| Harry Heuer and the Scarabs
In October, 1961, Harry Heuer brought
his "Meister Brauser" Scarab to California to run the two west coast professional
races.
These amazing cars were built by Troutman-Barnes
for Woolworth heir Lance
Reventlow. He and ace driver Chuck
Daigh raced the three cars in 1957-58. The Scarab's
greatest triumph was Daigh's victory in the 1958
Riverside GP. He defeated
Phil
Hill in the Ferrari
412-MI and a full field of local, national, and European stars.
John McCann's
photos of the 1958 L.A. Times GP at Riverside. (With excellent
unpublished Scarab photos.
In 1959 Reventlow sold two of the Scarabs
to the "Peter Hand Brewery" and retained the third for his personal transportation.
The Brewery raced the cars as "Meister Brausers" to publicize their beer
of that name. Heuer drove one of the Scarabs, and hired another
midwestern beer scion, Augie
Pabst, to drive the other.
In 1961, Heuer sold off one Scarab and
ordered a new car, a front-engined
Chaparral, which he raced as a "Meister Brauser" in 1962-63. The
new car's debut
at Riverside was spoiled by a blown engine in practice/qualifying.
Video! Match
race between Heuer in the Scarab and Bob Carnes in his supercharged
Bocar Stiletto. This special event took place at Continental
Divide Raceway in Colorado in 1960. New! Tom Schultz 's excellent book: "Meister Brauser Harry Heuer's Championship Racing Team".
 |
| Harry Heuer at Laguna Seca, Oct. 21-22,
1961, in "Meister Brauser" colors. He qualified
12th and finished
11th (combined result after two 100 mile heats).
See Preston
Lerner's excellent book for a detailed history of these cars. |
 |
One week earlier...
Heuer rounds Turn 6 at Riverside during
the Oct. 15, 1961 "L.A. Times Grand Prix".
He qualified
7th, then finished
12th in this race. |
| Heuer at Riverside's Turn 8 late in
Friday's qualifying session.
This photo gives a good look at the 1.1
mile back straight leading to the banked Turn 9.
Link:
Don Orosco's Scarab at Laguna Seca in the 1990s!
(6-15-07) New
Scarab Photos! |
 |
| From Bill Kreuger:
(10-29-06)
"You say that Lance and Chuck Daigh raced
the two Scarabs and that Lance reserved the third for his personal use.
It is pretty well documented that the car that Lance had converted for
his personal use was the first car built and also the only one of the three
built as a left hand driver. It was the car that he usually raced
(#16). Lance raced car # 3 at Riverside along side Chuck because
he had wrecked # 16 in practice and took over the car assigned to Bruce
Kessler for the race. The two Scarabs started on the front row with
Phil Hill's Ferrari 412MI between them.
The third car was rarely raced as it
was generally needed for parts for the other two cars and was completely
rebuilt by Dick Troutman after it was severely damaged (nearly cut in half
by a tree some years later). It belongs to the Collier Museum back
east now. It has a wider nose than the race cars because Troutman forgot
that they had taken a 6" pie-shaped piece out of the front of the cars
when they found that they looked too wide initially. Augie Pabst
owns the second car built (Chuck's #5 from the Riverside win) that he got
for a song (some say around $500) in the Meister Brauser bankruptcy sale." |
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Timanus
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