28 replies to this topic

[Joe Fan]

Does anyone have race result records for the 1959 Daytona 1000KM sports car races held on April 4-5th, 1959 at the Daytona International Speedway?

Over on Ebay, I found a program for this event which lists Masten Gregory was one of the participants. See: http://cgi.ebay.com/...1987730653&rd=1

I had no prior knowledge of Masten's participation in this event and wanted to verify his results if he did indeed participate.

[Vitesse2]

No report in Motor Sport, but it's included in their 1959 results (Jan 1960) as an 800km race:

1 Doery/Mieres (Porsche RSK) 150.224km/h
2 Said/Bunker (Porsche RSK)
3 O'Shea/Pabst (Jaguar)

King-Farlow has it as "Daytona Beach 1000km"

1 R Mieres/van Dory (Porsche) 93.35mph
2 A Banker/R Said (Porsche)
3 P O'Shea/A Pabst (Porsche)

All typos/confusions as in the originals Nothing else I can offer quickly .....

[cabianca]

MotoRacing has a report by Eastern driver Fred Pfisterer. He says it was Six Hours. MotoRacing give the third place car as a D-Jaguar, but confirms the first three driver pairings as listed above. Since the O'Shea/Pabst car was first in the over 3000cc class, it could not have been a Porsche.
4th Loyal Katskee Ferrari 121 LM (drove alone)
5th Fireball Roberts/Dick Rathmann/Ralph Moody Modified Ford Thunderbird ("Battlebird")
6th
7th Skip Hudson/Santiago Gonzales Ferrari 250GT. Don't know if TDF or SWB. Finished 6th on road and first in class, but were put back one place due to a protest. Report doesn't mention who beat them, but it was a 3000 cc car because it won that class.

Some big names, Shelby, Foyt, Daigh, Ruby, but no mention of Masten Gregory.

So as to be clear on which van Dory, this one was Count Antonio von Dory, former Hungarian Motorcycle Champion, now living in Buenos Aires.

After looking at the ad for the program, my guess is that, like Phil Hill, Masten was entered, but didn't show.

[Rob29]

7th Lucky Casner/Lee Lilly Ferrari 4.9
8th James Caperonis/Marshall Sergeant 4.6 Astari Spl.
9th Remo Kattini 750 Fiat Abarth Zagato
10th Alfonso Thiele "
11th Ray Cussini "
12th Raimoro Montalo/Alphonso Gomas-Mena Ferrari 250GT
13th Lloyd Ruby/Bill Krause/Carroll Shelby 4.5 Maserati

ex Autocourse 1959

[cabianca]

But wait, there's more!

Results published before Hudson penalty.

6th Hudson/Gonzales 250 GT Ferrari
7th Keperonis-Sergeant Astari-Corvette
8. Cattini
9. Thiele
10. Cussini 8,9,10 all in 750 Fiat-Abarth
11.Styles-Findlay AH Sprite
12. Pfisterer Lotus 11
13. Saidel/Manseu 1220 Jomar
14. Love-Sutton AC Bristol
15. Moody-Daigh Thunderbird

"Cars in pits and garage unable to receive checker (sic) flag at finish" and place awarded

Casner/Lilly Ferrari 250 TR 6th
Gomez-Mena/Montalo Ferrari 250 GT 12th
Shelby/Ruby/Krause Maserati 450S 13th
Shelby Maserati 300S-Corvette 16th
Windridge/Holbert Lister-Corvette 17th
Foyt Lister-Corvette 18th
P. Rodriguez OSCA 22nd
Utsman Buick Special 23rd
Krause D-Jaguar 24th
J. Rathmann/Daigh Maserati 450S-Pontiac 25th
Daigh 4846 Ferrari (probably 410S) 26th
Goldsmith Kurtis-Corvette 27th
Constantine Aston DBR2 28th

Still no sign of Gregory

[theunions]

Originally posted by cabianca
But wait, there's more!

Results published before Hudson penalty.

"Cars in pits and garage unable to receive checker (sic) flag at finish"

Utsman Buick Special

Is this confirmation that Jerry Unser did not start this car as originally intended?

[Joe Fan]

Originally posted by cabianca
After looking at the ad for the program, my guess is that, like Phil Hill, Masten was entered, but didn't show.

That is what I figured but I wanted to be sure. I almost forgot about this race but Kansas Citian Art Bunker and Bob Said probably would have won this one if Bob would have noticed a sign from the pit to come in for fuel.

[cabianca]

theunions

Results simplay say

"Utsman 5200 Buick Special" Completed 22 laps, got 23rd place. Perhaps Jerry was to be second driver and car blew before driver change. No mention of Jerry in report.

