I always liked reading of Chuck's drives. I first became aware of him as he figured prominently on the cover of an issue of CP & Autoweek featuring the 1965 Laguna Seca Fall Season Pro races which pre-dated the CanAm series. There was Chuck's Genie utterly sideways in a spin just moments after the start. Can't recall how he got into that mess but seem to recall from the body of the piece that he tried a spoiler on the back on his Genie and was most impressed by the extra adhesion it gave.
My chief remembrance of him is the 1969 CanAm at Mosport where he drove the Lola 162/163 with big-bore Chevy power. As I recall, he qualified quite well up...in truth, the grid quality was a tad spotty. There must have been rain threatening since his car was fitted with rain tires just prior to the start and when the crew...Hass?...went to change over to dry weather rubber, apparently the wheel nut stripped and they couldn't remove one rear tire. With only moments to go for the start, the decision was made to put wets all round and hope for the best.
The start was tres exciting for those first few laps and I so clearly remember John Cordts in his out-classed Mk 3 McLaren...M1C, if you insist...getting by Chuck for P4 in the early going as Chuck struggled with the wrong tires. Had me and the party I was with standing and cheering Cordts on in a wild frenzy. Soon, tho, Chuck took over the spot and settled down to pull away nicely from Cordts. The Bruce and Denny Show wound out the race as per usual but it was indeed satisfying to see our local boy Cordts running so well in P5. But wait! With only a couple of laps to go, here comes Chuck through the esses with a flat LR tire. Those rain tires have had enough torture over the full race distance...actually, it's surprising that they lasted as long as they did. He starts his final lap. Cordts is well behind at this point but is there a chance? No, surely. The final lap and we wait anxiously to see what will unfold. It's a long wait but finally, Parsons comes into view at the top of the straight at a crawl. He comes through the esses and the tire has long-since disintegrated and disappeared. The car is down to the alloy wheel now but no, not the rim...the rim is gone altogether! The wheel is down to the spokes!!! Chuck chugs around the last corner as best he can and we clearly see chunks of alloy wheel scatter as with each spoke striking the tarmac, it gets a little smaller with each revolution. Cordts motors into view and aces Chuck for P4 at the line. A superb finish for our boy Cordts but my, what a ballsey performance from Parsons.
One of my chief memories of motorsport.