Photo: Ruth Monsell
Featured Editorials & ContentNewsRacecar ArticlesRacecar News

Fitch Turns 95

SportsCarDigest

More than 100 friends of John Fitch gathered at his home in Lime Rock, Connecticut, to honor him on the occasion of his 95th birthday. A number of interesting cars were on display, including the one and only Fitch Phoenix and a beautiful two-tone burgundy Cunningham C-3 Cabriolet (#5233/5441) in which Lucie Cunningham McKinney (Briggs’ older daughter) was driven up from the Cunningham family estate in Greens Farms, Connecticut.

Road Racing Drivers Association of America (L to R) Bob Sharp, Oscar Koveleski, John Fitch, Judy Stropus, Skip Barber, Sam Posey, Gordon MacKenzie.
Photo: Ruth Monsell

One of the highlights of the event was a reading of a letter sent to John by Mercedes Benz that included congratulations on his fantastic class win and 5th overall finish in the 1955 Mille Miglia driving a stock 300 SL fresh from the showroom floor. Other highlights included John blowing out the 95 candles on his cake (with a little help from his grandson) and a champagne toast. John was kept busy signing autographs and seemed to enjoy every moment of it.

Tags
SportsCarDigest
Steve Natale has been playing with cars ever since he was old enough to first hold a matchbox car in his hand. A lifelong enthusiast of anything old with an engine in it or wheels on it, Steve has been active in the hobby for over 35 years. Currently he owns a successful marketing company with his wife Mary, is an automotive photographer, blogger and writer for several automotive magazines and regular contributor to various automotive websites. Steve has attended vintage car events and visited car museums and collections around the world.
Related
Members only$29 / year

Keep going. This is where it gets good.

Sports Car Digest Membership is for people who'd rather spend an hour with one chassis number than skim ten headlines. The rest of this story — and every other one like it — is a few seconds away.

  • 5,000+ members-only stories

    Concours, auctions, race history, driven classics and the full archive.

  • No ads. None.

    The whole site reads like a magazine, on every device.

  • The market, every week

    Auction results and classic-car values from the people who were there.

  • 30% off the shop

    Every Sports Car Digest shirt and piece of merch, all year.

Join Sports Car Digest — Keep Reading

$29 a year. Cancel anytime, no hoops.
Already a member? Sign in

BY CAR PEOPLE, NOT A NAMELESS MEDIA COMPANY. Your membership keeps a small independent team of historians, photojournalists and racing drivers doing this.

Join — Keep Reading $29/yr