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WF 'Bill' McLaughlin RIP


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#1 Jerry Entin

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Posted 16 June 2012 - 00:08

Posted Image
Bill McLaughlin and Enus Wilson with Bill's Iso A3C, which they would race at Sebring in 1964. The photo was taken when John Miller delivered the race-prepped car in Oklahoma.

William Foote "Bill" McLaughlin died in Greenwood, South Carolina, on May 1, 2012, at the age of 83. He was born in Lake Forest, Illinois, in 1929 and had a brief career in sports car racing in 1964.

At the time Bill lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he served as city budget director, owned two restaurants [The Forge and The Glen] as well as a Datsun dealership. He bought the Iso from Ed Hugus and had the car prepared by John Miller in Dallas. During the Sebring 12 hours in 1964 Bill raced it with Enus "Sonny" Wilson. All results have Ed Hugus as the third driver, but according to Wilson there were only two drivers.

The Iso finished 39th overall with 110 laps completed, after going through three gearboxes, the last one supplied with the help of Jim Hall. Even the third box functioned only in top and reverse gear, and the car had to be push started after pit stops. After Sebring McLaughlin raced the Iso with some success in SCCA Regionals around Oklahoma.

McLaughlin subsequent career in real estate management brought him to Texas, California and South Carolina, where he helped developed Kiawah Island and the Savannah Valley Authority. Other interests were military history, animal rescue and the family business in Chicago, McLaughlin's Coffee Company, the subject of two books co-authored by him.

Photo: John Miller
Willem Oosthoek Collection

Edited by Jerry Entin, 12 August 2013 - 20:03.


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#2 raceannouncer2003

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Posted 16 June 2012 - 05:28

had a brief career in sports car racing in 1964


Apparently raced a Corvette in 1963 as well?

Vince H.


#3 ReWind

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Posted 18 November 2012 - 14:33

He was the son of famous dancer Irene Castle (1893 - 1969) from her third marriage.

Restaurateur (The Forge and The Glen in Tulsa), racecar driver, military historian and coffee heir (McLaughlin’s Coffee Company) Bill McLaughlin, 83, died on May 1. Bill was the son of dancer Irene Castle, which is how I met him—he was a marvelous help when I wrote my biography of Vernon and Irene Castle a few years ago. He was funny, smart, and both honest and fair about his mother, who could be a real handful (Irene was one of those energetic, forceful people who sometimes make you want to hide under the furniture and pretend you are not home). Bill’s father was the equally impressive Frederic McLaughlin, the first owner of the Chicago Black Hawks, a major in World War I, and the son of W.F. McLaughlin, who founded the family coffee company in 1852. Vernon and Irene would be pleased that Bill named his daughter Castle McLaughlin, and that he followed their lead in animal-rescue causes (Irene, as usual, went overboard and sometimes made PETA look sane and temperate).

Source: Eve Golden in L.A. Daily Mirror

#4 Paul Parker

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Posted 20 November 2012 - 20:09

Posted Image
Bill McLaughlin and Enus Wilson with Bill's Iso A3C, which they would race at Sebring in 1964. The photo was taken when John Miller delivered the race-prepped car in Oklahoma.

William Foote "Bill" McLaughlin died in Greenwood, South Carolina, on May 1, 2012, at the age of 83. He was born in Lake Forest, Illinois, in 1929 and had a brief career in sports car racing in 1964.

At the time Bill lived in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where he served as city budget director, owned two restaurants [The Forge and The Glen] as well as a Datsun dealership. He bought the Iso from Ed Hugus and had the car prepared by John Miller in Dallas. During the Sebring 12 hours in 1964 Bill raced it with Enus "Sonny" Wilson. All results have Ed Hugus as the third driver, but according to Wilson there were only two drivers.

The Iso finished 39th overall with 110 laps completed, after going through three gearboxes, the last one supplied with the help of Jim Hall. Even the third box functioned only in top and reverse gear, and the car had to be push started after pit stops. After Sebring McLaughlin raced the Iso with some success in SCCA Regionals around Oklahoma.

McLaughlin subsequent career in real estate management brought him to Texas, California and South Carolina, where he helped developed Kiawah Island and the Savannah Valley Authority. Other interests were military history, animal rescue and the family business in Chicago, McLaughlin's Coffee Company, the subject of two books co-authored by him.

Photo: John Miller [Willem Oosthoek Collection


If anybody is interested I used a colour pic of the car at Sebring '64 on page 104 of Sports Car Racing in Camera 1960-69.

#5 Jerry Entin

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Posted 12 August 2013 - 20:00

Posted Image
Bill McLaughlin and the Corvette he raced.

As usal Vince is right about Bill racing a Corvette.

Clipping: Pam Horn collection

#6 Emery0323

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Posted 12 August 2013 - 20:18

Posted Image
Bill McLaughlin and the Corvette he raced.

As usal Vince is right about Bill racing a Corvette.

Clipping: Pam Horn collection



"B. A. professor at the University.." - What did he teach? Was this at the Univ of Tulsa?

#7 Jerry Entin

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Posted 12 August 2013 - 20:56

Economics at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. He moved to Tulsa the next year.


all research: Willem Oosthoek