John Fitch – A Pictorial Remembrance Page Six
The last race of 1955 was the Targa Florio. The Mercedes-Benz team of 300 SLRs came in full force. Mercedes and Ferrari were neck and neck for the Championship. The Targa would tell the tale.
John was teamed with Desmond Titterington. In this photo, John leads the Ferrari 857 Sport of Eugenio Castellotti and Robert Manzon.
Each 44-mile lap of the Targa Florio had 710 corners. The public roads over the Island of Sicily had both domestic and wild animals wandering around as well as bandits. Surfaces ranged from bad to worse and a missed turn might mean a horrific drop down the side of a mountain.
Mercedes-Benz Team Photo – Stirling Moss and Peter Collins stormed into the lead, breaking all records and took the flag followed by Juan Manuel Fangio with Carl Kling in another Mercedes-Benz 300 SLR. Fitch and Titterington were fourth.
After Fitch wrote Chevrolet Chief Engineer Ed Cole about Corvette’s competitive possibilities, Cole had John drive a stock Corvette at Daytona Beach in February 1956.
Fitch covered the Flying Mile at 145.543 mph, setting a new production-car record.
As a result, Cole named John team manager for an effort at Sebring in March. The team was Corvette #1 with John Fitch and Walt Hansgen, Corvette #5 with Dale Duncan and Allan Eager, Corvette #6 with Ray Crawford and Max Goldman, Corvette # 7 with Ernie Ericson and Chuck Hassan.
Before the start, the band played the Star Spangled Banner. Everyone stood at attention.
The Fitch / Hansgen Corvette had a larger engine and a four-speed transmission. The finished 9th overall and won Class B.
After the Sebring 12 Hours, Crawford and Goldman were 15th and won Class C. The other two cars failed to finish, GM won the Team Prize. In a few short weeks, John Fitch had turned a boulevard cruiser into a competitive, world-class sports car.
For the rest of 1956, John drove for Briggs Cunningham. At Elkhart Lake on September 9 in a 6-hour, he was second overall in a D-Type Jaguar.
Great photographs, Art. You really captured the essence of John Fitch, particularly his early years of breezy sailboating, cool girlfriends and aromatic pipe tobacco.
What a wondereful photographic tribute to John Fitch! He led a very adventurous and successful life. RIP John
Over the last 30 years I had seen Mr Fitch at Lime Rock, each year getting closer and listening to his stories. A most interesting man. A full life, no man can ask for more. What a wonderful tribute.
Thank you Mr. Evans for a wonderful photo story of a life well lived.
Wonderful recollections of a true renaissance man We were fortunate enough to have John as honored guest in 2010 at the 50th anniversary of the first Elkhart Lake Road Races. It will be fondly remembered by the members and guests of the Elkhart Lake Historic Race Circuits Preservation Society who were there,
What an inspiration this man proved to be. Thank you, Art Evans, for this splendid photographic record of a fine career. To repeat myself, John Fitch was an inspiration. They don’t make ’em like that anymore. – David White, Slovenia.
Most excellent. Thank you.
What a great man. And he drive so different cars over the years. Men and machine has always been fascinating to read about.John Fitch was such a man Gentleman dont exist so often this days.
Art,
What a pleasure this Thanksgiving morning to go through wonderful photos encapsulating John’s very significant life. Well done, your love and respect for the man shines through in your photos, especially the one with Bob Bondurant, Stirling Moss and an obviously failing Phil Hill.
I never had the privilege of speaking to the man but was close to him doing appearances and signing books at several vintage racing events. A true American hero loved the world over. Wish we had more like him.
For those of us kids in the ’50s who were just catching on to sports cars, John Fitch was an idol. Learned much more about him reading Sports Car Digest Weekly, a tribute to your good journalism. Fabulous memories, SCDW. I had the pleasure of visiting Briggs Cunningham’s Museum in Costa Mesa, CA in the 1980s and talking with John Bishop about the cars you mention that Fitch drove.
Bud Suiter, SCCA Racer from the 70s..
Superb job by Art Evans and his supporting cast, and thank you to SCD for running it. John Fitch was “A True American Hero.”
A beautiful and moving photo essay on a great life. Thank you.
Thank you for such a great photo tribute. John never stopped trying to make things better and safer.
Your Pictorial Remembrance of John Fitch in Sports Car Digest is fantastic. I hope all Fab Fifties folks see this.
Thanks to you Art for getting this all together and thanks to Sports Car Digest for publishing this photographic bit of Sports Car History.
Thanks for Remembering a Good and Great Man. Have visited with John and is a Hero to this 84 year old person.
john and zora can race corvettes again. rip
What a fantastic life and great homage to what I can only assume from all information, an incredible man. He came of age when the race car became such a serious missile that in the wrong hands or bad fate, led to a bad ending. But John survived all those perils only to make it safer for everyone who followed.
thank you for furthering my knowledge of such an icon. I only wish I could have met the man.
I think I remember reading years ago, in the 50’s, that John Fitch while flying a P-51 in Europe during WW2, actually shot down a German ME-262 jet. Does anybody else remember reading that?
Disappointing to find no record of John’s 1949 exploits on the streets of Bridgehampton in an Effyh 500 from Sweden. As yet this seems to be poorly documented (unexplored?) for the post-war history of racing at Bridgehampton:
The first Euro formula car raced in the US? The “batmobile” towcar team?
Fitch’s very first “professional” ride? What followed???
Bruce Stevenson’s son may have recollections of the war.
Please help us start at the beginning.
Thanks for everything you’ve done for motorsports, Art.
Guy Frost for Bridgehampton Racing Heritage Group
He , was a absolutely gentlemen. Have the opportunity to know him at CC of MB at Irving Ca. He is a real example for the future generations. God bless him and his family.
John was one great guy and certainly one of a kind, we sure did enjoy a few drinks at the bar at Sardi’s in NYC when we were members of a club together, and yes John was credited with having shot down the first German jet in WW II.