Phil Walters

Phil Walters (born April 20, 1916 in New York City , † February 6, 2000 in Homosassa ) was an American automobile racing driver , designer and sailor .

Career

Phil Walters began his career driving midget cars in the 1930s. He won his first race straight away and celebrated a number of victories with the vehicles of this racing formula before the war years .

During World War II, he served in the US Air Force and flew gliders and Douglas C-47 transport aircraft. During the reconquest of the Netherlands, he was shot down and became a German prisoner of war.

After the war, he and his partner Bill Frick built racing cars by converting Cadillacs into racing touring cars. At a racing event in Watkins Glen in 1949 he met Briggs Cunningham , who was also active as a designer and racing driver and animated Walters to start at the 24 Hours of Le Mans . With the futuristic Cunningham Le Monstre , Walters and Cunningham reached eleventh place in the overall standings in 1950.

In the 1950s, Walters was one of the best and most successful sports car drivers. It was founded in 1953 together with John Fitch on a Cunningham C5-R third in Le Mans and won in 1953 (with Fitch) and in 1955 with Mike Hawthorn at the 12-hour race at Sebring .

Five years after his first appearance at Le Mans, Walters was one of the first drivers to come to the scene of the Le Mans catastrophe at the start and finish. As soon as Walters realized the extent of the accident, he immediately resigned from racing.

After his racing career, he headed an Audi sales agency in Hicksville for many years and moved to Florida with his wife Sheila in the 1990s to enjoy his retirement there. Walters, like his friend Cunningham, was a great sailor and died in February 2000 at the age of 83.

statistics

Le Mans results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1950	Briggs Cunningham	Cunningham Le Monstre	Briggs Cunningham	Rank 11
1951	Briggs Cunningham	Cunningham C2-R	John Fitch	not classified
1952	Briggs Cunningham	Cunningham C4-R	Duane Carter	failure	malfunction
1953	Briggs Cunningham	Cunningham C5-R	John Fitch	3rd place and class win
1954	Briggs Cunningham	Ferrari 375MM	John Fitch	failure	malfunction
1955	Briggs Cunningham	Jaguar D-Type	Bill Spear	failure	Ignition damage

Sebring results

year	team	vehicle	Teammate	placement	Failure reason
1953	Briggs Cunningham	Cunningham C4-R	John Fitch	Overall victory
1954	Briggs Cunningham	Ferrari 375MM	John Fitch	failure	Engine failure
1955	Briggs Cunningham	Jaguar D-Type	Mike Hawthorn	Overall victory

Individual results in the sports car world championship

season	team	race car	1	2	3	4th	5	6th	7th
1953	Briggs Cunningham	Cunningham C4-R Cunningham C5-R	SEB	MIM	LEM	SPA	ONLY	RTT	CAP
			1		3
1954	Briggs Cunningham	Ferrari 375MM	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	CAP
				DNF		DNF
1955	Briggs Cunningham	Jaguar D-Type	BUA	SEB	MIM	LEM	RTT	TAR
				1		DNF

Web links

• Phil Walters at Racing Sports Cars