Before Lime Rock and Road America, there was Thompson Raceway

[Editor's Note: This article originally appeared in the September 2011 issue of Classic Motorsports]

Today, we take our access to racing venues for granted. Most SCCA regions have two or three road courses within a 3-hour drive. In the late ’40s and early ’50s, however, the growth of sports car interest and the number of vehicles coming into the country far outstripped the number of racing circuits the U.S. had to offer.

The most logical solution was to block off public roads and race, as many did at Watkins Glen, Bridgehampton, Put-in-Bay and Elkhart Lake. Unfortunately, some of these venues were dangerous, particularly Brynfan Tyddyn and Callicoon. 

The next idea was to use airport runways. Shutting down small and noncommercial airports for a weekend created makeshift racing venues from coast to coast. Those were great races, with 1-mile straights that allowed “Gentleman” Jim Kimberly’s Ferrari to reach 174 mph before crowds of up to 90,000 spectators. However, the opportunities dwindled when the Strategic Air Command nixed access to their bases in 1955. 

The real answer, enthusiasts knew all along, was to create a paved track specifically for sports car racing. Ideally it would be somewhere out in the country.

Without intending to slight Watkins Glen’s Cameron Argetsinger, who organized the first postwar race on public roads in 1948, and Bruce Stevenson, who organized the road races at Bridgehampton in 1949, we’d like to share a little-known fact about road racing history: Connecticut’s Thompson Raceway was America’s first closed circuit as well as the first privately owned sports car racing course.

Move It on Over

Racing started on the 1.5-mile road course at Thompson on August 16, 1952—more than a year before the classic Willow Springs course opened in Rosamond, California. To be fair, historian Jim Sitz notes that while Thompson was the first circuit in use, Willow Springs was the first one created from scratch.

Thompson was developed and run by George and Barbara Weaver. George was the last ARCA champion before World War II, while his father, Briggs Weaver, designed the chassis for the Cunningham C-4R in 1951. George was a prominent figure in sports car racing with his prewar Maserati, nicknamed Poison Lil. (Barbara and the late Paul Richards have since rescued this car from a British collection, and it’s now back home in the U.S. at the Saratoga Automotive Museum.)

George Weaver (pictured) and his wife, Barbara, ran the Thompson Raceway road course until 1967. The original road course used part of the facility’s oval track, hence the banked turn seen behind George and his Healey Silverstone. Photography Credit: Alix Lafontant 

As Barbara recalls of the venue’s inception, “George was at Watkins Glen in 1951, talking with some other SCCA officials about what would happen if there were a bad accident there or at Bridgehampton. Most believed the New York legislature would ban racing on public roads. George thought we should have our own racing course and began to look for one.

“There was an oval track in Thompson, and we had raced on the speedway there. George had the idea of trying to build a road course attached to the speedway. Briggs Cunningham invested the money and George invested the work. Several of the people in Westport and Greenwich joined a corporation and leased a portion of the space next to the speedway, and also bought a number of acres nearby. 

“It was about 300 acres. George wanted that space because he didn’t want anyone living next to the race track to complain about it. The first race at Thompson was just before the accident at Watkins Glen.”

he road course’s first and last configurations were both 11/2 miles long and included portions of the property’s oval track. The middle setup, used from 1957 through 1967, was a full 2 miles in length. Photography Credits: Jim Bauman 

That incident, which involved the death of a young spectator, prompted New York state senators Mahoney and Peterson to introduce a bill that would permanently ban racing on public roads. It passed the vote in the Senate in January of 1953, but Schuyler County Assemblyman Jerry Black opposed the bill and had it bottled up in committee. As a result, it was never voted on in the House and never actually became a law.

While public road racing still had a future, Thompson Speedway already had quite a past before that first road race in the summer of 1952. The venue’s original oval actually predates most sports car racing in the States. “Just before World War II, Otto and Emil Bayer built a paved oval on land owned by John Hoenig and called it Thompson Speedway,” Barbara notes. “The Sports Car Club of America, organized in the winter of 1944, conducted time trials, gymkhanas and speed tests on the oval.” 

“I have a race report from a 1947 event there,” adds Jim Sitz. “It was won by Bill Spear in a Mercedes 540K, and Frank Griswold in an Alfa 2900 was second.” 