BTW, the confusion about the race length was probably because it was called because of darkness at 147 laps, 560.07 miles. Think it was originally scheduled for 6 Hours.

[Don Capps]

This event was originally intended to be a 1000Kms race, but for a variety of reasons, got chopped down to a six-hour event. The 3.81-mile course used was intended to be a "temporary" course pending the completion of the rest of the proposed 4.5-mile lay out which extended the circuit past the end of Lake Lloyd (near Turns 3 & 4 and the current chicane) with a duplicate of the turn that was used at the other end of the lake near Turns 1 & 2 on the banking. As for the event itself, it was something of a circus, a number -- perhaps "many" -- of the anticipated runners not being present for an assortment of reasons. In addition, points for the USAC RRC were apparently handed out on the basis of the amount of driving a partner completed versus splitting it right down the middle.

[Bladrian]

Lucky Casner; Augie Pabst: I haven't seen those two names for a very long time indeed.

[Jim Thurman]

Amazing...Marshall Sargent (correct spelling), in a Sports Car race!

I know he was at Daytona in 1960 in an attempt to qualify for the '500', but this was news to me.

I wonder who the Love and Sutton are. I assume Len Sutton?

Ralph Moody, Fireball Roberts, Jim Rathmann, Paul Goldsmith, one of the Utsman brothers (Sherman?, John?). Never ceases to amaze me the Indy and Stock Car drivers that turn up in the USAC Sports Car races. Then again, I realize the SCCA stance on "professional" racing at the time...but some of the names turning up were extremely unlikely candidates for "road racing".

Thanks all for posting the results.


Jim Thurman

[Don Capps]

Round 2
Daytona 6 Hours
Daytona International Speedway
Daytona Beach, Florida
5 April 1959

Distance: Six hours, 147 laps of 3.81-mile road circuit for 560.07 miles; originally scheduled for 1,000 kilometers but shortened to six hours

Results
1st Robert Mieres & Antonio von Dory
No. 86 Porsche RSK
147 laps, 93.345 mph

2nd Bob Said & Art Bunker
Porsche RSK
146 laps

3rd Paul O’Shea & Augie Pabst
Jaguar D Type
146 laps

4th Loyal Katskee
Ferrari 121 LM (4.4-litre)
(Chassis 0532LM)
142 laps

5th Fireball Roberts & Ralph Moody & Dick Rathmann & Chuck Daigh
Ford Thunderbird
138 laps

6th Santiago Gonzales & Skip Hudson
Ferrari Berlinetta
138 laps

7th Lucky Casner & Lee Lilly
Ferrari Testa Rosa 250 TR
137 laps

8th Jim Kaperonis & Marshall Sargeant
Astari Special
127 laps

9th Remo Cattini
Team Roosevelt Fiat Abarth
121 laps

10th Al Thiele
Team Roosevelt Fiat Abarth
120 laps

11th Alonzo Cussini
Team Roosevelt Fiat Abarth
119 laps

12th Alfonso Gomez-Mena & Raimoro Montalvo
Ferrari 250 GT
(Chassis 1035GT)
116 laps

13th Lloyd Ruby & Bill Krause
E.B. Rose Maserati 450S
110 laps

14th Phil Stiles & Don Findley
Austin Healey Sprite
110 laps

15th Fred Pfisterer
Lotus
98 laps

16th Carroll Shelby
No. 46 Micro Lube Special Maserati – Corvette
98 laps, retired

17th Fred Windridge & Bob Holbert
Kelso Autodynamics Lister – Corvette
96 laps, retired

18th A.J. Foyt
No. 212 Lister – Corvette
93 laps, retired

19th Ray Saidel & Paul Mansen
Jomar
88 laps

20th William Love & Len Sutton
AC Bristol
86 laps, retired

21st Ralph Moody & Jim Rathmann
Ford Thunderbird
40 laps, retired

22nd Ricardo Rodriguez
No. 38 Rees Makin OSCA
30 laps, retired

23rd Sherman Utsman & Jerry Unser
Williams Buick Special
22 laps, retired

24th Bill Krause
Jaguar D Type
13 laps, retired

25th Jim Rathmann & Chuck Daigh
No. 68 John Edgar Maserati 450S – Pontiac
(chassis 4506)
11 laps, retired

26th Chuck Daigh
No. 88 John Edgar Ferrari 410 S
(chassis 0598CM)
7 laps, retired

27th Paul Goldsmith
Kurtis – Corvette
7 laps, retired

28th George Constantine
No. 49 Elisha Walker Aston Martin DBR2
(chassis DBR2/1 [Lagonda DP166/1])
1 lap, retired

Notes
Race run clockwise on the circuit rather than the usual counter-clockwise direction of the course.

