Chuck Parsons

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Chuck Parsons celebrated his first successes in motorsport in 1961 on a Maserati Birdcage

Charles W. "Chuck" Parsons (born February 6, 1924 in Bruin , † January 3, 1999 in Walnut ) was an American racing driver .

Early years

Chuck Parsons was born in a small town in the US state of Kentucky . He fractured a hip joint when he was five years old . The poor healing process made him limp for life . In 1948 he moved to California and settled in Monterey . He worked as a car salesman and opened a used car dealership in 1950 .

Racing career

His racing career began in 1958 when he competed in an Austin-Healey amateur race. The Austin-Healey was followed by a Porsche 356 A Carrera , with which it won its first race in Pomona in March 1959 . In 1960 he competed in the SCCA sports car championship on a Lotus 15 , which he traded in at Jim Hall in 1961 for a Maserati Birdcage . With the Birdcage he won four races in 1961 and established himself as a sports car driver .

In addition to his starts in the SCCA championship , he was also regularly entered in the USSRC sports car series . He was able to win races again and again in both racing series, but did not achieve a championship title. In 1966 he played his first Can-Am season . Parsons drove a McLaren M1B and finished the championship (Master John Surtees in a Lola T70 Mk. 2 SL71 / 17 ) in eighth place overall. He had his best Can-Am season in 1969 when he finished third overall for the Carl Haas team with the Lola T162 and T163 cars behind the two McLaren factory drivers Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme ( McLaren M8B ).

The end of the 1960s he drove sports cars race for the North American Racing Team , was in 1970 when 24-hour race at Le Mans at the start and was together with Mike Parkes in the Ferrari 312P Coupe sixth overall at the 12 Hours of Sebring . He achieved his greatest success in a single race through the accident of a driver colleague. After Ronnie Bucknum broke his finger in a motorcycle accident, Parsons was signed as his substitute shortly before the start of the 1969 24-hour race in Daytona . He won the race together with Mark Donohue on a Lola T70 Mk.3B GT entered by Roger Penske . After the end of the 1972 season, he retired from active racing. He died of a cerebral haemorrhage in early January 1999 .

statistics

Le Mans results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1967 United StatesUnited States North American Racing Team Ferrari 365P2 United StatesUnited States Ricardo Rodríguez-Cavazos failure accident
1970 United StatesUnited States North American Racing Team Ferrari 312P United StatesUnited States Tony Adamowicz not classified

Sebring results

year team vehicle Teammate placement Failure reason
1969 United StatesUnited States NART Ferrari 250P MexicoMexico Pedro Rodríguez Rank 37
1970 United StatesUnited States NART Ferrari 312P Coupe United KingdomUnited Kingdom Mike Parkes Rank 6
1971 United StatesUnited States North American Racing Team Ferrari 512S United StatesUnited States David Weir failure cooler

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season team race car 1 2 3 4th 5 6th 7th 8th 9 10 11 12 13 14th 15th 16 17th 18th 19th 20th
1964 Randy Hilton Shelby Cobra United StatesUnited States DAY United StatesUnited States SEB ItalyItaly TAR ItalyItaly MON BelgiumBelgium SPA ItalyItaly CON GermanyGermany ONLY GermanyGermany ROS FranceFrance LEM FranceFrance REI GermanyGermany FRE ItalyItaly CCE United KingdomUnited Kingdom RTT SwitzerlandSwitzerland SIM GermanyGermany ONLY ItalyItaly MON FranceFrance TDF United StatesUnited States BRI United StatesUnited States BRI FranceFrance PAR
8th
1967 NART Ferrari 365P2 United StatesUnited States DAY United StatesUnited States SEB ItalyItaly MON BelgiumBelgium SPA ItalyItaly TAR GermanyGermany ONLY FranceFrance LEM GermanyGermany HOK ItalyItaly MUG United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRH ItalyItaly CCE AustriaAustria ZEL SwitzerlandSwitzerland OVI GermanyGermany ONLY
DNF
1968 Ecurie Bonnier
NART
Lola T70
Ferrari 250P
United StatesUnited States DAY United StatesUnited States SEB United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRH ItalyItaly MON ItalyItaly TAR GermanyGermany ONLY BelgiumBelgium SPA United StatesUnited States WAT AustriaAustria ZEL FranceFrance LEM
10
1969 Team Penske Lola T70 United StatesUnited States DAY United StatesUnited States SEB United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRH ItalyItaly MON ItalyItaly TAR BelgiumBelgium SPA GermanyGermany ONLY FranceFrance LEM United StatesUnited States WAT AustriaAustria ZEL
1 37
1970 NART Ferrari 512S
Ferrari 312P
United StatesUnited States DAY United StatesUnited States SEB United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRH ItalyItaly MON ItalyItaly TAR BelgiumBelgium SPA GermanyGermany ONLY FranceFrance LEM United StatesUnited States WAT AustriaAustria ZEL
DNF 6th DNF
1971 North American Racing Team
Dean Racing
Ferrari 512S
Porsche 908
ArgentinaArgentina BUA United StatesUnited States DAY United StatesUnited States SEB United KingdomUnited Kingdom BRH ItalyItaly MON BelgiumBelgium SPA ItalyItaly TAR GermanyGermany ONLY FranceFrance LEM AustriaAustria ZEL United StatesUnited States WAT
DNF DNF DNF

Web links

Commons : Chuck Parsons  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Sports car race Pomona 1959
  2. 1966 Can-Am season
  3. 1969 Can Am Season
  4. 1969 Daytona 24-hour race