Evidence exists for an even earlier race at the Thompson Speedway oval, this one held in July of 1945—in other words, after victory over Germany but before the real end of the war, as Japan had not yet capitulated. George took first place in a 2.3-liter supercharged Type 51 Bugatti.

Barbara Fleming, wife of late SCCA official and Porsche driver Bill Fleming, adds, “I went to Thompson often and even drove there. George Weaver did not own the Thompson Raceway road course—he and his wife, Barbara, the big old Maserati and, I believe, a dog lived in a house on the property. 

“The site was owned by a partnership of Bill Spear, Bill Lloyd and Briggs Cunningham. They did a lot of work on what had been an oval, built the road section, revised it and lengthened it.” Fred Procter, Roy Thorpe and George were also partners in the corporation. Briggs, for some reason, was not—even though he’d put up the money to build the course.

Racing Safety Pioneers

George and Barbara Weaver were a vital force in shaping not only where Americans raced, but also how safely they did it. Their role in the advancement of racing safety has never been fully articulated, and yet their early emphasis in this area continues to influence the sport today. 

In an interview with Fred Horsley, George described an incident during the 1950 Seneca Cup at Watkins Glen that sparked his concern about safety. The ambulance responding to Denver Cornett’s accident was speeding round the course against traffic—no yellow flags—and George nearly collided with it in his Maserati at 100 mph.

This situation gave him a determination to work out better safety measures, he told Fred. In 1951, the first year of the Race Communications Association corner workers, he became safety director for the Grand Prix at Watkins Glen. 

However, because 200,000 spectators piled into the stands for each race, it became apparent to him that the only way to be sure of crowd control was to take racing off public roads. After the interview, Fred concluded, “Thompson Raceway accents safety through expert supervision and maintenance of a good course with professional skill, but in an amateur framework.”

“We used to have the raceway open for practice for anyone over 21 with a sports car on every Sunday that we weren’t running a real driver school or a race,” Barbara recalls. “We always had a doctor on call or on the premises, and we had our own fire truck and ambulances as well. We had local volunteer flag and communications people available at all times. We also never had a serious accident during those practice sessions.”

Slow Poke

That first event held on Thompson’s road course was graced with beautiful summer weather. “I saw my first race there,” says longtime flagger and driver Jim Baumann. “The son of my parents’ friends raced a Jag 120 in ’52. I went up as pit crew. I took the spare tire out of the trunk, taped up the headlights, and polished the car—that was the limit of my skills back then.”

On Saturday, August 16, an MG TD won the first race in a field of six novice drivers and their stock cars—all of them MGs. The average speed of the winning car was 55.6 mph. Porsche cabriolet driver Dick Thierry was the next to take top honors in a race for novices piloting modified cars.

Carroll Shelby was one of many big-time racers who competed at Thompson Raceway, but at the time the drivers weren’t always seen as the big draw. The track’s event posters made no mention of expected drivers. Photography Credit: Alix Lafontant 

Sifting through the race results of that historic day, we find names like Fritz Koster, first in the first race on Sunday, August 17, for modified 1.5-liter cars. Koster drove a Porsche, beating Ron Thorpe and Briggs Cunningham, both in Porsches as well. Cunningham was driving a new Porsche America roadster with an aluminum body, the Super engine and upgraded brakes. 

Then there was Edward “Tobe” Tobin, first in the 2-liter modified class, in his BMW 328. He was the co-founder of the Road Racing Drivers’ Club with John Fitch, a fellow World War II fighter pilot. Tobe flew a Curtiss P-40 Warhawk over North Africa in Operation Torch, a mission that cut the German supply lines. Meanwhile, Phil Walters won the feature race with an average lap of 68.9 mph. John Fitch and Briggs Cunningham followed in their Cunningham C-4s.

You Can’t Keep a Good Man Down

Motorsports experienced a year of growth in 1953. Road races continued at Watkins Glen, but they shifted to a 4.6-mile course in the Town of Dix, just outside the village of Watkins Glen. Bridgehampton, Elkhart Lake, Brynfan Tyddyn and Put-in-Bay were active, too. 

Airport racing also expanded, with events at Linden Field, Westhampton, Floyd Bennett Field, Convair-Allentown, Janesville and elsewhere. Late in the year, another sports car course opened at Willow Springs out in California. 

Thompson was still going strong, as the SCCA held three races at the track that year: the season opener on Memorial Day weekend, the regular Labor Day National Race, and a season wrap-up event in October sanctioned by the New England Region of the SCCA.

