Young Jim Hall: The Early Years

Today almost exclusively remembered as the genius behind the competition cars named for a road-running bird in the southwest, Jim Hall did not get the inspiration for his innovative designs overnight. Although he grew into an accomplished engineer, an excellent mechanic, and a top driver, it took Hall almost seven years of racing other people’s products before the first of his own rear-engined, composite-bodied cars hit the tracks in October 1963. Seven years was a long time in motor racing in those days and most careers came to an end within that timeframe. Since there are few comprehensive accounts of Hall’s early competition years, we decided to follow his career before he became an icon with his own designs. Our subject was a young man when he started racing, but the above title is not redundant. In the late fifties, two Texas drivers were named Jim Hall, though they were not related. Both raced a Ferrari 750 Monza so the local press distinguished them in race reports as Old Jim Hall [from Houston] and Young Jim Hall [a Dallas resident by 1957].

Born James Ellis Hall in Abilene, Texas, on July 23, 1935, Young Jim lived his early years in a number of places. His father, Ellis Hall, was a geologist who started the Condor Petroleum Company, an oil and gas exploration business. Developing wells involved frequent relocations for the family. Jim spent his childhood in Boulder, Colorado, followed by high school in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he and his siblings Dick [older] and Chuck [younger] became good friends with the Unser kids, Jerry, Bobby, and Al. At age seventeen Jim married Nancy, his high school sweetheart and, by the time he enrolled at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena in 1953, he was the father of two.

Jim lost his mother early in life, after which Hall Sr. remarried. One month before he entered Cal Tech, tragedy struck again. Jim’s dad, stepmother, and sister were killed in a plane crash when their private De Havilland Dove went down in Alaska; it took six months to recover the remains. Later in life, Jim narrowly escaped a similar fate when his Mustang P51 crashed on takeoff at Love Field in Dallas.

The three brothers inherited Condor Petroleum, headquartered in Odessa in west Texas. Although Jim could have easily joined the family business, he decided to pursue an academic career first. Cal Tech was an outstanding college and Jim’s field of geology would be an asset to future Condor explorations, now run by Dick, the only brother who was of age. Jim moved to an apartment in Arcadia. Once settled, his college ride became a black Corvette, which he parked off campus, not wanting to appear a rich kid. To his fellow students the tall and lanky Hall appeared a loner, the quiet and unassuming cowboy type.

In Jim’s first two years at Cal Tech, he achieved only mediocre grades in geology. Realizing a change was necessary, he pursued a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. Suddenly he excelled, with straight As during his senior year. An indication of things to come, for a class project he designed a 2-liter, four-cylinder opposed engine with poppet valves and an unusual doughnut-shaped camshaft. Close to graduation in 1957, Hall briefly contemplated a career with the Air Force, but decided instead to accept an offer from Zora Arkus-Duntov at the Corvette skunk works. The job did not materialize, though. The AAA ban on motor racing and the resulting cutbacks at GM put an end to that career plan.

Although he was always attracted to fast cars, Jim had done little actual competition so far. His first exposure came at Fort Sumner, New Mexico, in 1954 while he was home for summer vacation. Underage, he nevertheless drove Dick Hall’s Austin-Healey 100 in the novice race. While he retired in a few laps with mechanical problems, the racing bug had bitten. The next step was a giant one for the rookie driver, because it involved one of the fastest sports racers in the country. In the summer of 1955 brother Dick bought a 3-liter Ferrari Monza from Samuel Allen Guiberson in Dallas. Guiberson was in the oil business as well, the owner of a drilling equipment company. The Ferrari was chassis 0510 M and it had an excellent history. In March 1955, Guiberson entered it at Sebring where Phil Hill and Carroll Shelby took it to 2nd overall, briefly believing they had won the race. In April 1955, Hill won with it at Pebble Beach. Late in 1955, Jim entered the Monza at Fort Sumner, where the 240-bhp car easily outpaced the various Specials brought by the local competition. Despite a number of spinouts in the 40-lap feature, Jim’s second race appearance brought his first victory.

In 1956, Dick Hall assigned the Monza to Carroll Shelby, who drove it to wins in the April Nationals at Pebble Beach and Dodge City, Kansas. Shelby captured the Eagle Mountain National near Fort Worth for his sponsor in June. After Eagle Mountain, Dick sent the Ferrari back to Italy for a major overhaul. The process was expected to take about four weeks, but many months went by before the owner discovered that his Monza was caught in paperwork at a Genoa customs warehouse. It wasn’t until May 1957 that the car returned to the United States, by now much less competitive. Meanwhile Jim was still busy at Cal Tech, although he entered his black Corvette in a few California events, such as Palm Springs in November 1956.

