James “Hap” Sharp (1 January 1928 in Tulsa, Oklahoma – 7 May 1993) was an American race car driver who drove in six Formula One Grands Prix.
He was most famous however, for being a co-owner and driver of the revolutionary Chaparral sports racing cars built by Jim Hall and Sharp in Midland, Texas. In 1962 Jim Hall and Hap Sharp formed Chaparral Cars, Inc. and immediately began the design and construction of Chaparral 2, a mid-engined car with an aerospace inspired semi-monocoque fiberglass chassis. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
Born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1928, James ‘Hap’ Sharp became known as Hap (derived from ‘Hap’ of ‘Happy New Year’, due to being born on the 1st January). He was heavily involved in the Chaparral sports car project with Jim Hall plus also drove in six Grands Prix races in the early Sixties. His father worked in the oil business and Hap trained as an oil-well drilling contractor and also loved to ski and ran businesses in oil, automotive parts, cars and real estate, going on to become a major land owner in Venezuela and Argentina.
He initially started out racing boats and became the US National Outboard Racing Champion but a love of cars started in 1949 when he rented a MGTC while on holiday in California. After buying his own soon after, he progressed through more powerful cars until he ended up with an almost full race prepared Corvette. At one point, when wanting to buy an AC Ace, he visited a local dealership owned by Jim Hall and Carol Shelby and this lead to a friendship that later saw him involved in the development of the Chaparral. He decided to take up racing after a visit to a race school in 1957 at Hourglass Field in San Diego and the following year contested a season with the Corvette and had eight wins at Galveston, La Junta, Phoenix (four) and Plains Premiere (twice) plus was second with an AC at Mansfield. He had two more victories with the Corvette in early 1959 at Eagle Mountain but the rest of the year saw him in Maseratis. He teamed with Jim Hall for the Sebring 12 Hours in a Carroll Shelby Sports Car’s entered Maserati 250S and through the season his best results were podium finishes at La Junta, Galveston, Tracy, Kansas, Midland, Tucson plus a victory at Kansas. He also raced a Cooper Monaco at Nassau and took second place with it at Hourglass Field.
1960 saw him in varying machinery and contesting SCCA events with an Elva Formula Junior he won at Mansfield and was second at Palm Springs and La Junta. There were several races with a Ferrari 250GT and 250TR, in a Maserati at Palm Springs and he took a podium while driving a Lister at Hondo. His main drives were in a Cooper Monaco and he took podiums twice at San Marcos, three at La Junta and twice at Continental Divide (one with a Cooper Junior) and was fifth at Road America.
A full season with the Cooper in 1961 saw wins at Mansfield, Continental Divide, Galveston, Tucson and twice at Stuttgart plus podiums at Mansfield, Hondo, Las Vegas, Continental Divide, Mansfield and Muskogee. Racing Ferraris, there were fourth place finishes in a 250 GT California at a SCCA National event at Road America and in a 250TR at the Sebring 12 Hours with Ronnie Hissom.
The following year with the Cooper brought wins at Tucson, Mansfield, Alliance, Savannah, Stuttgart and Continental Divide plus podiums at Watkins Glen GP, Green Valley, Road America and Cumberland. Hap eventually became a co-owner and driver of Chaparral cars, which were built by Jim Hall and himself in Midland, Texas, and they formed Chaparral Cars, Inc. The Chaparral was ready to make its debut in 1962’s Sebring 12 Hours and (alongside R.Hissom and Chuck Daigh) they had a sixth place finish that day and were victorious with it in September at the Road America 500 Mile. During this time they began designing and constructing Chaparral 2, a mid-engined car with an aerospace inspired semi-monocoque fibreglass chassis. Racing a Cooper T53 he took fourth place at a USAC Indianapolis event and December saw him back at Nassau with his Monaco and he won the Governor’s Trophy plus took third in the Preliminary Governor’s Trophy and Nassau Trophy races. A track was eventually set up on scrubland, which they titled Rattlesnake Raceway, and was used for testing and also hosted some races SCCA races in 1963. On one occasion, wary of the local wildlife, when Vic Elford came to a halt on track there in a Chaparral 2J in 1970 he didn’t dare leave the car.
1963 was not as successful a season, though he raced various cars, including a Zerex Special with Roger Penske, but his best results were victory at Midland with the Cooper plus second places with a Lotus 27 at a 200 Mile Indianapolis event and at Mid-Ohio in an Elva Mk V11.