In 1954, this represented a typical field: an Allard, Jaguar and Maserati vying for position. Photography Credit: Alix Lafontant 

In 1954, there were four events at Thompson, including the Labor Day gathering and another October race. There was also a March promotional appearance by Juan Manuel Fangio, who drove a few laps in a Maserati A6GCS as arranged by Maserati distributor Tony Pompeo. 

Dave Allen, former editor of the SCCA’s Sports Car magazine, had the opportunity to ride with Juan Manuel around the Thompson circuit. “After three or four laps,” he recalls, “I got out of the car, numb with amazement. There were no dramatics, no wild slides or heavy braking—not even a tire chirp. We simply flew around the course at fantastic speed, and yet the only perceptible noise was the wind buffeting my helmet. Afterward I didn’t even want to talk to anyone, as I tried to remember what he had done to make everything so calm and yet so quick.”

Juan Manuel wasn’t the only celebrity to visit the track. “Many famous people were avid spectators at Thompson Raceway,” notes Barbara, “including band leader Skitch Henderson, announcer Walter Cronkite, cartoonist Charles Addams, and actors Jackie Cooper and Joan Fontaine. Briggs Cunningham, John Fitch and Phil Hill were among the internationally recognized drivers who raced at Thompson Raceway.”

Memories Are Made of This

Other race courses began to appear in 1955, including Road America in Wisconsin and Marlboro Motor Raceway in Maryland. “Five years after we started Thompson,” Barbara explains, “SCCA didn’t want the road course to be attached to the oval track. So, we built an extension on the old track and just stopped using the oval. It was expanded in 1957 to 2 miles.”

“The Weaver track was way ahead of its time,” observes Bugeye Sprite driver Ray Stone. “It offered more variety of turns, straights and elevations than any other course at that time. It was truly everyone’s favorite of the three Thompson courses.”

Photographer Alix Lafontant remembers more of the venue’s perks. “A good portion of the paddock is well shaded by large trees, offering a restful spot for drivers and crews,” he says. “The most unusual setup is the fenced-in children’s playground, complete with swings, slides, sandboxes, etc. Since a new SCCA ruling does not allow children under 12 in the paddock, Thompson came up with this perfect answer.”

Both kids and adults could play in the sand at Thompson Raceway. Carroll Shelby shows the more creative line with his Ferrari, while kids under 12 had their own fenced-in play area, complete with swings, slides and, of course, a sandbox. Photography Credit: Alix Lafontant 

The children of racers remember this playground well. Michael Argetsinger recalls playing in the sandboxes when he was a boy. Hamilton Donaldson’s father first raced an Austin-Healey 100M at Thompson. “We would get there on Friday, late, and pitch a tent. Once we put it in a gully—it was the only place left. When it rained, a river ran through it. We were climbing around the rocks—all the kids played on the rocks in the pines.”

Besides the new 2-mile circuit at Thompson, 1957 saw the construction of the terrific new course at Bridgehampton. Lime Rock and Virginia International Raceway also joined the scene, while Riverside Raceway and Laguna Seca sprang up on the West Coast.

In spite of the new venues elsewhere, racing remained just as popular at Thompson simply because drivers liked the course, with its fun-to-drive “light bulb” section and interesting elevation changes. 

Hit the Road, Jack

Thompson Raceway buzzed with activity for the next decade, and competitors from that era remember it well. Jim Shellington went to races at Thompson from 1954 to 1961, before he got his own race car. “In about ’60 or ’61,” he says, “Phil Cade retired his old Grand Prix Maserati and bought a newer 250F. To get it started, his wife would tow it behind a station wagon. When it fired up, it sounded like a ripsaw. I heard it one time at Mt. Washington. The sound was bouncing off the hills everywhere with that engine screaming.”

Jim raced a Lotus 7 America from 1962 through 1964. “Thompson is number one on my list of favorite courses,” he says. He had his car race prepared by Candy Poole. Other denizens of Candy’s barn were Ronnie Stanwick’s yellow Ace Bristol, the Rod de Ronge Ace, Gordon Heald’s Elva, JD Iglehart’s OSCA and Tom Flaherty’s Alfa Giulietta—before he got the Mustang 350.

