16 replies to this topic

[Criceto]

Very quick question:

Anyone got the dates for the SCCA meetings at Thompson Raceway in 1955?

And if there's any web-based source for SCCA calendars from the period, I'd be delighted to hear about them.

I suppose race reports/results/entrants/analysis would be too much to hope for....?

Thanks in advance.

[dretceterini]

The man to contact on this is Jim Sitz, historic editor for Vintage Motorsport. His phone number is 760-726-4001 (San Diego, California). Tell him I gave you his number..but I wouldn't call him today (July 4th)

Stu Schaller

[Udo K.]

To my records the Thompson races were on May 1st 1955.

US sports car racing of the 50ies for me is one of the most difficult subject to get informations.

[cabianca]

Thompson Dates 1955 per the SCCA calendar
April 23-34 "Informal Thompson Race" Regional, New England Region
May 28-29 Regional, New England Region
Sept 4 National (strange, since there is a National in Kansas City on Sept 5, but it did happen)
Oct 9 "Informal Thompson Race" Regional, New England Region (this seems to have originally been scheduled for Oct 15-16, then changed to Oct 9, then changed back to the 15-16, last entry in calendar is for the 9th)

Exactly what information are you looking for. They ran several races each weekend. Are you looking for a particular car?

[Criceto]

Thanks for that information, everyone. At this stage, I'm not looking for a specific car - merely trying to wrap up a nasty gap in a chronology I'm putting together covering the early 1955 season - the innocence before Le Mans changed everything, as it were.

I had a suspicion from a fleeting mention in Autosport (oh for a collection of US magazines too) that there had been two SCCA regional meetings in early 1955, and this happily confirms it. Thank you Cabianca.

[cabianca]

Criceto
Are you saying two regional meetings at Thompson, or two regional meetings nationwide in the U.S. If the latter, there were dozens.

[Criceto]

Sorry - I should have been clearer. Two distinct meetings at Thompson, I meant!

[Milan Fistonic]

The October 1955 edition of Road & Track has a report of a meeting at Thompson. There is no date given but "an early summer Sunday" is how it is described.

The last sentence of the report states that Thompson Raceway Inc. was planning two more similar events on September 4th and October 9th.

Eleven races were held, mainly for sports cars but there was a race for stock Volkswagens. I can post the full results if you want them.

[Udo K.]

Originally posted by Milan Fistonic


Eleven races were held, mainly for sports cars but there was a race for stock Volkswagens. I can post the full results if you want them.

Yes, please... thanks!

[Milan Fistonic]

Thompson Races 1955

Race 1 - MG Stock (1250cc)
1. George Valentine
2. Sidney Miller
3. William Schade

Race 2 - Class F stock (1300-1500cc)
1. Chandler Lawrence - Porsche
2. Lake Underwood - Porsche
3. Fred Barrette - Porsche

Race 3 - Class E stock (1500-2000cc)
1. Michael Rothschild - Morgan
2. Gaston Andrey - Morgan
3. Benjamin Dane - Morgan

Class E modified
1. David Michaels - Bandini-Offy
2. Fritz Koster - Maserati
3. Charles Rutan - Arnolt-Bristol

Race 4 - Class D stock (200-300cc)
1. Paul O'Shea - Mercedes-Benz 300SL
2. Arthur Simmons - Mercedes-Benz 300SL
3. Harold Kunz - Austin-Healey

Race 5 - Class F modified (1500cc)
1. Bill Eager - Lester MG
2. Fred Proctor - Porsche 550 Spyder
3. C.F. Fehnel - Porsche

Class C stock (3000-5000cc)
1. Gordon MacKenzie - Jaguar 120
2. Herb Hoefler - Jaguar 120
3. Rod Nerney - Ford Thunderbird

Race 6 - Jaguar 120M, 140M, 140MC
1. Richard Perrin - Jaguar 120M
2. George Constantine - Jaguar 120M
3. Harry Carter - Jaguar 140MC

Race 7 - Classes G & H modified (500-750cc; 750-1300cc)
1. E. Pupilidy - VW Special
2. John Norwood - Siata
3. Tony Pompeo - Siata

Class H modified (500-750cc)
1. Candler Poole - PBX
2. Frank Dominianni - Giaur
3. Dolph Vilardi - PBV

Race 8 - Unrestricted Category
1. Preston Gray - Cad-Allard
2. John Meyer - Meyer-Cad Special
3. Alexis duPont - Cooper

Race 9 - Classes C & D modified ( 3000-5000cc; 2000-3000cc)
1. Jack Crusoe - Jaguar XK-120C
2. Raymond Saidel - Olds-Allard
3. John Knight - Jaguar XK-120M

Class D
1. Willian Lloyd - Maserati
2. Vincent Sardi - Austin Healey 100S
3. Traver McKenna - Austin-Healey 100S

Race 10 - Match Race Special -5 laps
1. Paul O'Shea - Mercedes
2. Dick Perrin - Jaguar 120M
3. Rod Nerney - T-Bird

Race 11 - All stock Volkswagens
1. Richard Lockwood
2. John Hoffman
3. David Douglas.


On an early summer Sunday, Thompson Raceway in Connecticut played host to the greatest number of spectators and the largest entry of sports cars in its history. A program of 11 races was sponsored by the New England Region of SCCA, during which seven new track class-records were established and 10 old ones broken.

The events were kept short (10 laps of the 1.5-mile circuit) so that everybody had a chace to compete, and although under this arrangement the larger cars barely have a chance to stretch their wheels, nevertheless, a maximum number of drivers, especially novices can add to their competition experience without giving either their cars or themselves too severe a beating.

