Jim Kimberly in the OSCA coming down the hill into turn five.

Text by Robert Birmingham
Photos by Glen Glendenning

Road America June Sprints, 23-24, 1956

After an exuberant late 1955, an abbreviated time to sit back and smell the roses was shortened even more when the Chicago Region SCCA received approval to hold two race weekends at Road America, the first on June 23 – 24, 1956 and another on September 8 – 9. If that wasn’t ambitious enough, the National Association for Stock Car Racing’s (NASCAR) Grand National Series secured a race date in August. Clearly all involved, Clif Tufte and his extended team, local merchants and SCCA officials, had their winter hours spoken for to assure competing drivers and their respective teams, area merchants and attending fans from across the Midwest and beyond had safe, enjoyable and profitable summer.

Chicago Region officials were quick to review and address the previous year’s inaugural event as it pertained to driver and fan safety and the important role needed to be played by volunteers, mostly inexperienced corner workers. SCCA had yet to have a corner worker’s manual and therefore workers and marshals performed at risk to themselves and to hard charging racers.

In this article we will only cover the 1956 June Sprints.

Upon presentation to Clif Tufte and his lead staff, it was clear both organizations were on the same page. Tufte and crew addressed the need to make improvements to the overall physical plant – muddy paddock and other grassy areas needed to be seeded, haybale and snow fence placement moved, clearly crowd control and spectator comfort were paramount. Based on 1956 concession sales, coupled with an expected increase, a need to review and plan was imminent. There was a lot to do.

The June weekend program consisted of six races, three on Saturday June 23 and three on Sunday. Friday’s practice was not without perilous moments. Walt Hansgen had an off-road, twice roll-over excursion after Corner 6 in the Cunningham entered D Jag that ended with little more than aches, pains and paint scrapes on his helmet. Sunday’s 150-mile feature race was very competitive but in the end it was Carroll Shelby’s Ferrari 121LM taking checkered flag.

James Orr, Devin Panhard, placed 10th in race 6.

D Jag, Sherwood Johnston, DNF in Race 7.

Allard, Walt Grey, finished 14th, race 7.

Allard of Tim McGrade would finish 17th in race 7.

D Jag, Lou Brero, placed second to Shelby in race 7.

Walt Hansgen in the Cunningham D Jag DNF’d in race 7.

Major R.J. Wyllie in the Lotus during practice.

Bill Kimberly, Jim’s nephew, in a TR3 would place last in race 2.

Bill Lloyd, Maserati, placed 7th in race 7.

Phil Stewart, Maserati, came in 6th ahead of Bill Lloyd in race 7.

Jim Kimberly in OSCA number 5 getting even with Briggs Cunningham in OSCA #61.

James Rowland Lee in the Frazer-Nash.

Ed Crawford, #69, battles it out with Jack McAfee in dueling Porsches. McAfee would win race 3.

GM’s Firebird was on hand as well.

Note: No Ferraris!? We have saved photos of both the Ferraris and Corvettes at Road America for another article in VeloceToday. Also, for those who are interested in the race statistics, a great source is racingsportscars.com

Alan Connell in the Ferrari California [chassis 1603] he shared with owner George Reed. Connell flogged the car and ran as high as 3rd overall after ten hours, before the drivers had to settle for a 5th place at the finish.

By Willem Oosthoek
All photos taken by Bob Jackson [Willem Oosthoek Collection]

This gorgeous 250GT [chassis 1773] was entered by Luigi Chinetti’s NART for George Arents [here] and Bill Kimberly. They ended 7th overall, one of the six GT Ferraris finishing in the top ten. It showed the reliability of these cars.

The below image of Paul Wilson’s Alfa 6C 2500 is the first in a slideshow; the directions are to look at the photo, and do one of two things: either click on the arrow at the center of the photo to go to the article itself, or, click on the arrow that appears on the right and left side of the photo. This will bring you to the next story, if right, or previous story, if left arrow is selected. Hence, a slide show, scrolling left and right instead of up and down.

This slide show of fourteen stories clearly demonstrates the excellence, depth and range of stories that appear every week in VeloceToday, authored by top writers and photographers from the U.S., UK, Belgium, Australia, France and Italy.

These articles all appeared in VeloceToday in 2020, some written before the pandemic, while one, authored by vintage racer Ernie Nagamatsu dramatically details the day that for him, the world changed. In 2020 Paul Wilson began his series of articles detailing how he came to create his own body on an Alfa 6C 2500 chassis; Maserati historian supremo Willem Oosthoek told the tales of two important Maserati drivers; John Waterhouse related the history of the Renault 4CV; Burt Levy described the victories and defeats of racing an Alfa in the 1970s, while the dean of motoring journalists, Graham Gauld, tells us about the amazing Dr. Wax and his cars.

And, much more. So take the time to scroll sideways for a change, and get a bit of what we did in 2020. There will be much, much more in 2022.

Pete Vack, Editor, VeloceToday