The Class of 1960

Reflections on some legends. Photographed in their prime at Riverside.

The year was 1960. In the fall, many of the world's best drivers came to Riverside, California, for two races: the Los Angeles Times-Mirror Grand Prix for Sports Cars, an October event that paid $4000 to the winner, and the U.S. Grand Prix held in November, which was won by Stirling Moss at the wheel of Rob Walker's Lotus-Climax. Prior to these events, several of the drivers gathered at the Mission Inn in downtown Riverside to have their portraits taken by Christian Du Bois Larson, who sought to show these racers as distinguished gentlemen, not a bunch of speed-thirsty guys in greasy coveralls. The photos, commissioned for the Inn's Hall of Fame, did just that, and they hung there on the walls for years until the hotel changed ownership.

In 1962, Larson sent the portraits to Road & Track for possible publication, only to hear back from Editor Dean Batchelor, who graciously wrote that he'd be unable to publish them in color (our magazine was largely black and white back then). "I feel we would be unable to pay you what they're worth if used in black & white," wrote Batchelor.

Fast forward to today. In the spirit of "what's old is new again," Larson, now 85, sent in the images again—printed from the original color negatives. This time, though, we took the bait, and we're glad we did—these are classic portraits of racing legends in their prime, of great interest and historical value. And we agree with Larson—they're much better displayed in our magazine than stored in some metal file cabinet.

For added perspective, we shared the portraits with our friend Dan Gurney, who competed in both races and was among the drivers photographed. Dan, fittingly, put his name on the international road racing map in the inaugural Riverside Grand Prix (1957) with a masterful drive of an ill-handling 4.9-liter Ferrari. Following that, he became a vital part of the F1 fraternity for nearly a decade, the tall blond American first competing with Ferrari and then with BRM, Porsche, Brabham and his own All-American Racers team. In the process, he won Grands Prix for Porsche, Brabham and AAR in the Eagle he built.

So join us now in the conference room at All-American Racers in Santa Ana, California, and imagine Dan picking up each photo, thinking back—sometimes five decades—and then offering his personal thoughts. Sometimes his voice is tinged with sadness; other times it's accompanied by his still boyish grin. Enjoy.—Andrew Bornhop

Innes Ireland

"Another good friend. He was a straight-up tough guy. You could count on him to give you a hard time. He was a colorful character, very capable. He thought he was very competitive with Jim Clark, yet somehow or other it didn't work out.

"He smoked a lot. Drank a fair amount. I guess you could say he had a World War II outlook on life. There were more risk-takers back then."

Olivier Gendebien

"Phil Hill's great partner. Much like Bonnier, he didn't have much dirt under his nails, but he had some special talent for driving. At the Tour of Corsica, or some open-road event like that, he was very fast in that sort of situation. He had a patrician air about him. Very Belgian in a way, a bit remote like the corner of the world he came from. You might beat him, but it wasn't easy."

Dan Gurney

"A photo from many miles ago! Great-looking sport coat! Mom and Dad and my sis and I moved to Riverside from Long Island in 1948, drove there mostly on Route 66....When they were scratching out the initial layout of the Riverside course in the middle '50s, my friend Skip Hudson and I followed the bulldozers on motorcycles. Southern California was hot-rod heaven then, and racing fever spread like wildfire."

Bruce McLaren

"A Cooper-Brabham graduate from New Zealand. Bruce had a lot of engineering enthusiasm and ability. He brought other good engineers under his wing—guys like Teddy Mayer, Tyler Alexander and Gordon Coppuck. His career was on a steep climb globally. He looked like he was on his way to hanging up his helmet and becoming a full-time manufacturer when fate so tragically interfered at Goodwood."

Joakim Bonnier

"Jo was my teammate at BRM and at Porsche in Formula 1 and sports cars. He was a handsome guy from a very well-to-do and prominent publishing family in Sweden. He was very impressive; he won the only F1 race for a front-engine BRM.

"He was in the top half-dozen GP drivers, equally good in sports cars. He was a private person who played his cards close to his vest. Still water runs deep. His lap times were always there."

Roger Penske

"Remarkable. A fantastic businessman. I think he has 40,000 employees, and I'm not exaggerating.

"He was also a very good and successful race driver. An East Coast guy. He was always reaching for the big stuff. Early on he saw himself as a mover and a shaker, and he was. When he went to Traco [Travers and Coons] to get engines built, he bought all of their production capacity. His career as a team owner is the stuff of legend.

"We keep saying to him, `Why don't you run for President?'"

Jack Brabham

"He was my boss for three years. We used to call him `Black Jack.' He had that very dark hair. A very good thinker, he was. He carried the Aussie flag everywhere. He had a huge following.

"He seemed to like driving with the tail out. Drove like he was on dirt, even when he wasn't. He had an interesting mix of talent—at times, he was up against Moss, the quintessential F1 type. Jack wasn't considered as much of a virtuoso, but he used to beat Moss frequently. It takes more than pure driving talent to win races."

