Just before we went to press, we received the very sad news that American racing pioneer Briggs Cunningham Jr. had passed away on July 2. He was 96 years old.
Photo: Pete Lyons
Born in Cincinatti, Ohio in 1907, Cunningham was the consumate American sportsman, competing in both automobile and yacht racing for much of his life.
Cunningham developed a taste for auto racing in college after meeting Ralph De Palma. As a driver, Cunningham raced a wide variety of sports cars, before beginning construction of his own cars starting with a Buick-Mercedes hybrid in 1940 and then the now famous line of Cunningham automobiles.
On the water, perhaps Cunnigham’s greatest achievement was in 1958 when he captained the Columbia to a successful defense of the America’s Cup against Great Britain. We’ll bring you more on the amazing life of Briggs Cunningham in an upcoming issue of VRJ.