[dretceterini]

Jim:

I think the Sutton might be the one who had a Morgan and Marcos dealership in West Los Angeles in the late 60s.

I'm not familiar with the Astari Special..anyone have pictures?

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by dretceterini
Jim:

I think the Sutton might be the one who had a Morgan and Marcos dealership in West Los Angeles in the late 60s.

I'm not familiar with the Astari Special..anyone have pictures?

Turns out it was USAC driver Len (from Portland, Oregon).

I'll echo that. I was going to ask, what...pray tell is an Astari Special.

Obviously one of the home-built American "specials", but anyone have anymore info on it?


Jim Thurman

[cabianca]

Astari was meant to be production car. Not sure how many they built. Came out of New York, I think, and was shown at the NY Auto Show. It was a coupe. Pretty sure there's an article in Sports Cars Illustrated/Car and Driver, but going to bed and won't look it up tonight.

[jdanton]

Originally posted by Don Capps
This event was originally intended to be a 1000Kms race, but for a variety of reasons, got chopped down to a six-hour event. The 3.81-mile course used was intended to be a "temporary" course pending the completion of the rest of the proposed 4.5-mile lay out which extended the circuit past the end of Lake Lloyd (near Turns 3 & 4 and the current chicane) with a duplicate of the turn that was used at the other end of the lake near Turns 1 & 2 on the banking. .

Don,

Do you have any images/diagrams of what the 4.5 mile road course was supposed to look like?

[theunions]

Originally posted by Jim Thurman
Turns out it was USAC driver Len (from Portland, Oregon).

I just got Len's book in the mail yesterday, and it says his "one attempt at sportscar racing" was in Amy Dupont's Lister/Corvette at IRP in 1960. So I assume he never actually ran this Daytona race, like Jerry.

Is Amy Dupont of the Delaware family and thus related to Brett Lunger?

[Don Capps]

Originally posted by jdanton
Don,

Do you have any images/diagrams of what the 4.5 mile road course was supposed to look like?

The August 1959 "Motor Trend's Sportscar Graphic" has a nice picture of what it looked like. Perhaps I can scan it and someone can "host" it so folks can see what was originally intended for the Daytona road course.

Interesting enough, Big Bill France was seriously mulling over the idea of hosting a pukka GP race on the circuit -- particularly with the USGP at Sebring in mind.... especially after it flopped.

[Jim Thurman]

Originally posted by cabianca
Astari was meant to be production car. Not sure how many they built. Came out of New York, I think, and was shown at the NY Auto Show. It was a coupe. Pretty sure there's an article in Sports Cars Illustrated/Car and Driver, but going to bed and won't look it up tonight.

Michael and Don,

Thanks for the info on the Astari and the course layout. Astari was a new one to me.

The timeframe of the racing paper scans I'm doing right now is 1964 and Marshall Sargent was back in San Jose and winning a lot of Super Modified races on the NASCAR circuit in Central California.

I never knew he drove in a Sports Car race, let alone the first at Daytona International Speedway.


Jim Thurman

[Jerry Entin]

This comes from Willem Oosthoek:
"The Astari was actually conceived and built in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Jim Kaperonis. It was based on an MG chassis and featured a blown 4.6-liter Chevy engine. Kaperonis drove it with Marshall Sargent, also from Charlotte. The car made a few appearances in the Southeast in 1959 and 1960."

[Loren Lundberg]

But wait, there's more!

Results published before Hudson penalty.

6th Hudson/Gonzales 250 GT Ferrari
7th Keperonis-Sergeant Astari-Corvette
8. Cattini
9. Thiele
10. Cussini 8,9,10 all in 750 Fiat-Abarth
11.Styles-Findlay AH Sprite
12. Pfisterer Lotus 11
13. Saidel/Manseu 1220 Jomar
14. Love-Sutton AC Bristol
15. Moody-Daigh Thunderbird

"Cars in pits and garage unable to receive checker (sic) flag at finish" and place awarded


Is there a listing anywhere to show the entrant/owner of the car, in particular the Paul Goldsmith Kurtis Corvette in 27th place?

Casner/Lilly Ferrari 250 TR 6th
Gomez-Mena/Montalo Ferrari 250 GT 12th
Shelby/Ruby/Krause Maserati 450S 13th
Shelby Maserati 300S-Corvette 16th
Windridge/Holbert Lister-Corvette 17th
Foyt Lister-Corvette 18th
P. Rodriguez OSCA 22nd
Utsman Buick Special 23rd
Krause D-Jaguar 24th
J. Rathmann/Daigh Maserati 450S-Pontiac 25th
Daigh 4846 Ferrari (probably 410S) 26th
Goldsmith Kurtis-Corvette 27th
Constantine Aston DBR2 28th

Still no sign of Gregory

[RA Historian]

Originally scheduled for 1000 Kms, but called at six hours due to darkness. The field, as seen on previous posts, was a rag tag collection of cars, rather typical of the USAC Road Racing Division of the day. A number of big bangers with name drivers dropped out early, but three little 750cc Fiat Abarth Zagato coupes circulated all day without any troubles to place in the top ten.
Tom

[Jerry Entin]

Masten Gregory was never mentioned in the entry list, in spite of numerous changes between the date of publication and the race date.

