No, not what you think. Get your minds out of the gutter. She was a guest speaker last night at the Larz Anderson Museum in Brookline, MA. I was fortunate to witness the event. (Sorry, I don’t have any pics). For those of you who may not know who Denise is (and I assume that would be very few), she road raced and rallied sports cars and sedans in North America and Europe in the 50s and 60s. She was also the automotive writer for the NY Herald Tribune in the 50s and publisher of Competition Press, predecessor to Autoweek for awhile in the 60s.
She was extremely entertaining, reeling off one personal story after another about all the great people, venues and events like Fangio, Moss, Gendebien, dePortago, Hawthorne, Collins, Phil Hill, Graham Hill, Masten Gregory, Carroll Shelby, Briggs Cunningham, John Fitch, Erik Carlsson, Vucovich, Swikert, LeMans, Sebring, Silverstone, Monza, Reims, Clermont-Ferrand, Autodromo Modena, Indy, Vineland (NJ), Marlboro (MD), Meadowdale, Floyd Bennett Field and Montgomery Field (both defunct SCCA venues in NY), the RAC Rally, the Liege-Sofia-Liege Rally, etc. etc. etc. And for every one of those names and places she had an interesting anecdote, sometimes amusing (she broke Shelby’s shoulder in a coconut football game during the Nassau Speed Week) and sometimes sad (Luigi Musso’s death during the French GP at Reims in ’58).
It was a great evening for those in attendence with an interest in the history of our sport/hobby. She really brought that era to life. She’ll be 85 years old in a few weeks! She has a bad knee and has lost a good part of her hearing no doubt because she didn’t wear ear protection when she raced. But her memory, public speaking ability and connection with the audience were enormously impressive. I would urge anyone reading this forum to attend one of her speaking events if the opportunity comes up.
(p.s. Shelby got some good drugs for the broken shoulder pain and ran the main feature the next day).
