Walter Edwin Hansgen (28 October 1919 – 7 April 1966) was an American racecar driver. His racing career began as a road racing driver, made his Grand Prix debut at 41 and 46 when he died, several days after crashing during testing for the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Walt Hansgen was an outstanding sports-car driver. Four-time SCCA National Champion. Drove for Briggs Cunningham and later John Mecom. Qualified twice for the Indy 500. Significantly, introduced Mark Donohue to Roger Penske. Killed in a testing accident at LeMans (in a Ford GT) in 1966. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in 1919 in Westfield, New Jersey, Walt Hansgen’s racing career started in road racing, becoming a four-time SCCA Road Racing Champion. He was one of the greatest American sports car drivers of the 1950s and would later compete in two F1 Grands Prix.
Walt had watched many early races and he began practicing on a homemade dirt track built on the family’s farm. He purchased his first Jaguar and began racing at Bridgehampton in 1951, finishing fifth in his first race and had a second place finish at Allentown. He and his father ran a Jaguar dealership and Walt raced his own D-Type so successfully that he was invited to join the iconic Briggs Cunningham team.
In 1952 he competed in the Sebring 12 Hours, finishing tenth in an MG TD with Randy Pearsall pus took second place finishes at Bridgehampton and Grand Island with the Jaguar and a Siata Daina Gran Sport. He became a regular at Sebring, returning in 1953 with the Jaguar XK120 (with McKnought) then raced a Jaguar C-Type in 1954. In 1955, he and William Eager drove an OSCA MT4 and in 1956 he and John Fitch finished ninth in a Chevrolet Corvette.
He became more and more successful in the SCCA Regional and National races and finally became a champion in 1956, with a D-Type. The second SCCA championship came with the same car the next year, followed in 1958 and 1959 to take his fourth title in a row.
In 1957 he contested the inaugural race at Virginia International Raceway, and though he qualified on pole in his D-Type he finished second behind Carroll Shelby’s 450 Maserati. The Briggs Cunningham Jaguars returned to VIR later that year and this time he not only won the featured President’s Cup Race but also took the SCCA National Championship points title. In the President’s Cup race, Roger Penske started on pole with Walt back in 16th, having missed qualifying and when it started there was a storm so heavy that spectators struggled to see the track. Walt was running second by the first turn and took over the lead on lap three but eventually the driving rain shorted his plugs and he had to pit for a six-minute stop. Rejoining the race two laps down and now ninth, he began lapping at a record setting pace and eventually caught and passed the leaders to take the checkered flag. The year would see the New York Times name him ‘Best Driver of the Year’ and Sports Illustrated nominate him as ’U.S. Sports Car Driver of the Year.’ Besides Virginia, he took victories that year at Lime Rock, Road America, Marlboro, Montgomery, Thompson, Watkins Glen, Bridgehampton on his way to the title. He and Russ Boss finished fifth in the Sebring 12 Hours with a Jaguar D-Type and in 1958’s race he was driving two Lister-Jaguars for Alfred Momo, sharing them with Archie Scott-Brown and Briggs Cunningham, though both failed to finish the race.
In 1958 he participated in two races in the UK with Lister-Jaguar, winning at Snetterton, before returning home to campaign the car with great success, with victories at Marlboro, Virginia, Cumberland, Bridgehampton, Lime Rock and Road America. 1959 saw him race it with Dick Thompson at Sebring and he made his Le Mans debut, racing with Peter Blond, though they retired after 52 laps with a broken engine. In the December, he won the Formula Junior race at the inaugural United States GP at Sebring in a Stanguellini.
