As you’ll read elsewhere in this issue, we sadly report that the elder statesman of American motorsport, John Fitch, has passed away at the remarkable age of 95. As outlined in his obituary on page 12, Fitch’s life read like some kind of wild adventure novel melding Indiana Jones, Captain America and Speed Racer, with safety crusader, inventor, husband and father. The resulting 95-year life that bubbled out of this heady brew is almost too fantastic to be believed, but for the fact that it was all true!
The one consistent thread that runs continuously through Fitch’s life is what a truly genuine and kind-hearted person Fitch was. Over the last decade, I was very fortunate to have spent time with Fitch in a variety of settings—everything from book signings and track events to my living room sofa! Yet, regardless of the location, the circumstance or the people involved, I never saw Fitch to be anything but gracious and engaged. With such a lifetime of incredible adventures and stories—and such a large number of enthusiasts wanting to hear them—it would be understandable if Fitch became a little detached or disengaged. Yet perhaps the most remarkable part of John Fitch was that when he sat down to talk with you, he actually listened. He was present and engaged in your conversation, regardless of who you were.
Between our obituary in this issue and the larger tribute that we have compiled with the input and help of a number of Fitch’s friends and racing contemporaries, I have to admit to struggling to think of something else meaningful that I could add. Then, as I sat here contemplating what more I could contribute, I received an email from our Canadian correspondent John Wright. Wright was lamenting the fact that he had begun an interview with Fitch that was never completed, and now, never would be. Not knowing what to do with the partial transcript, he sent it to me to see if it might be of help in our tribute. As I read through the text, which predominantly covers Fitch’s life before racing, I was delighted to discover some finer nuances in Fitch’s early life story.
For instance, when asked about how he joined the war effort, Fitch responded, “I joined up in April 1941. I was commissioned five days after Pearl Harbor. I went to Georgia and from there to New Jersey where I patrolled for submarines, in a short-range aircraft with no bomb load. Mine was the first air combat unit to go to England. We were stationed at Northampton and undertook some of the first raids on the French coast. We ran a few missions that spring of 1942 and then in the fall of that year, when Allied forces invaded North Africa, we went there. We raided ports supplying Rommel, and then my squadron was rotated home. I stayed on. The RAF used captured enemy aircraft to train against, and I wrote to General Doolittle telling him we should do the same thing. I got a co-pilot, a mechanic and flew a B-25 to Sicily where I found a perfectly good ME-110. I flew it back to North Africa where the landing gear stuck as I was landing it. I was okay though.” Typical Fitch, matter of fact after crash landing an unfamiliar enemy aircraft!
Fitch related that later in the war one of his jobs was to fly P-51s to high altitudes and then open up the throttle until the engine seized! When asked if that wasn’t kind of dangerous, Fitch calmly replied, “Well, it wasn’t that dangerous. The engine would seize, and then, I would do a dead-stick landing, just like the space shuttle does today.”
After the war, Fitch ran a seaplane base in Florida, which is where he met and began dating Kathleen Kennedy. Of the Kennedy clan, Fitch remarked, “I got to know Jack Kennedy. I dated Kathleen. Teddy was a fat obnoxious kid. Rose was an angel. Every time we got together there was a lot of talking going on, centering on Jack. He was asking all his friends whether it was a good idea to go into politics.”
Perhaps most intriguing though was Fitch’s discussion of how he got started in motor racing, “Just before the Second World War started, I went off to see the world in 1939. I wanted to buy a horse in Paris and ride it to Rome, if you can imagine! The embassy wouldn’t give me a visa, and so there I was in England. So, I happened to go to Brooklands for a race, and there I saw cars I had never seen before. I saw Freddie Dixon. I saw Maseratis. I saw Bentleys, Austins, fascinating cars. I had been to Indianapolis before, but this moved me. I raced ten years later (at Watkins Glen) because what I had seen in England fascinated me.”
Intentional airplane seizures, bombing raids, trysts with a Kennedy, racing in the Mille Miglia, attempting land speed records at the tender age of 90. Rest in Peace John Cooper Fitch…you’ve lived a very full life.
