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Photo Gallery 3: Allen R. Kuhn, 1959-61

pete — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 04:30:18 +0000

Story and photos by Allen R. Kuhn

In the lead photo above, Bill Dixon in his #711 Maserati 300S tries to perfect his NASCAR bump draft technique on the rear end of Jack Nethercutt’s Ferrari 250 TR 59/60 at Pomona on January 8, 1961. Nethercutt finished 6th OA and 3rd in DM where as Mr. Dixon was able to get around Jack for 5th OA and 2nd in DM. This race was won by Bill Krause in a Maserati Birdcage Tipo 61, a follow-up to his win at Riverside on October 16, 1960, in the same car. Below are a few photos from 1959 to 1960 in chronological order.

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Silverstone Classic Race Meeting, 2015

pete — Tue, 28 Jul 2015 14:33:31 +0000

Bizzarrini-not listed in program but sure made a great photo!.

Story and Photos by Jonathan Sharp

CLICK on each photo to ENLARGE

Photos below include: Squire, Capri, Alfa 1300 Berlina, Maserati 300S, Maserati 250F,Bugatti T35, Pantera, Bizzarrini, Ligier, Ghibli Targa, Breadvan Ferrari, Lancia B20, Alfasud, Gipsy Dino, Alfa 8C 2300 Zagato, Alfa GTA, Talbot, Delahaye and more.

The numbers certainly make impressive reading; one hundred thousand spectators, over one thousand race cars, one hundred twenty car clubs displaying on the infield, fifteen hundred classic cars, all painted silver parading around the circuit on the Sunday, July 26.

It could only be the Silverstone Classic race meeting. This was the 25th running of the event which makes me feel rather old as I have fond memories of attending one of the earlier meetings which featured Ferrari as the theme. It was during that meeting that a lorry-driving pal of mine got to drive an ex -Ferrari race transporter around the Grand Prix circuit during the demo laps. (I really must try to find my video of the event.) Whilst the grids where indeed huge the content was somewhat low on the Italian and French race car count, but the racing was superb and the entries very diverse, from Pre-war Bentleys to Group C racers from the 1980s and 90s. It’s just a shame it rained so much. Thank heavens I picked the only dry day (Saturday) to attend!

The ex-Count Volpi Ferrari breadvan of Martin Halusa was the winner of the inaugural Scarf and Goggles award for most admirable car competing in the meeting. The car was driven in the Royal Automobile Tourist Trophy for historic cars by his sons Niklas and Lukas.

Pantera-no further info.

38 cars were entered for the FIA Masters Historic Formula One race. Unfortunately the 37 Cosworth DFVs drowned out the sound of this beautiful Matra V12-powered Ligier JS17 driven by Rob Hall from Hall and Hall.

Geoff Gordon’s 1961 Alfa 1300 Berlina.

Well-known Talbot racers Tania and Richard Pilkington entered their 1938 4500cc Talbot T26 SS in the Kidston Trophy.

Sounding absolutely magnificent, Martin and Niklas’s 1932 Alfa Romeo 8C 2300 Zagato.

One of my favorite races of the weekend was the Super Touring Car Trophy which featured many of the cars I can remember watching on the TV back in the 1980s and 1990s. Here is Patrick Watts in his 1998 Peugeot 406.

Neil Twyman driving the Muletto and overtaking Nigel Dowding’s Aston Martin MK2.

Halusa in his T35B.

Simon Diffy in the 250F-CM.

Klaus Lehr’s 250F-CM.

Jim Morris’ 1971 Gipsy Dino P271 powered by a 2000cc Dino V6.

Another 2000cc V6 Dino powered sports racer, this is Keith Martin’s Dulon Dino P271 also from 1971.

Andrew Hall and Patrick Blakeney Edwards shared this rather nice 1934 3500cc Delahaye 135S in the Kidston Trophy for Pre-War Sports cars. The race was named in honor of Bentley boy Glen Kidston.

Guillermo Fierro’s Maserati 250F, chassis 2501/2523 was one of the stars in the HGPCA race for Pre-1966 Grand Prix cars.

My wife’s favorite car, though hers was not as fast as Steve Dymoke’s Alfa 156 shown here.

Slightly smaller than the Fiat S76 he drove at Impney! Duncan Pittaway aboard the 1925 Bugatti T35B.

Gregor Fisken in the Tim Samways-entered 1960 Ferrari 246S. The victor on the day of the Stirling Moss Trophy for Pre-1961 Sports cars.

The Ghilbili Targa is a one-off which was built by Pavesi.

The Alfa Sud was amazing. Owned for 39 years by Jonathan Trinder, the car is totally original and has covered 75 thousand miles. The car was featured on the BBC programme Top Gear back in the 1980s when it was the 1970s choice of car for a “cars of the decade” feature.

The B20 is listed as 1991cc 1953, drivers David and Andrew Wenman (info from the HSCC web site) but the program lists the Wenman’s as racing a C Type Jaguar. I also think the Jury is out with regards to the modern alloys. The car was due to race on Sunday in the RAC Woodcote Trophy for Pre-1956 Sports cars.

The Matra V12 engine is in Rob Hall’s Ligier JS17.

Jeremy Cooke’s 1974 3.0 RSR.

Racing in the HSCC Guards Trophy race on Sunday was this very interesting 1600cc Costin Nathan GT from 1966. Entered and driven by Jack and Mark Woodhouse.

The Ensign F1 sans bodywork just because it shows how vulnerable drivers were in the 1970s.