Paul Goldsmith ran the Kurtis/Chevy owned by Ray Crawford. The car was described as red, with a 5.2-liter engine. Crawford was the co-driver but never got the wheel because of its early retirement.

The third place D-type of Augie Pabst/Paul O'Shea was entered by Jack Rutherford of Palm Beach, a regular at the Daytona speed trials on the beach.

Ricardo Rodriguez's 1.5-liter OSCA was owned by Rees Makins.


all research Willem Oosthoek

[Bruno]

I have in the cards:

5/4/1959 1000 km de Daytona:
Loyal Katskee 750 Monza "0554M " 4 scratch and 1er class

[Jerry Entin]

Katskee's fourth place car was actually a 4.4-liter Ferrari 121LM.


photo - Willem Oosthoek collection

[Jim Thurman]

This comes from Willem Oosthoek:
"The Astari was actually conceived and built in Charlotte, North Carolina, by Jim Kaperonis. It was based on an MG chassis and featured a blown 4.6-liter Chevy engine. Kaperonis drove it with Marshall Sargent, also from Charlotte. The car made a few appearances in the Southeast in 1959 and 1960."

Jerry, thank William for this, but it raises as many questions as answers.

Does William have any record of Marshall Sargent racing the Astari (or anything else for that matter) in the Southeast during the 1959 and 1960 seasons?

It is looking like there might have been two different drivers named Marshall Sargent.

[Jerry Entin]

Jim:
The Daytona entry list I have has only the name Jim Kaperonis printed as driver/entrant of the #6 Astari Special, with next to it the name Marshall Sergeant handwritten as co-driver. The combined information seems to be very accurate for the 27 starters. Kaperonis was from Charlotte and he designed and built the car. It appeared first at Courtland in late 1958 with Kaperonis at the wheel, although its appearances [all with Kaperonis] in the Southeast can be counted on one hand.

The various results sheet I have list both Kaperonis and Marshall Sergeant as Charlotte residents. I have never seen the Sergeant name show up in any other sports car race reports and after your earlier comment, I presumed the name was misspelled and that it should read Sargent.

A number of stock car and Indy car names showed up for the race, lured by the sizeable purse: Ralph Moody [Charlotte], Dick Rathmann [Daytona Beach], A.J. Foyt [Houston], Sherman Utsman [Bluff City, Tennessee], Jim Rathmann [Miami], Paul Goldsmith [St. Clair Shores, Michigan], Fireball Roberts [Daytona Beach], Ray Crawford [Pasadena, California]], Jerry Unser [Albuquerque], Sonny McDaniel [Houston], Len Sutton, etc, so "your" Marshall Sargent would have been a logical fit, unless he never lived in, or had any connections with, Charlotte.

all research - Willem Oosthoek.

Edited by Jerry Entin, 08 October 2009 - 20:18.

[Jerry Entin]

Willem Oosthoek has added another tidbit from the 1959 USAC Yearbook:

The yearbook features every driver who earned points and money in the Road racing Championship that year. On page 87:

-Jim Kaperonis, Charlotte, NC, one race, $ 413 earned, 164 points
- Marshall Sargent, San Jose, CA, one race, $ none earned, 146 points.

No mention of a Marshall Sergeant, so it seems as though it was really Sargent in the Daytona 1000 KM. How USAC divided the points is a mystery. Together they completed 127 laps, with a combined point total of 310.

all research Willem Oosthoek

[Jim Thurman]

Willem Oosthoek has added another tidbit from the 1959 USAC Yearbook:

The yearbook features every driver who earned points and money in the Road racing Championship that year. On page 87:

-Jim Kaperonis, Charlotte, NC, one race, $ 413 earned, 164 points
- Marshall Sargent, San Jose, CA, one race, $ none earned, 146 points.

No mention of a Marshall Sergeant, so it seems as though it was really Sargent in the Daytona 1000 KM. How USAC divided the points is a mystery. Together they completed 127 laps, with a combined point total of 310.

all research Willem Oosthoek

A belated thanks Jerry and William. Ok, it was the Marshall Sargent - super modified and stock car racer from San Jose, California. I know the early pro road races had a lot of oval track racers, but this one still surprises me.