George Constantine in the Aston won the feature Labor Day race. Thompson had races Sunday and Monday with the Monday races counting for National points.
The Greek Constantine looks at his pit board. This race was late in the battle between Constantine and Walt Hansgen. Hansgen won the Sunday race but did not finish the more important Monday feature.
Bruce Jennings Porsche Carrera was 2nd on Sunday but something went wrong for Monday and Jennings would not finish. His cars were always beautifully presented and always #77.
Bob Holbert had a great weekend finishing first in E modified and second overall on the Labor Day race. The number of races Holbert won for Porsche was legendary.
Phil Forno in the much raced Cunningham OSCA. If you look through all our 1959 photos you will find Briggs and Denise McCluggage driving and winning in this same car.
Frank Baptista slides off into the sand in his Elva Mk IV. It certainly didn’t affect him as he won G Mod both days and overall on Monday.
Practice with a very mixed bag. The Fairthorpe of Ed McGurn is in traffic with Walt Hansgen’s Costin Lister, Phil Forno in the Osca, a formula III car and an Alfa Giulietta. You won’t see such an odd group like this very often.
Bob Grossman in his long wheelbase Ferrari California which had to race in the modified class as not enough had been made to be homologated. But Grossman raced, then drove it back to his dealership in Nyack, NY.
Future race stars Ray Stone (L) and Dave Nicholas (R) compete for the attention of Linda Oulton. Linda’s father George would make quite a name for himself in Mini’s a few years later.
A perfect moment from so long ago. A rare and now precious BMW 507 sits in the grass next to Bob Holbert’s Porsche RS-60 on an open trailer being towed by an older station wagon.
A rare color shot of the huge crowds that would come to Thompson to watch the races. Half way between Boston and Providence there were thousands of sports car owners and fans.
Thompson had many race weekends during the season. Briggs Cunningham brought one of his Listers to drive at a regional race in May.
At that same May weekend Harry Carter took his Jag XK-150 and won the production car races. Harry is on his victory lap with his girlfriend alongside and a cigarette in his mouth.
Cunningham would loan his Porsche 550RS for Denise McCluggage later in August at the LISCA race. Denise won overall.
The differences between what people raced on the east coast was very different from west coast. As example, Charles Kelsey raced his Maserati 4CLT/48 often instead of building something newer.
At this regional the well known John Meyer in his huge Meyer special battles it out with Newt Davis’s Porsche. Davis would win. Shortly after Meyer sent the car to Bill Sadler and it cam back with an envelope body but retained its big Pontiac V8.
Another example of how the racers in the east loved their older cars. Phil Cade was a Maserati maniac. This Maserati GP car carried a Chrysler V8. Later Phil would buy the Maserati 250F that Joe Bonnier won the 1958 Glen Formula Libra.
Gerry Giorgi built a special as so many did. This one was built on an XK Jag frame but Georgi changed to a Caddy motor for more power.
Another look at what racing in 1959 at Thompson looked like. Eight MGA’s are fighting it out. Roll bars had just recently been made mandatory. Not one of the 8 identical cars have the same roll bar.
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