Today has been an interesting Alpine race history day... lots of
interesting information surfaced.
First, for those of you in the Salt Lake City, Utah area.... start
looking for a Right Hand Drive
Series II Alpine in a junkyard. Back in 1990, Don Stephan bought a
boat load
of boxed parts from a junkyard in the Salt Lake City area... these
spare parts were from Ralph Bowyer's
1961 Sebring car.
What happened to the car? My guess is the junkyard owner ended up with
the car and parts but all
Don was interested in was the parts. I don't think he saw a car.
Could the car still be in the junkyard? Who knows?
BTW, as with almost all the Sebring cars.... the Aluminum panels would
have probably been replaced
with steel.... really....don't expect to see Aluminum panels. (and if
you do find an Alpine with Aluminum panels
think twice before deciding that it really is a Sebring car!)
Second, I talked with Bob Hines who crewed for Ray Pickering, 1961-64.
Ray raced a wedgewood blue Alpine
in the Lawrence, Kansas area. This blue Alpine was the one you see in
the photos with Stirling Moss and Jack Brahbham
at Riverside at the Times GP, 1961. The story goes that Rootes flew
mechanics and competition parts to California to ready the car
for Stirling. Stirling blew the engine in practice and he had to
share Jack Brabham's Alpine (which btw, they went
on to finish an incredible third overall in the endurance race).
This was a phenomenal Alpine. Though not built at the competition
department it was an incredible treasurer trove of competition parts
as you can imagine Rootes putting a car together specifically for
Stirling to drive.
Anyway, the bottom line is Ray used to let a number of people race the
Alpine after he moved on to TR-4's.
The last owner/driver which I have identified was Steve Blake from the
Lawrence, KS area. Steve
may have been a student but if you are the Kansas area and run across
an old Alpine racer consider the
possibility that it was Ray's car.
Steve Silverstein
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