1953. The first running of Willow Springs Raceway was a hillclimb from the front straight to the top of turn four. The surface was unpaved oiled dirt. Baron Von Hanstein drives Johnny Von Neumann's pre-speedster Porsche America roadster.

Below: Ak Miller, Ak Miller Spl. and Ray Crawford, Lincoln Capri, run their Mexican Roadrace cars.
 

Below: Ernie McAfee in the 4.4 "Super Monza" and a little 750cc Moretti. After school I'd hitch to his and Bill Doheny's second shop on Sunset and hang out. He was a very good and consistant local driver who never went 'international.'

Below: Masten Gregory drives Tony Parravano's Maserati 300S.


     At 14 and 15, before I got my drivers license, I'd ride my bike or hitch to Parravano's construction lot in Inglewood ( or to Troutman and Barnes' shop in Culver City ) to gawk and crawl around the cars. Parravano owned 11 Ferrari and 14 Maserati racecars. He had Gregory, Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby, Jack McAfee, Ken Miles, Ritchie Ginther, Bob Drake and Dan Gurney driving for him at different times in CalClub, and Bob Sweikert and Jimmy Bryant during his flirtation with 'Pro' racing in RRR. He was a quiet, short and stout man with "Mysterious sources of funding," as a few whispered.
     One day in 1957 when I had a car and was racing in RRR, I drove by his place and found it chained up and deserted. Signs were on the chain link fences. "No Trespassing!" I may be paraphrasing, "Seized by the US Govenment!" and other ways of saying "Nobody home." Apparently he was tipped off. He disappeared with all his cars and was rumored to have fled to Mexico and back across the Atlantic. Supposedly there was a whole "Parravano Room"  at the DoJ.
     In 1961-2 I'd race gokarts at a track co-owned by one of his sons. I'd hear little bits about Italy and Morroco but disregard them, but by the '70s I was seriously ferreting out old racecars, first as a hobby, then as a business and came across tips that led to some of the cars. Some in Mexico and one that was cut in two and hidden behind air conditioning vents in a beach community. A British broker and an Eastern finance hustler went around me but it was a nice 'find.'  One of his sons is writing a book about him. I hope it fills in the missing gaps.

Josie Von Neumann drives dad's Mondial. She always looked 'poised' driving, but there were some very good women drivers racing, especially Linda Scott in Otto Zipper's 4.5 Talbot Lago and 550 Spyder. Other than being gorgeous, she was also a firefighting pilot and instructor. Our neighbor Ruth Levy kicked many men's butts in Stan Sugarman's 550 Spyder. Mary Davis was awfully quick too.
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Francois Crouzet driving a Citroen 11 at Torrey and a Deutch-Bonnet at Willow. 

  He was so French that he would always drive with a cigarette dangling from his lips. He ran the Citroen dealership at Wilshire and San Vicente in Beverly Hills. When the DS19 came out with it's hydraulic suspension, he took me for a ride jumping back and forth over the railroad tracks in the dirt center of San Vicente to show how smoothly the suspension absorbed the shocks. It did.
Quite impressive. 

Phil Hill. TR2. 1954. I think it was Ed Savin's, an early distributor. What an ego trip to put myself in a TR2 next to Phil Hill. I'd been to his 20th st. home many times and had made an insane pitch in 1959 about a McCullough drone powered F2 car. Blank stare and "Don't do it!" was the universal response. I did drive his Mercedes 540K to the docks once. When the blower kicked in, what a howl! His Pierce Arrow and Packard restorations were almost guaranteed show winners. He was superb in every way. He did get very nervous before races in the early days and twice I saw him lose breakfast as the car was pushed to the grid. Years later I told a friend about it as we were in a restaurant. He blew chunks right across the table. "How could you say that at a meal!" He flaired.  "Uh..I dunno. I won't again."

Tom Bamford's Allard J-2 leads Parkinson's Jag spl at Palm Springs 1953.

Bill Murphy's first Buick-Kurtis in 1953 and the streamlined Buick-Kurtis in 1954.  Murphy was a quick and thoughtful driver.

The heavier streamliners tended to be less successful but were up against much stronger competition. 

Chuck Daigh was one of the very best on the West coast. His Cad-Kurtis placed well as did Tom Benedes', but Bill Stroppe's short wheelbase flathead Merc-Kurtis had the best record of the lot.