Word: cunningham
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...count on the concurrence of all American sports-car enthusiasts in commending your April 26 cover and story on Briggs Cunningham ... It is fortunate that there exists in this country a man with the competitive spirit and . . . the physical resources to establish America as an important figure in the racing world. It could have been done in no other way. Detroit, having spent 20 years meeting the public's demand for soggy sponge springing, mush-o-matic drive and steering, and cumbersome chrome bathtub exteriors, is disinclined to risk the reputations of its unwieldy boulevard barges in competition (cheers...
BRIGGS S. CUNNINGHAM West Palm Beach...
...Ground. In World War II, Airman Briggs Cunningham flew antisubmarine patrols for the Coast Guard (after being turned down as over age by the Air Force). When it was over, he tucked his flying license away and took a hard look at the new European sports cars. His first, purchase was a chirpy little British MG, soon followed by a 2- liter Ferrari and a Jaguar I 20. Meanwhile, the sportscar revival in the U.S. was gathering speed. A highly successful road race was held in 1948 at Watkins Glen. N.Y., another at Bridgehampton, L.I. in 1949. The enthusiasm spread...
...Watkins Glen race of 1949, he met Phil Walters and Bill Frick, who were operating a Long Island custom-repair shop for U.S. and foreign cars.***** They got to chatting about the feasibility of an American sports car, and before long B. S. Cunningham Inc. was formed, with Phil Walters as general manager...
...Downs. Since then, U.S. road racing has had its ups & downs. In 1950, Sam Collier, a close friend of Cunningham and one of the original Sports Car Club enthusiasts, was killed in a Ferrari in the Watkins Glen Race. Two years later a skidding Cadillac-Allard killed a youngster who was watching from a Watkins Glen sidewalk. The same year, a driver was killed at Bridgehampton. Again there was a public hue & cry, an echo of the Vanderbilt Cup days, and road racing was on its uppers...