According to results sheets from the New England Region SCCA, Joe Buzzetta took the feature race in 1963 in an E-Modified Porsche, with George Wintersteen’s Porsche coming home second and Peter Sachs’s FM Lotus 23 earning third. 

“Bob Grossman and I were battling for the lead,” Joe recalls. “Bob was in a Ferrari Dino. The Ferrari was faster on the straightaway, but the Porsche had better handling. But Grossman dropped out late in the race, and everyone moved up one place.” Joe was driving a Porsche RS61 in 1963 and won the EM national championship that year.

Small-bore cars were also a staple of Thompson Raceway’s scene, as the starting grid for this 1953 Class F race was littered with MGs and Porsches. Photography Credit: Alix Lafontant 

“I don’t remember being beaten by a Porsche that year,” says Peter Sachs, who won the F-Modified national championship in ’63. “The Lotus was a very fast car, even if it did have a pushrod engine—nobody had a twin-cam.” Peter later won the 1964 national race at Thompson with his Brabham BT5, beating Skip Barber in a Lotus-Porsche and Hal Keck in a Cobra.

Not all of the memories of Thompson were good, however. There was an unfortunate occurrence at the 1966 big-bore race. 

“Hal Keck was racing with Bob Tullius,” recalls former Regional Executive Jim Poor, “when Tullius went off course and then pulled in front of Keck and wrecked him. Keck was going for national points when it happened.” The stewards of the meeting disqualified Bob because he ignored the reentry signal, but that wasn’t much solace for Keck, whose car was too damaged to complete the race.

Hello Goodbye

Thompson Speedway hosted another SCCA contest on July 23, 1967. Those present probably had no idea that it would be the last event the Weavers would ever run at the track. 

Soon after, the Hoenig family, who had leased some of the land to the raceway, refused to renew the 15-year lease on fair terms. There was a rumor that Don Hoenig Sr. had refused to renew the lease on any terms. Whatever the case, the Weavers had no choice but to close the track following that July race. 

The Hoenig family did attempt to hold their own sports car races, however. Unfortunately, they did not keep pace with new developments and concepts in racing safety, and the track became more hazardous than other circuits competitors were used to running. 

“The Weaver course was the one everyone liked,” says Jim Poor. “When the Hoenigs got involved, nobody liked the track. Basically, the Hoenigs took over the part formerly leased to the Weavers and connected it to the oval.” The Thompson road course held its last race in 1977, after the Hoenig family refused to repave the track.

While Thompson Raceway fell through the cracks under the Hoenigs’ reign, Barbara reflects on what made her and her husband’s brand of management so successful. “I think George and his SCCA colleagues were following the original SCCA culture,” she says, “when they decided to establish a private road racing course to offset what they knew would be a complete ban on racing on public streets.

“In 1952, the club was still totally amateur, with many competitors driving their cars, racing them and hopefully driving them back home. As the years went by, SCCA became more and more involved with professional racing, and even the drivers became more involved with sponsors,” she continues. “George was always a strong believer in the amateur racing ethos and fought hard against the professionalizing of the SCCA. This caused much turbulence between him and the SCCA.”

These efforts did not go unappreciated in the racing community. “Thompson was more than a race track [for us], it was like a family,” says Peggy Cade. “Phil drove at Watkins Glen, Lime Rock, Bridgehampton and several hillclimbs, but Thompson was our favorite place. There were a lot of nice people there and we always enjoyed their company.”

“Thompson wasn’t just a terrific track,” adds Elva driver David Fenton. “George and Barbara Weaver made it very special, actually wonderful. The Vintage Racer Group now has a George Weaver Trophy. From my perspective, he was one of the greats of America’s early years of sports car racing.”

Even though Thompson Raceway was based around an oval track, the road course section wasn’t flat. It contained a nice mix of hills and sweepers, perfect for the day’s sports cars—like this pair of Mercedes-Benzes or Jack Ensley’s Kurtis-Buick. Photography Credit: Alix Lafontant 

Still more praise comes from race worker David Belden: “The Weavers’ Thompson was a wonderful place. I go over and walk around some of the remaining portions of the Weaver course at least once a year. Even with trees growing though the asphalt, I still remember the good old days there.”

The track’s closing was a most unfortunate ending for Thompson, and certainly the Weavers and the owners deserved far better for their efforts. But one thing is certain: In the history of the sport, Thompson Raceway will always be The First Place to Race.

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