Dick Hall and Shelby got along well, often discussing how they could get into the sports car business as a sideline. Since no one in Texas handled sports car sales at the time, the men decided in late 1956 to open a foreign and sports car agency together. With its sizable SCCA membership, the Dallas/Fort Worth area was considered an ideal target market, so they bought premises at 5611 Yale Boulevard. Capitalizing on Shelby’s name recognition and financed with Dick’s money [Shelby never paid for his share of the company stock], they called the venture Carroll Shelby Sports Cars Inc. [CSSCI]. By 1957, the Hall/Shelby agency carried MG, Austin-Healey, Jaguar, Maserati, Rolls Royce, Bentley, and Firestone. Meanwhile, 21 year old Jim, freshly graduated from Pasadena with his GM job offer up in smoke, expressed an interest in joining the Dallas partners. Since Dick had little time or interest in managing the agency’s day-to-day operations, his kid brother’s suggestion was well received. In addition to running the business side of the partnership, Jim would have the benefit of Shelby’s five-year competition experience to tutor him and jumpstart his budding race career.

1957

And jumpstart it did. That year Jim campaigned in California, Texas, New Mexico, Louisiana, and the Bahamas, gaining plenty of experience. His first race of the season came at Palm Springs in April. Since the Monza was still en route from Italy, Jim took his black Corvette to 2nd overall in the production race. After running out of brakes, he lost to Jack Bates’s 300SL, but had the satisfaction of beating the Corvette of his more experienced fellow Texan, Bob Stonedale.

Santa Barbara in May provided the first opportunity to take out the overhauled Monza, although a high-speed encounter with a rubber cone made it one of Jim’s less successful weekends, with a 7th overall.

In the SCCA National at Eagle Mountain in June, the action was heavily influenced by foul weather. Business partner Shelby was the race favorite with his John Edgar-owned Maserati 300S, but managed to go off course in the wet first turn twice, in the Race 2 prelim and again in the feature, damaging the 300S. Hall did well, finishing the prelim in 2nd overall behind Paul O’Shea’s Mercedes 300SLS, but in the main event he was involved in the melee that took out Shelby. The Monza required more than 30 minutes of repairs and finished 15th and last. Although the original SCCA results listed Jim as the sole driver of the Monza, the club’s July 31 newsletter changed this to Jim Roberts, a CSSCI salesman, who may well have taken over after the lengthy pit stop.

More bad luck lay ahead when the Monza was trucked to Galveston for the inaugural Carrera Lafitte in July. The truck driver drifted into a tractor-trailer, killing his wife in the passenger seat. The Ferrari in the enclosed trailer suffered substantial damage and Jim had to fall back on his Corvette. He finished 4th in the production race behind similar cars driven by Ebb Rose, Bill Fritts, and George Koehne. In the feature, he came back strong, beating Koehne and Fritts. Jim’s was the first production entry to cross the finish line and win BP class.

A month later, on Labor Day weekend at Mansfield, Louisiana, Jim showed up with his Monza, but none of the race reports mention him, suggesting trouble in practice and a DNS. At Stillwater, Oklahoma, on the weekend of September 14-15, he brought a brand-new mount, a Maserati Tipo 52, better known as the 200SI. In late 1957 and early 1958, CSSCI, the regional importer of the marque, sold at least six of these cars with 2-liter and 2.5-liter engines to Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, and Tennessee privateers such as Bob Ferguson, Alan Connell, Jack Hinkle, Hap Sharp, Bobby Aylward, and Gaylord Jackson. Unfortunately, no documentation remains on how many new Maseratis went to the Dallas agency. Jim does not remember the exact number either. The long-nosed 1957 models all looked similar and in most cases photo identification is impossible. Two came as original 250S cars [chassis 2431 and 2432], while chassis 2430 may have been upgraded to 250S status only after arrival in Dallas. The factory offered a special kit [crankshaft, rods, pistons, and liners] to make the conversion possible. Jim himself raced at least three of the Tipo 52s, selling them to local competitors as he scored favorable results. Unlike the Ferrari Monza, the Maseratis were owned by the Dallas agency. In this case, racing them was part of the marketing process.

At Stillwater, Hall gave a good account of himself in the 2-liter Maserati by winning the race for under-2-liter modifieds after a long battle with fellow Texan Bobby Burns’s new Porsche 550RS. Later that day, Hall saw action again in the 15-lap feature for the Sunray Trophy. He finished an excellent 3rd overall behind Jack Hinkle’s 300S Maserati and Ray Jones in A.D. Logan’s 750 Monza-powered 500TRC.

At the end of September, Hall revisited Fort Sumner, bringing both the 200SI and Dick’s Monza. In the prelim he raced the Maserati, leaving Jim Roberts at the wheel of the Monza. In the feature, Jim switched back to the Monza, beating Jack McAfee in Stanley Sugarman’s Porsche 550RS for his second New Mexico win.

