3 Maserati’s.
Gerry Georgi's sinister black Costin-Lister Chev was 6th overall
BARC memeber #29, Bob Bucher drives his Porsche RSK to 5th overall and first in F Modified. Bucher would continue to win the F Modified National Championship.
Classic speed photo of Bucher, the Binghamton Bullet, smoothly negotiating an uphill turn.
Bucher’s full name was Jacob Robert Bucher but everyone called him Bob or Big Jake. Here he sits on the grid waiting for the start.
Big Jake takes the classic outside line exiting the last turn.
Bucher was not a mechanic but he was a WWII P-51 Mustang and bomber pilot and was familiar with machinery.
Practice days in the old days included everyone. Here Gamble’s Birdcage sits next to Sy Kabak’s Buick powered Lotus with a Formula Junior ready to join them.
On the grid with Bob Grossman’s Ferrari Berlinetta on the outside, Frank Dominianni’s rather smashed Corvette in the middle and Duncan Black’s Daimler SP250. Rex Woodgate stands next to the Ferrari.
Another mixed practice grid with Bob Holbert’s Porsche sitting next to a Lotus 18 Formula Junior.
Western New York’s Dave Adams in his Lotus IX powered by an Alfa Romeo engine. He called it a LOFA.
Big Jake in John Bunch’s Berlinetta. He loved that Ferrari and drove it to 2nd place behind Grossman.
BARC member #029, Spankey Smith was Bucher’s race manager. Here he signals Bucher as he laps an Austin Healey.
Simply a wonderful photo of what I consider the finest GT car of all time. The short wheelbase Ferrari 250GT Berlinetta in full song. V12 wailing like a symphony.
Three Corvettes doing battle. Tom Kerr in #86 leads this pack.
Bucher’s Porsche leads Kerr’s Corvette, Bob Mouat’s well known black #57 and Bob Johnson in #33.
BARC member #21, Don Yenko. Yenko scared me so badly with this wicked slide I jumped away and got this fab blurred photo fearing for my life. Yenko was a true wild man.
Formula Jr Cooper driven by Fred Work and now restored and owned by John Lindsay
The Bridgehampton program cover, click to see the whole thing.
Track Map. Easy to see there were no slow corners and the first 3 downhill were terrifying as well as the long last uphill turns leading to the finish.
There was a second big SCCA race at Bridgehampton in August. Hansgen won again, but this time in the rear engined Tipo 63 Maserati.
Harry Heuer brought his Meister Brauser Scarab east during 1961. A fast and entertaining guy, the Scarab let him down and he was a DNF.
George Constantine in John Bunch’s Ferrari Testa Rosa was just not quick enough and was 4th behind Hansgen, Roger Penske and Dick Thompson, all in Maseratis.
Bob Hathaway’s ex-Sebring Berlinetta could not stay with the Ferraris of Grossman who won with Charley Hayes 2nd and Dick Thompson’s Corvette 3rd.
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