The Squire Short Chassis from 1935. The 1498cc supercharged engine sounded fantastic. The drivers were Richard Wilson and David Brazell.

The Williams F1 line up was put on by Williams and is part of their Heritage collection.

Rapi Fiat 8V with Bristol 404.

Jason Wright and Salvadori Ivo’s 1965 GTA.

Max and Andrew Banks from Alfaholics in a 1965 Giulia Sprint GTA.

Another star from the stable of Martin Halusa and entered in Sunday’s Royal Automobile Club Woodcote Trophy for Pre-1956 Sports cars. Driven by Lukas Halusa..

Ros Shaw and Chas Matthews, 1964 1570CC Sprint GT.

Give me a Fiat 124 Sport or Alfa 105 Sprint, but there is something about the lines of the racing RS Capri. It must be misty-eyed nostalgia.

Graham Gauld, By The Way

pete — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 15:15:19 +0000

Bäumer at the wheel of the Mercedes when he had his driver test at Monza, 1937.

Graham Gauld talks to Maserati 300S author Walter Bäumer

Two years ago Walter Bäumer Jr. launched his tome on Maserati and in particular to the Tipo 300S and since then he has been working on an equally complicated book on the Maserati A6G 2000 Zagato models. However,If you are of a certain age the name Walter Bäumer might mean something to you for there was a Walter Bäumer who raced for Mercedes-Benz in 1938. He was the author’s uncle.

Young Walter is a very amusing and affable enthusiast who specializes in Maserati history (www.internationalMASERATIresearch.com) but about a year ago we talked a bit about his family and particularly his uncle.

Walter’s father, Werner Bäumer was a motorcycle racer alongside his older brother Walter but it was Walter who was passionate about motor racing and, like all young men, wanted to become a grand prix driver.

He started out racing a BMW Dixi ,which was the Austin 7 built under license by BMW back in the 1930s, but he was so successful, by winning 93 races in that class, that in 1936 he was offered a contract by the Austin Motor Company to race an Austin 750 Monoposto in Europe. He took part in a number of voiturette-events with reasonable success while his brother Werner became his manager and business adviser.

Walter Bäumer at the wheel of the Austin 750 single seater in the Voiturette race at Bern in 1936.

However Bäumer’s big break came when he was invited to a test session with Auto Union at the Nurburgring in 1937 alongside some other up and coming drivers. Though he drove well he unfortunately crashed the car and so was not considered for the team.

He was devastated but the team manager remarked that they had an old Alfa Romeo that Paul Pietsch had raced. So Bäumer bought the Alfa in order to become a private entrant in grand prix racing. However, he then received an invitation from Mercedes Benz to test their car at Monza and was chosen to join the team for the 1938 season. So he never raced the Alfa. In the next two years he came to action as a junior driver for the Mercedes team and raced in the German Grand Prix, the Swiss Grand Prix, in Donington and in the last Grand Prix in Belgrade on the day WWII was declared.

The onset of World War II cut his racing career short but Walter Bäumer actually shared the winning BMW Coupe with Huschke von Hanstein in the 1940 Grand Prix of Brescia – the renamed Mille Miglia.

Young Walter explained that most of the leading sportsmen in Germany had been made members of the NSKK which was not, as has sometimes been suggested, an offshoot of the SS, but a separate group formed by the governing National Socialist party. Each of the members was, however, given an honorary SS rank. Walter Bäumer was not very pleased about this situation and on the photo of the winning BMW-team in Brescia, his uncle was the only driver refused to wear any Swastica on his overalls. A Little later BMW had plans to race two of their winning MM-cars in Brasov, Romania. They practiced but due to the war-situation the race was canceled.

In action in practice for the 1939 Swiss Grand Prix with the Mercedes Benz spare car. He is leading Hermann Muller’s Auto Union.

When WWII started Mercedes Benz arranged that their drivers were given jobs that kept them out of the action and Walter Bäumer was made chauffeur to a German general in the South of France. In 1941 Bäumer drove the general back to Germany on leave and whilst waiting in his hometown he picked up one of his numerous girl friends in his own 500K Mercedes Benz and took her out for dinner . The Mercedes had been bought from the factory and had previously been owned by his team mate Manfred von Brauchitsch. It was a wet night and when driving along a road in the countryside the girl friend leaned over to kiss Walter on the cheek but he turned and kissed her. However, when he looked back he was coming into a corner and the car went off the road. The door flew open and Walter Bäumer fell out of the car on to a sharp fence post and was killed. When his uncle’s body was taken back to the family house, Walter’s aunt told him, two SS men arrived with a black uniform and insisted that Bäumer be buried in an SS uniform. Bäumer and most of the other drivers had refused to join the Fahrer SS and his father, was incensed by the demand that his son be buried in an SS uniform. He waited until the two SS officers left and then stripped off the black uniform and put on Walter Bäumer’s civilian clothes to be buried. The 500K was not much damaged and taken to the local Mercedes dealer. He declared the car as totally demolished to the SS and transported it to the house of the Bäumer family where it survived the war hidden behind big wooden boxes and sold to a journalist in the late 40s.

Many years later, in 1976, Walter Bäumer Jr. met the woman who gave his uncle the fateful kiss. She still remembered the tragic situation with tears in her eyes.

Perhaps one day we can persuade Walter Bäumer to write a history of his uncle and the Mercedes and Auto Union racing drivers from before the war. Are you reading this, Walter ?

Walter Bäumer’s new book on Maserati A6G Zagatos will be available soon from Dalton Watson.