Event #10 was to be a match race (Mercedes 300SL, Jaguar MC, Thunderbird and Corvette V-8 - all with stick shift) with a trophy presented by Road & Track, but no Corvette was available and the race was run with 2 300Sls, 2 Jags, an A-H 100 and 100S, and a T-Bird. The Mercedes, with Paul O'Shea at the wheel, proved the fastest car.

With such a successful day of racing under its belt, Thompson Raceway Inc., is planning two more similar events this year, (on Sept 4th and October 9th) and is looking forward to an even bigger turn-out.

[Criceto]

Brilliant stuff! And now, may I present a spanner in the works.

Udo mentions Thompson races, on May 1st 1955 - and I've just found an Autosport report on 'em! They were organised, not by the New England Region of the SCCA, but the New York Region, and the reporter, Ruth Sands Bentley, specifically states May 1st. Report appeared in the May 20 1955 edition of Autosport.

Results as quoted are:

Volkswagen Marque Race
1. Lockwood
2. Findlay
3. Douglas
4. Wells

Class G Production
1. Willard - MG
2. Ehrman - MG
3. Weissenborn - MG
4. Bastrup - MG
5. Willard - MG

Class F Production
1. Soderstrom - Porsche Speedster
2. Flickenger - HRG
3. Barrette - Porsche

Class C Production
1. Nerney - Thunderbird
2. Sinclair - XK120
3. Mackensie - XK120

run concurrently with

Class E Modified
1. Wonder - Frazer Nash
2. Norwood - Arnolt Bristol
3. Richards - BMW

Jaguar Marque Race
1. Boylan - XK120M
2. Constantine - XK120M
3. Perrin - XK120M

Class D Production
1. Clapp - Aston Martin DB2
2. Fauvre - Austin Healey 100
3. Ehrman - Austin Healey 100

run concurrently with

Class E Production
1. Rothschild - Morgan TR2 (sic)
2. Ellis - Morgan
3. Weitz - Morgan

Class C Modified
1. Crusoe - Jaguar C
2. Mull - XK120MC

run concurrently with

Class D Modified
1. McKenna - Austin Healey 100S
2. Sardi - Austin Healey 100S

Unlimited
1. Lloyd - Maserati
2. Sinclair - Jaguar Cadillac
3. Meyer - Meyer Cadillac

Class F Modified
1. Pupulidy - Porsche Speedster
2. Hollmore - Porsche Speedster
3. James - Porsche Speedster

run concurrently with

Class G Modified
1. Bentley - Abarth
2. Weldon - Siata
3. Cuomo - Siata

Hope this is of interest!

[Milan Fistonic]

Criceto

I think they must be two different meetings.

In Coming events Road & Track lists three meetings at Thompson in 1955. They are: May 29/30, September 4 and October 9.

All the other events reported in the October issue were held in June which would make the late May date for the Thompson races seem right.

[Don Capps]

Unfortunately, my collection of Sports Car is a shadow of its former self, but I do have a few from 1955. The March/April issue lists the combined National/Regional calendar for 1955. There is a regional listed for 28/29 May at Thompson, New England Region. There is National listed for 4 September at Thompson. There is also an "Informal Thompson Race" scheduled for 15/16 October on the calendar. The March/April issue also has an article on Thompson Raceway, including a nice aerial view of the whole layout.

However, in the July/August issue of Sports Car , there is an article entitled "May Day at Thompson" which describes the adventures of Art Peck at the New York Region's "club race" at Thompson on -- Sunday, May 1st.....with the results (nine races) as listed by Criceto.

[vintageautomobilia]

Further to the post by "Criceto" about the May 1, 1955 races at Thompson:

I was there, and in the G Modified race the car that finished in first place was the 1955 ABARTH 207A Boano 1100 spider chassis #001 driven by John Bentley. This is the same car that Bentley raced at the 12 hours of Sebring in 1955, and sold to Max Goldman. It's also the same car that seduced Goldman into selling the Motto-Cisitalia 1100 spider corsa (the "Goldmanini") that I bought in 1973 and still own. This Abarth was the first of only about ten built, and still exists today. Tony Pompeo seems to have been the catalyst in having this small series of cars built and apparently most, if not all, were sold in the USA. Unfortunately, the Lotus 11 came out at the same time, and it had more horsepower and was much lighter, so the Abarth 207A 1100 was never really cometitive in it's class.

I owned #007 for about 30 years, and as explained in another thread, it at one time had an AFM 1100 engine installed (which I still have -- the AFM 1100 engine, that is). There's a great article about the 207A in Automobile Quarterly -- I don't remember which issue.

The car that finished in 3rd place was a SIATA 1100 spider driven by Ray Cuomo who was a great driver, and later raced Abarths.

Sports cars and sports car racing in the US in the 1950's and 1960's was fantastic and fun! It defined and directed a lot of my life, and still does today. Often the parking lots at these events were just as interesting as the race paddock -- and sometimes even more so! Full Classics and antique automobilies, both foreign and american, would be parked in the spectator areas, right next to interesting current cars.

[David Birchall]

Photos of the races at Thompson can be found at http://www.coldplugs.com

It is a site put together by an a guy with what seems to be a great collection of photographs of that era-I was able to learn the racing history of an Aston DB2 that has been featured in several magazines as a result of this site.

Wasn't Ray Cuomo involved in racing again fairly recently?

[Graham Clayton]

Photos of the races at Thompson can be found at http://www.coldplugs.com

 

David,

 

That site has been closed, but I have just come across a similar site at http://www.thompsonh...n_raceway01.htm

[David Birchall]

Graham,  Many thanks for that.  It appears to be put together by John Coelho (sp?) who did the coldplugs site.  He closed that down because it became to much of a burden at a time when he was busy with other things-glad to see he is back again.