32 replies to this topic

[David M. Kane]

I don't recall ever seeing or reading much about Hap Sharp's background. How he got into racing, why he got out of racing? I know, like Jim Hall, he was in the Oil business like most people in Midland, Texas.

I know he was pretty effective while he was in the game.

Can anyone enlighten me a bit?

[Bjorn Kjer]

I reckon you have not seen the book Chaparral (Falconer with Nye) so as it seems no others are interested I will help you !Bur I cant do it today.
Regards Bjørn

[JacnGille]

No others interested and no one knowin off the top of their heads are two different things.
Pickin up the Falconer book it says that Hap started out in boats and was even the US National Outboard Racing Champion. He rented a MGTC while on vacation in California. He bought his own and soon bought faster and faster sports cars til he ordered an almost full race Vette. It was suggested that he visit a drivin school where the car racin bug bit. He was later beaten by an AC Ace and he wanted one. Turned out Jim Hall and Carol Shelby were the AC dealers in Dallas and so they met.

[2F-001]

He took part in half-a-dozen Grands Prix. For his first - at the Glen in '61 in a Cooper - he was, coincidentally, on the grid alongside Jim Hall's Lotus and made it home in 10th.

[robert dick]

Was Hap Sharp related to Walter Sharp (1870 - 1912), the co-founder of the Sharp-Hughes Tool Co.?

[harryglorydays]

Hap's first name was James, but he may have been related to the one you mentioned. I just finished a book on the 1965 Sebring (www.glorydaysofracing) and when I interviewed Jim Hall for the book, he was quick to credit Hap with a number of things - including being the first to come up with the idea to make an 'automatic" transmission.

BTW, it seems he got his nicname from being born on January 1 (HAPpy New Year!)

[JacnGille]

Originally posted by robert dick
Was Hap Sharp related to Walter Sharp (1870 - 1912), the co-founder of the Sharp-Hughes Tool Co.?

The Falconer book says his dad was involved in the family drilling business in Midland.

[TIPO61]

My husband (long ago banned from these fora) was Chaparral employee #5 and speaks of Hap (the REAL Texas J. R.) with a smile every time he regales me with a story or two from 'those days.'

He says; Hap was a damn quick race car driver. He was as responsible as Jim Kimberly for bringing Cooper to the Indy 500. A check of the donation plaque for the Cooper in the Speedway museum will confirm this. And on and on and on. His passing was, and contines to be, painful.

[HistoricMustang]

Well, he is going to be around for a long, long time!

Henry

[Manfred Cubenoggin]

Read a story ages ago in one of the North American car mags...R&T, C and D, SCG...about a comment by Jim Hall on Hap. To paraphrase:

'Hap would come up with 10 ideas a minute on how to improve the car. Nine of them were junk but one wasn't. That's still one good idea a minute.'

[Jerry Entin]

Chaparral Team having just won the 1965 Road America 500. Franz Weis, Hap Sharp and Jim Hall. Ronnie Hissom also drove for the team.
photo lent site Tom Schultz-copyright 2007 Tom Schultz.

No one has said it yet but I believe he was called Hap because he was born on Jan. 1, 1928. Hap was for Happy New Year's. He sadly passed away in May of 1992 at the age of 64. It has been said he was misdiagnosed with having a fatal sickness. Thus, prompting him to take his own life.

[RA Historian]

Hap Sharp was a very, very fine driver. As has been stated, Jim Hall held him in high esteem for all the contributions he did for Chaparral. Jim often said that Hap was faster than he was.

Hap was in the oil drilling business and had the wherewithall to buy whatever he wanted. Over the years, until he effectively drove just the Chaparrals, he bought and raced a lot of cars. He even had two F-1 Coopers which he drove in the US and Mexican GPs as well as various Formula LIbre events. As far as sports cars go, among his cars I recall a Cooper T-49 with a 2.3 liter Maserati four and a Cooper T-57 Monaco. He won loads of races in the Southwest in these Coopers.

It is interesting to note that Hap was a very cautious driver. By this I mean that he purposely did not drive at a number of tracks because he considered them too dangerous. One such track was Riverside. He did not drive there for years, although he let Jack Brabham drive his Cooper T-57 to the win in the 1961 Riverside Times GP. But when he began to drive the Chaparral 2 regularly he felt quite at ease driving on tracks that he would not touch earlier. He won the 1965 Riverside Times GP in a Chaparral 2. Indeed one of his last races was, of all places, the Targa Florio!

Hap won the 1962 Road America 500 in a Chaparral 1, the 1962 Stuttgart SCCA National in his Cooper, and then in the Chaparral 2, the 1964 Mid Ohio USRRC, the 1965 Sebring 12 Hours, the 1965 Continental Divide, Mid Ohio, and Road America (500) USRRCs, as well as the 1965 Bridgehampton 500, the 1965 Riverside Times GP, and the 1965 Nassau Trophy race. Quite a season, which was the last full season that he drove.

Hap drove sparingly after 1965. After a few years he turned to polo and was a regular rider for the Milwaukee Polo Club.

Tom

[Jerry Entin]

Hap Sharp at the Road America 500 in 1961 with his Cooper Monaco. He was a DNF.

Hap Sharp at the USRRC race at Bridgehampton in 1965. He finished 2nd
photos lent site Tom Schultz- copyright 2007 Tom Schultz.

