8 replies to this topic

[terry mcgrath]

Does anyone have any details of a hillclimb held at French Lick Indiana circa 1951. The event may have a better title?

There were several MG's an Allard and a white XK120 entered.

Yes there is such a place and in 2010 the population was 1807!

 

[LittleChris]

Completely misread the title as meaning that Lionel Rigal's dad had got up to something odd in Midwest America around 65 years ago !!

[Michael Ferner]

1952 October 12, "pre-Grand Prix"* sprints for amateur sports car drivers on Burch Hill near French Lick, distance 3,500 ft/10 curves, 10,000 spectators

over 1500cc: 1 Mike Fairbanks (Indianapolis/IN), Jaguar, 35.9", 2 Joe Snowden (Louisville/KY), Jaguar
under 1500cc: 1 Denver Cornett (Louisville/KY), Porsche, 40.2"

* a "preview" event for a national road race on 1953 July 4

Edited by Michael Ferner, 08 July 2017 - 20:55.

[terry mcgrath]

thanks for that info as a matter of interest where did you source that from?

thanks terry

[Michael Ferner]

It took me about ten minutes to find on Newspapers.com - you really NEED to subscribe to a newspaper site if you want to find info about US races, it's (almost) all there.

[Michael Ferner]

Sorry if my last post came over a bit curt - info is from various 1952 Oct 13 newspapers like The Terre Haute Tribune, The Kokomo Tribune, Muncie Evening Press, The Anderson Daily Bulletin (all from Indiana) and The Louisville Courier-Journal (Kentucky).

Edited by Michael Ferner, 10 July 2017 - 11:36.

[Michael Ferner]

Additional info from The Indianapolis Star:

class over 90 CID: 1 Mike Fairbanks (Indianapolis), 35.9", 2 Charles Snowden (Louisville), 39.6", 3 Donald Berry (Indianapolis), 40.2"

"All drove Jaguars and there were eight entries"

under 90 CID: 1 Denver Cornett (Louisville), Porsche, 40.2", 2 Bob Magenheimer (Indianapolis), MG, 41.9", 3 Jim Riley (Indianapolis), MG, 45.6"

"There were nine entries"

"Jack Ensley of Indianapolis in an Allard was clocked in 34 seconds, best time of day, in an exhibiton run."

SCCA sanction, "a twisting uphill six-tenths-mile course"

Edited by Michael Ferner, 10 July 2017 - 11:34.

[terry mcgrath]

Michael,

thanks greatly for the update and no worries with comments and yes I should done some sort of search first.

I must admit I do subscribe to one of the newspaper sites but with some computer problems a while back really forgotten which one! I note they grab some money from my credit card each year!

the reason I didn't do any searching before posting apart from lack of understanding of American geography and given I had never heard of the event I had assumed the event may have had a different title that I may have been familiar with.

 

For research purposes you might like to list some of the newspaper search sites you use and
​I will add them onto this thread.

http://forums.autosp...or-researchers/

 

regards terry

Edited by terry mcgrath, 10 July 2017 - 13:11.

[Michael Ferner]

It's become second nature to me, so I don't think about it much - use google maps to find the location, check the newspaper archives for the nearest town, and go! Apart from a very few annoying "holes", the whole of the US is extremely well covered by now, and it's a real joy to do this sort of research. I don't remember what I did before I found out!!