Art Huttinger (1925-2016)

Former SCCA hot shoe Art Huttinger has died from heart failure in a Florida Veteran’s Hospital at the age of 91. Born in 1925, he grew up in Great Falls, Montana, and excelled as a high school athlete in football, basketball, long distance running and speed skating. In 1942, at age 17, Huttinger joined the Navy Coast Guard for gunner’s school in St. Augustine, Florida, and later saw action in the South Pacific, including Okinawa.

Returning to Florida after the war, Huttinger spent 10 years as a ranger with the National Park Service, followed by two years employed as an aluminum salesman, giving Roger Penske a run for his money, no doubt!

Huttinger began his sports car career relatively late in life, in 1958 at age 33. Over time he owned and raced various cars: a 1958 production Corvette, a Bocar XP-5, a Knobbly Lister-Chevy and the rare Troutman-Barnes-built rear-engined Scorpion (above). He also co-drove a Costin Lister-Chevy and Shelby Cobra with his friend Pete Harrison.

Art always tried to buy American, but the Bocar was so unreliable that its nickname soon became “Blowcar.” The Knobbly Lister was a vast improvement, and in 1961 and 1962 Huttinger registered many overall victories in SCCA races around the Southeast, claiming the regional CM title in 1961.

Nicknamed the Montana Cowboy, Huttinger became known for his excellent Le Mans starts, and the former athlete would fondly remember how he beat Stirling Moss under the foot bridge at Nassau in 1961.