Most of his drives were in the Chaparral 2A the next year and he had a win and podiums at Mid-Ohio, Kent and Greenwood (plus fastest lap) and returning to Nassau he won the Nassau Classic plus teamed with Roger Penske to take the Nassau Trophy. There was one race with a Porsche 904, with R.Hissom, at the Sebring 12 Hours plus had a third place result with R.Penske and J.Hall in a Corvette Grand Sport at the Road America 500 Mile.
It was during this period in the early Sixties that he competed in F1 and his debut came in the US GP at Watkins Glen, where, after starting on the penultimate row (alongside J.Hall’s Lotus) he finished tenth with his Cooper T53. He was a regular local addition to the American GP field for the next three years and was eleventh in 1962’s race with the Cooper. He hired Reg Parnell’s Lotus 24-BRM for the US and Mexican races in 1963, retiring from the first but finished a career-best seventh in Mexico City. He entered both races again in 1964 with Rob Walker’s Brabham BT11-BRM but was not classified at Walkins Glen though was thireteenth in his sixth and final GP in Mexico.
1965 would be his last full season, though it proved a successful one wth the Chaparral 2A with victories at Mid Ohio, Bridgehampton, Riverside, Las Vegas and the Nassau Trophy plus podiums at Riverside, Bridgehampton, Watkins Glen, Mont Tremblant, Kent, Laguna Seca and in the Nassau Governor’s Trophy. In May at Continental Divide, which the Colorado SCCA had titled the Grand Prix, he broke the course record in practice with his Cooper then took the lead from the start of the race and held it all the way to the flag. He returned to Continental Divide in August’s USRRC race where the two Chaparrals fought for the lead against Jerry Grant’s Lola T70 but after Hall pitted on lap 27 Hap pulled away from Grant and won in dominating style. In a famous incident during the race, a Cobra driven by Dan Gerber slid off the track all the way onto the nearby Interstate 27 so he drove round on it to a side entrance gate but was denied access. However he was eventually allowed back into the race and went on to finish. There were also victories in shared drives with Jim Hall in the Sebring 12 Hours, plus with him and R.Hissom in the Road America 500 Mile and second place with J.Hall and Bruce Jennings in the Bridgehampton 500. When racing at Bridgehampton, teams often rented local garages or barns for their cars and at the Spring USRRC race fans must have been shocked to see Hap driving on public roads, with his wife, weaving the Chaparral through fans’ cars to enter the circuit.
Hap would eventually finish second in that year’s USRRC results but increasing business commitments forced him to scale back his racing schedule thereafter and he only drove occasionally. Racing a Chaparral 2E at Nassau in 1966 he was first in the Governor’s Trophy and Nassau TT races plus fourth and fifth in the Classic and Trophy events though he and J.Hall retired a Chaparral 2D at Sebring.
The Chaparral team brought two cars to Europe in 1967 and based themselves in a workshop in Frankfurt, Germany, ready to start a full season of European racing. The team only consisted of Hap, Jim Hall and his wife, the two drivers and four mechanics, though they enthusiastically challenged the world’s best in sports/prototype long-distance racing. The cars were mostly driven by Phil Hill and Mike Spence and they took victory in the Brands Hatch BOAC 500 with a Chaparral 2F. However, in May the 2F was taken to Sicily for the Targa Florio, though this time Hap drove alongside P.Hill as M.Spence had F1 commitments. When the Chaparral first appeared it was surrounded by crowds of onlookers and P.Hill, sitting inside the car, mischievously pressed the pedal that moved the wing hydraulically. By pumping on the pedal the wing flapped up and down quite rapidly and the movement caused the crowd to scatter, though they excitedly returned when the flapping stopped. Apparently, whenever a new crowd gathered Hill made the wing flap, and every time they fled! During the race they were running fourth near the end of the ninth of ten laps, but Hap suffered a puncture in a rear tyre and had to retire. The car was not designed for this sort of racing so was only carrying a front wheel and tyre as a spare to comply with regulations and it would not fit on the rear so their race was over.
In the following year he was paired with Dave Morgan in a Sunray DX Oil Company Corvette at Sebring and worked their way up from twenty first to first in GT, and sixth overall, which at that point was the highest finishing position for a Corvette.
Hap took up polo, being a regular player at the Milwaukee Polo Club and in 1960 he and a number of others had put up an arena north of the town and started playing indoor or arena polo. By 1964 the group had expanded (including Jim Hall and Ronnie Hissom) and they founded the Midland Polo Club.
He continued to work in the motorsport industry for many years, plus was the owner of the first fibreglass hulled yacht which he kept in the pacific Northwest, and became one of the largest landowners in Venezuela and Argentina. He owned hundreds of thousands of acres but tragically, while running a cattle ranch in San Martín de los Andes, Argentina, Hap committed suicide in 1993 after discovering he was terminally ill with cancer.