[T54]

Jerry,
great pic of the Monaco. Hap Sharp will later loan that very car to Blackie with which he was to win the LA Times GP inches ahead of Bruce... with the works Monaco.

[David McKinney]

McLaren's Monaco that year was a private entry, owned by Peter Berry

[Jerry Entin]

Hap Sharp in the front engined Chaparral 1. Glad you are enjoying this site T54.
photo lent site Tom Schultz-copryright 2007 Tom Schultz.

Very nice picture of Hap Sharp
photographer unknown

[David M. Kane]

Jerry:

He looks like a very determined guy. It appears he had face surgery as a child.

[Jerry Entin]

Dave: I may have put the picture up too large. I know he was a very determined driver. As has been said he also was an outboard racing champion. I had the upmost respect for Hap as a driver. I was just learning how to drive a rear engined car when he was at the height of his driving in 1965. And needless to say he went by me like I was tied down.

[TIPO61]

J. R. could..."giterdone!"
Marvelous man.
Helluva race car driver.

[iharos]

Seems no one has explained why Hap stopped racing. He must have been a sight on the polo fields! How well did he take to team management?

[RA Historian]

I suspect that Hap got to the point where he felt he had done all that he wanted to do on the track. He ran the Chaparral effort in Europe in 1966-67, then went and played with boats and played polo. Back in the '70s the Milwaukee Polo Club was active, and Hap rode for them for a few years. I wish I could tell you what he was rated, as polo players were rated from one to ten goals, depending upon their ability. I would imagine that Hap was rated well.

I always found it interesting that before he drove the Chaparrals he deliberately avoided several tracks because he thought they were too dangerous. Riverside is a good example. He entered his car there in 1961, but did not drive it. Instead it was driven by Jack Brabham, and it won. But in 1965 Hap himself won the Riverside Times GP, in a Chaparral 2. Then, of all places, he drove the 2F in the 1967 Targa Florio! He certainly must have had confidence in the integrity of the Chaparral.
Tom

[2F-001]

I recall reading in more than one press account that, for that Targa Florio drive in '67, he had a private plane standing by on Sicily since whatever confidence he had in the 2F was not matched by his faith in the local medical facilities.
If he had access to such a facility then I'd have thought he might have travelled to Sicily by the same method anyway, which would take a little of the 'drama' out of the story.

Was that Hap Sharp's last race? If so, what a place to bow out!
(Considering some other big outfits were already going cold on the place by then, the team deserves great credit for going).

What was Mike Spence otherwise engaged with that weekend? I assumed an F1 commitment, but I can't reconcile the date with an event.

[Roger Clark]

Originally posted by 2F-001
What was Mike Spence otherwise engaged with that weekend? I assumed an F1 commitment, but I can't reconcile the date with an event.

At Monza, teting BRMs, apparently.

[2F-001]

Ah, thank you Roger.

[Jerry Entin]

Hap Sharp in the 1963 Chaparral,
This is before the fuel bladders came. Note the gas tank. It is off a Villiers motorcycle.

photo lent site Gary Knutson collection

[Jack-the-Lad]

Hap Sharp was also an accomplished polo player. I was quite surprised to see him playing in Palm Beach in the late 1980's, I believe. Prior to that, the last time I had seen him was at Sebring in 1963!

Jack

[Jerry Entin]

Hap Sharp and Wesley Sweet working on Chaparral


photo lent site Gary Knutson collection

[Jean L]

Pensacola USRRC,april 64.Chaparral 2 with the Oldsmobile

[Jerry Entin]

Franz Weis in Cowboy hat at Pensacola, Florida USRRC race in April of 1964
This is the sister car to Hap's in the background we see the Shelby King Cobra. Also at the back of the Chaparral is John Mecom. The 66 car won this race. Driven by Jim Hall.
Hap Sharp was a DNF with 68 laps run.

Jean L : You are right on the location of course.

photo lent site Gary Knutson collection.

[Paul Rochdale]

"Note the gas tank. It is off a Villiers motorcycle".

No such thing Jerry. Villiers made the two stroke engines but never made complete motorcycles.

[Jerry Entin]

Villiers 500 Motorcycle.

Paul: If Villiers never made a motorcycle, I guess this ad for one in 1962 was not them. However I will admit the tank on the Chaparral looks more like a Greeves type. He may have meant Villiers powered motorcycle

I have talked to Gary Knutson and he has told me it was a Greeves gas tank on the Chaparral.
Here is Gary Knutson explaining it:
"It was borrowed from Hap's Greeves bike (he & I both had one) which at that time was Villiers (250cc) powered. Later Greeves had their own engine (360cc). Fun and unusual dirt bikes.

[Jerry Entin]

Wesley Sweet giving a pep talk to the Chaparral Team
This is Kent, Washington in 1965. Troy Rogers in cowboy hat , Jim Hall in helmet and Sandy Hall and Hap Sharp.


photo Wesley Sweet collection

[Jerry Entin]

Front row 1964 Pensacola USRRC race.
Roger Penske on left, Hap Sharp in middle and Jim Hall on right.
Wesley Sweet is behind Hap Sharp's #65 Chaparral, Franz Weis in cowboy hat and Sandy Hall in sunglasses behind Jim Hall's #66 Chaparral.
Race won by Jim Hall.

photo Wesley Sweet collection.