1960 WATKINS GLEN GRAND PRIX

Sherm Decker and Bob Poupard had MGA twin cams, Rip Ripley his Lola Mk I and Charlie Kurtz in his AC Bristol. The BARCBOYS did the pit work for two, new up and coming Elva Courier drivers named Mark Donohue and Jay Signore.

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Hary Heuer sits on pit row waiting to head out to the grid in his Meister Brauser Scarab. Harry would finish 3rd behind his team mate Augie Pabst and Roger Penske’s Porsche.

The Grand Prix starts. Augie Pabst in #50 Scarab with Bob Holbert’s Porsche, Walt Hansgen in the red birdcage and Doc Thompson in the Sting Ray. Of the 4 on the front row, only Augie would finish. And he won.

Another look at the start with Hansgen in the #60 birdcage behind two Porsches. This would not last long as Hansgen got to the lead early.

Augie “Doggie” Pabst in the Peter Hand Brewery Meister Brauser accelerates out of the last turn. Fantastic weather and a huge crowd.

Heuer concentrates as he fights to stay in front of Penske. It was a race long battle.

Harry Heuer in the Scarab leads Roger Penske’s Porsche. Penske would prevail to finish 2nd and Heuer 3rd.

Bob Holbert ran a strong 2nd behind Hansgen until his fuel tank split and the Porsche crankshaft broke. It was not long after when Hansgen suffered engine failure as well leaving the victory to Pabst.

The great Chevy Sting Ray always driven well by the Flying Dentist Dick Thompson. Thompson really was a dentist in Maryland just outside D.C.

The business office of Dick Thompson’s Sting Ray.

Roger Penske has a huge grin on his victory lap. Did the dent come from his battle with Heuer’s Scarab? Nobody remembers.

Dick Thompson brings the Sting Ray into the pits. The car suffered all weekend from a variety of ills. Thompson made a fabulous start and hounded Hansgen, but only for 1 lap, retiring on the 2nd.

Spectators get a good, close up look at the fastest car of the weekend, the Tipo 61 Maserati or Walt Hansgen.

Walt Hansgen down pit straight easily in the lead in the red birdcage. The color was unusual for a Cunningham car which were usually white with blue stripes. The team would change to their usual color scheme for 1961.

Augie Pabst relaxes in the Scarab prior to the race. While Pabst couldn’t stay with Hansgen, he stayed in front of Holbert’s Porsche until the 42d lap when the Porsche failed and Augie coasted easy for the last two laps.

Flyod Aaskov holds his head looking at his smashed Costin Lister Buick. Aaskov and Grant Clark collided coming into the last turn and ended up just off the pit entrance road.

Dean McCarthy sits in his repaired Berlinetta showing off its Jake’s Stable patch. The berlinetta had to run in D Modified as Ferrari had not made enough of the cars by 1960 to homologate them. McCarthy ran well to 7th overall and first in D Modified.

McCarthy uses the 3 liter, 12 cylinder motor to accelerate hard past the pits.

Arch Means signals as he enters pit lane in the 200S Maserati.

Arch Means sits on the grid in his 2 liter Maserati. He shared the car that weekend with Ed Gelder. The stop to change drivers cost the little Maser time and it finished far back in 14th.

Harry Heuer and Roger Penske glance over as Charlie Kolb (white suit) walks by the Meister Brauser party. Pabst has a laugh with Denise McCluggage not far away. The Meister Brauser trailer looks absolutely primitive, but in 1960 it was state of the art.

A crew pushes Bill Wuesthoff’s Porsche onto its single axle trailer. As with the Meister Brauser truck, this was the most common way of transporting cars back in the day. Wuesthoff had a great race finishing 4th overall.

A closer look at the tricked out Scarab hauler complete with garden tractor. A marvelous look into the norm of 1960.

Doc M.R.J. Wylie wins the Queen Catherine Cup and GM. Tex Hoplins waves the checkered for the Lola. Wylie often dominated the GM or 1100cc class with Lotus and Lola cars.

BARC member Millard “Rip” Ripley smiles from the cockpit of his Lola Mk I. Rip, a VW dealer from Ithaca, NY had great success in Elva’s, this Lola, Formula Vee’s, a Porsche RS-61 and later in a Bobsy-Porsche.

Rip was second in GM but only one second behind Doc Wylie. The two Lola’s swapped the lead several times during the race.

Walt Hansgen sits in the Cooper F Jr during a practice session.

Hansgen at speed. Walt had little trouble winning the F Jr race over the Elva of Charlie Kolb.

A rare shot of Briggs Cunningham in a Lotus Formula Junior. Briggs practiced in the car but it never raced.

Denise McCluggage in the OSCA F junior talks things over at the beginning of the old pits.

Formula Juniors paddock together in the grass. Charlie Kolb’s Elva in the middle with the Scorpions of Ray Heppenstall on right and John Holmes.