Graham Hill

"Graham was a teammate of mine at BRM together with Jo Bonnier. He was intense and secretive when it came to being a teammate, but he was a very likable person.

"He had a naughtiness about him that appealed to everybody and made him a great after-dinner speaker. He was seriously tenacious. We were pretty close. In the early days, he had invested in Speedwell aftermarket parts for Minis and Austins. I bought some stuff from him.

"Just think, if he hadn't won Indy, he probably wouldn't have had the money to buy a plane, and he might be alive today."

John Surtees

"I have the utmost respect for John. I was there when he won the F1 World Championship down in Mexico City in 1964. I remember because I won the race...

"I knew his mom and dad. I knew his sister. I bought a motorcycle from his brother. He was his own man. Still the only motorcycle and automobile World Grand Prix Champion we have ever had.

"I like the way he came up. I like motorcyclists being able to do that...they're taking bigger risks than the car guys do. I like his integrity, his family. We keep in touch and I consider him a real friend."

Wolfgang von Trips

"I met him in 1958. I was in the race when he was killed [Monza 1961]. Saw it happen. He was obviously very good. How good? That was difficult to tell as his career was cut short.

"He was easy to get along with. He could speak different languages. He started out with Porsche. Huschke von Hanstein, Porsche's `Racing Baron' and race director, became his mentor. He paved the way for many young men from the aristocracy to get into motor racing.

"Over here, racing wasn't called the `Sport of Kings,' but in Europe it still was at that time, and handsome Count Berghe von Trips fit the bill perfectly."

Jim Clark

"I've often said a great deal about Jimmy. He really earned his place in the hierarchy of outstanding F1 drivers. He could jump into any car and make it seem better than it really was.

"He had a great sense of humor—he enjoyed pranks. He was brave—which he was almost expected to be by the Lotus group he was with. He really looked up to Colin Chapman, and to Chapman's racecraft.

"Jimmy loved to race. I think he wasn't terribly thrilled with all the adulation...or the loss of time and privacy that came with fame.

"If you were running with Jimmy, you knew you were doing damn well. He always extracted almost everything there was in a car."

Jim Hall

"A Texican. He didn't tell you what time it was, either. He had a secret relationship with GM. He was innovative, and always wanted to push the envelope. He and Hap Sharp, young Texas oilmen, were formidable in every way.

"Rattlesnake Raceway was probably better than Ferrari's test track at the time. We didn't know much about vehicle dynamics in those days. That's what made it exciting, more enticing—none of us knew when the next big breakthrough might come. Now we know a lot more, and that takes some of the fun out of it.

"We were very proud when Jim and Phil took the Chaparral to the Nürburgring and won the 1966 1000-km sports car race."

Carroll Shelby

"If you want to have a contest as to which of these drivers can talk the shirt off your back the soonest, Shelby would be in the lead. He's good. He was a connoisseur of human nature. He knows what buttons to push. Still does today.

"He had a serious amount of outstanding driving talent. We used to think he was telling a falsehood when he said he had to take nitroglycerine pills before the race for his heart problems. When he was waiting for a heart transplant, fellow driver and heart transplant recipient Lee Mueller told him that he needed to be in bed, prepped and ready, when the donor chopper arrives. We used to kid Shelby about getting the heart from a 20-yearold nympho. Cobra...Ford GT40...Le Mans—great memories!"

Stirling Moss

"When Juan Fangio retired from active driving, Stirling was considered by his peers to be next in line as the best in the business.

"He was exciting. Unpredictable. He could usually get to the front. Stirling did have a fair amount of mechanical difficulties...some drivers had trouble in practice, some had trouble in the race.

"He was a superstar. He had a manager, when the rest of us didn't. He raced once a week, traveled a lot all over the world, reminds me of my own life at the time.

"We drove together on several occasions and won the 1960 1000-km sports car race at the Nürburgring together in a Birdcage Maserati for the Camoradi Team. It was a thrill. You knew how good he was. So you knew where you stood also....It was a bit like driving for the Wood Brothers in NASCAR; if you went into the pits in 4th place, you left in 3rd. He was great!"

Phil Hill

"First time I became aware of Phil was at Pebble Beach in his Jag XK120, which he had shipped over from England. Probably 1951. I was watching from the forest, rooting for him. He was almost a generation ahead of me.

"He was intense. Drove hard. Had a bad case of the racing virus. He seemed to have the most luck in the endurance races.

"I always had a very high regard for Phil. When I first went to Europe, he helped me quite a bit. He, and Denise McCluggage, and Bernard Cahier.

"I would have liked to see Phil go to Indy, and do a little more racing in America.

"At Ferrari in 1959 we were teammates and we got along just fine. At the Targa Florio in Sicily he gave me my first ride as a passenger in a 2-seater 2-liter Ferrari Mondial nicknamed "the Muletta" [mule]. One lap around the circuit equals 42 miles! He scared the Dickens out of me. Later I gave Cliff Allison a similar ride, generating the same feelings in him. When Cliff got in the car to drive by himself, he went off! Phil and I and our families have been friends in California ever since."

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