He drove Briggs Cunningham’s Tipo 61 Maserati Birdcage to seven SCCA National wins through 1960-1961 and during 1960 also drove the T60 2-litre Birdcage to win his class at the Los Angeles Times GP at Riverside. There was a return to Jaguar for Le Mans, though he and Dan Gurney retired after 89 laps. In 1961, the Cunningham team also ran a newer Tipo 63 rear-engine Birdcage. but though its lack of factory development proved troublesome, he took the car’s only wins in SCCA Nationals at Bridgehampton and (with Augie Pabst) the Elkhart Lake 500. At Sebring he drove two Maseratis for Momo Corporation (with Bruce McLaren, Briggs Cunningham and William Kimberly as co-drivers) though one car retired, the other finished nineteenth. At Le Mans, he and Bruce McLaren retired after 31 laps in the Maserati Tipo 63.
October 1961 saw him make a debut in the F1 World Championship, driving a Cooper T53-Climax in the US GP at Watkins Glen. After qualifying fourteenth he retired after 14 laps because of an accident. An interesting sidenote to the race involved Howard Hughes, who it was reported visited the pits to meet with John Cooper about expanding his car manufacturing business. A photograph taken of him in the pits and later published in Time magazine in 1976 was supposedly the last known photograph of Hughes.
A year later he entered a Lotus 18/21 in the inaugural Mexican GP (which turned out be a chaotic race) and after qualifying thirteenth he retired with ignition trouble on lap 45. In that year’s SCCA season, he mostly raced a Maserati-engined Cooper Monaco T57 for Briggs Cunningham and he and Dick Thompson drove a Maserati Tipo 64 at Sebring while Le Mans saw him and Bruce McLaren race a Maserati Tipo 151.
There were drives in an E-Type in 1963, with Bruce McLaren at Sebring and at Le Mans with Augie Pabst, plus he won the Manufacturers Double 500 in B.Cunningham’s Cooper-Buick. When Briggs Cunningham withdrew from racing at the end of 1963, he went on to race John Mecom’s cars, which included a Ferrari 250LM, a Lotus 19, a Scarab Chevrolet and a Lola T70.
1964 would be a versatile one for Walt as he participated in two NASCAR races, made a debut in the Indy 500 and had another Formula 1 start. His NASCAR debut came at Bridgehampton Raceway and driving his own Ford he finished third then went on to take third place again the following week at Watkins Glen. In F1, he took fifth place, and two championship points, at Watkins Glen with a Lotus and at the age of 44, he qualified an MG Liquid Suspension Special at Indianapolis (and was faster than any previous rookie). In the race he was running as high as third before eventually finishing twelfth and in the following year’s race, he progressed through the field from twenty-first on the grid to fifth before being slowed by overheating. He showed that he earned his nickname of ‘King of the Bridge’ when, in spite of a 10-minute pit stop, he drove John Mecom’s Scarab to victory over the Ferrari of Pedro Rodriguez.
Before joining Mecom, he drove a Ferrari GTO at Daytona to third place (with B.Grossman) for Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team then in September he and A.Pabst took victory in the US Road Racing Championship race at Road America, driving John Mecom’s Ferrari 250 LM.
In 1965’s USRRC season, he mostly raced a Lola T70 for Mecom Racing, taking victory in the Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca though drove a Ferrari 250LM at Sebring with Mark Donohue. During this period, alongside his regular drives there were also races with a Shelby GT350 plus victories with a Cooper Monaco, Lotus 19 and Scarab Mk 1V.
He had become a mentor to a young Mark Donohue and encouraged and coached him and they shared a number of Mecom Racing drive, in the Ferrari and the Lola. In his autobiography ‘The Unfair Advantage’, M.Donohue credits his biggest break in racing to his friendship with Walt. In 1966 he was recruited by Holman and Moody as a lead driver for their Ford Mark 11 and insisted on having Mark as a co-driver. They took a third place finish in the 24 Hours of Daytona then second at Sebring and he began to prepare for two later big races in May and June. He was scheduled to contest his third Indy 500 but before this he traveled to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans tests. Sadly, while practicing on a wet track he lost control and drove down an escape road but there were differing reports, with some saying piles of sand were left in the middle of the road by the track maintenance people while others said he was not aware that a barrier had been placed across the escape lane. He crashed heavily and was taken to a local hospital before being flown to the US Army Hospital at Orleans, where he sadly died three days later.