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The Glen was only 60 miles from Binghamton and all the local racers showed up to race. Here Don Aylesorth drives through the chicane in his TR-3.

Funeral director J. Ward Allen in his Sunbeam Alpine, part of team Forno was 6th in GP

Jim Forno himselr earnee SCCA points with a neat 4th in GP. The BARBOYS visited Forno’s dealership in Vestal often. Sometimes we were welcome, sometimes not.

Forno comes up to pass Rod Harmon’s HP Sprite. Harmon was 3rd in HP.

Jim Forno in his newly acquired Porsche 550 Spyder drives the alley into Smalley’s garage for tech inspection. Thr car had problems in practice and never raced.

Ralph Barnard drives his MGA, still wearing its towbar past Morrow Deckers Porsche Carerra on his way to the tech tent.

Here’s what registration looked like. A tent to keep the rego women dry or out of the sun, sign some papers, get your tech sticker and away you go. These Thursday and Friday moments were great.

Tech could get backed up. Stutz Plaisted’s F1 Cooper is followed by the Team Forno Alpines of J Ward Allen and Jim Forno. That’s Jim in the sunglasses. I’m not sure if the teen at the back is his son Bobby.

It was common to see race cars unloaded on Franklin Street just outside Smalley’s. This is John Zeitler’s home built Zeiter DKW.

Rip Ripley (in sportcoat) looks over this Fairthorpe Electron of Jim Forno. Forno was a busy driver with his Alpine, Porsche Spyder and the Fairthorpe. He faired well with this car finishing 14th in a field of 35 that included Elva Couriers, later moved to EP and Doug Diffenderfers V8 Siata later moved to DP.

One of the 1960 Awbring factory MGA twincams is looked at by Sherm Decker. This car was owned by Art Smith and later by Jim Weissenborn and Dave Nicholas. Artie would finish 11th in a huge EP field but first of the factory cars.

Another of the Sebring twin cams, this one owned by Bob Wilson. The 4 twin cams and a few of the big Healeys were all sold to western New York drivers after making a deal with Hambro. The P car was caught on the decks of a 60’ sailboat in the Caribbean and was lost when the boat sank. Wilson finished 30th.

BARC hero Sherm Decker takes to the track in his twin cam. Today was not his day finishing well back in 9th place.

LAvender suited Tex Hopkins flags home the FP MGA of Conrad Krause, who was second MGA but 11the overall.

Art Smith takes the #139 twin cam across the line in 11th behind BARC members Bob Poupard and Sherm Decker’s twin cams.

BARC driver Bob “the rebel” Poupard sits on the front row of the EP grid next to Francis Gordon’s Austin-Healey. Poupard would finish 10th but the Healey never made it to the finish line.

Ron Stiller spins his EP Alfa but is missed by a fellow competitors Porsche. Stiller would finish well back.

The big iron race. Harry Hockensmith in # 63 leads #219 (orange rollbar of Hal Keck and the # 234 of Bob Ruth. Keck would switch to a Cobra in a few years and dominate the big iron races in the mid and late 60’s.

Pit board man Dave Nicholas has just signaled the #18 Elva Courier of Jay Signore he is in 3rd place with 5 laps to go but to take it EZ as there is no threat from behind. Signore would finish 3rd and later go on to head up the International Race of Champions (IROC). Tierno in yellow shirt is taking photos.

Bill Harwell takes the checkered flag after winning DP in this AC Bristol.

Duncan Black’s Daimler takes the checkered flag from Tex Hopkins after winning EP.

Big Jake Bucher (L with pipe) was without a car listens to Sherm Decker (R Cigarette) and Bob Poupard discuss the EP race. Bucher may still be the winningest driver in the history of Watkins Glen with 9 victories.

The start of the Glen Trophy race for D and B production. This is no pace lap, this is from a standing start.

The jet black MG-TD of Dave Nicholas. The car was bought with a bad engine from Karl Stickley and DN and his Dad rebuilt it in their driveway. The car had Derrington leather bucket seats and a custom aluminum grille.

Seneca Cup winner George Weaver, the boss at Thompson Speedway, raced his supercharged 1935 Maserati F1 car for years. It’s name was “Poison Lil” and George somehow kept it running.

Weaver in the 25 year old Maserati goes side by side with Stutz Plaisted in his F1 Cooper. Plaisted was disqualified and good old boy Lee Dean finished 2nd in Old Rumbleguts.

Lee Dean couldn’t afford a road race car so he built his own. And they were darn quick. Dean ran hill climbs and at The Glen.

Mac Tilton in his FIII took it to 4th in the Seneca Cup. Tilton, a brilliant engineer, would found Tilton clutches and engineering.

The business end of Stutz Plaisted’s older Cooper F1 car with its 2.5 liter Climax engine.

Ed Mottern’s newer Cooper was 7th.