Continuing on to California, Hall faced stronger competition than he had in the southwest, mostly from Ferrari drivers. At San Diego’s Hourglass Field in October, he took the 200SI to 4th overall while Johnny von Neumann [625TRC] and Richie Ginther [500TR] ruled the day in the over- and under-2-liter classes. California events on three consecutive November weekends promised more action, starting with the Palm Springs National. Outgunned by the bigger-engined cars, including partner Shelby who dominated in a 450S Maserati, Jim finished 10th [prelim] and 8th overall [feature]. Pete Lovely’s 500TRC beat him in the EM class in both races.

Lovely also captured the inaugural at Laguna Seca the next weekend. Hall’s 200SI dropped out and did not make it to the starting grid of the Riverside National either, although photos exist of Jim practicing the car. The reasons for his DNS were never reported.

Toward the end of 1957, CSSCI included Colin Chapman’s cars in their selection. The agency ordered a Series 2 Lotus 11, of which only three were built. Chassis 332 came with a 1.5-liter twin-cam FPF Climax fed by 45 DCOE Webers. The engine was reported to have been recycled from the Lotus 11 in which Herbert MacKay-Fraser had been killed at Reims in July 1957. In November, 23-year-old mechanic Raoul “Sonny” Balcaen drove Jim’s trailer-equipped Chrysler 300C from Dallas to New York to pick up the Lotus at the airport. From there, he headed south to Miami, where the car was put on a steamer for Nassau. Hall had entered it as a Lotus Le Mans for the Speed Week. Balcaen tested the car before Hall’s arrival and remembers that it ran strong on the straights, had great brakes, but suffered from disappointing exit speed when cornering.

Hall’s first experiences with the Lotus were not particularly memorable. At Nassau he finished 4th in the 5-lap Governor’s Trophy heat for under-2-liter cars, bested by Eddie Crawford [550RS], John Fitch [200SI], and Jack McAfee [550RS]. The Lotus retired within a few laps in both the Governor’s and the Memorial Trophy races, and Jim never made it to the grid for the feature event, the Nassau Trophy.

1958

The Eleven must have been left in Miami after Nassau, because early in January 1958, Hall made a rare SCCA National appearance at the local Orange Bowl event. Saturday went well with a 4th overall in the 8-lap prelim, but in the National itself, the Lotus dropped out again. In none of the above cases was a retirement cause listed, but Balcaen summed it all up with “the car was fast but unreliable.”

In addition to the talented Balcaen, lured from California to Dallas by Shelby, the agency’s crew consisted of body-man Foy Barrett and mechanics Bob Schroeder from Houston and Albert Kemp, an English expat. Later in the year, Chief Robert “Red” Byron joined them as chief wrencher. Alabama-born, Byron was a legend in his own time. He won NASCAR’s first National Championship in 1948 and competed until 1952, when poor health forced him to stop racing. Before coming to Dallas, he ran a garage in Atlanta and worked for the 1956 Corvette team, for Briggs Cunningham’s operations and its successors in West Palm Beach, Florida. When Kemp was hired away by J. Frank Harrison in October 1958, young Frank Lance took his place at the agency, which advertised the following inventory at the start of the year:

– New Lotus 11, Series II, $5,500

– New Maserati 200SI, $9,250

– Used Maserati 300S [ex-Jack Hinkle], $6,750

– Used Maserati 200SI [5 races], $7,795

– Used Ferrari Monza [2 races after factory overhaul], $7,500

– Used Corvette, $3,295

Shelby was scheduled to spend most of his time in Europe that year, but one week after the Miami National he and Hall managed a joint appearance with one of the agency-owned 200SI Maseratis. It was the Frostbite event at nearby Eagle Mountain and the weather lived up to the event name—cold, wet, and miserable. Jim ran his Monza in the prelim, with Shelby in the #98 200SI. In the 20-lap feature, Hall took the wheel of #98 and urged on from the start/finish line by his enthusiastic mentor, won the race, the first feature win for one of their 2-liters.

During the Frostbite Races, Jim met a rookie driver and fellow oilman from Tulsa, Oklahoma, racing a Corvette. His name was James “Hap” Sharp and although he was almost eight years Jim’s senior, the men hit it off. That year CSSCI began to maintain Sharp’s cars, his Corvette, an AC Bristol, and a Maserati 200SI bought with Dave Morgan.

Hall’s Lotus 11 suffered another DNF at Phoenix in March after losing its differential, followed by a long-overdue finish at Palm Springs in April. This was good only for 5th overall, trailing Jack McAfee [550RS], Lance Reventlow [bobtail Cooper], Joe Playan [550RS], and Pete Lovely [Lotus 11].

Between Phoenix and Palm Springs, Jim showed up at Mansfield on March 8-9, bringing the Monza and a 250S Maserati, chassis 2431. Hall began the day with some practice laps in the #66 Monza, winning the 8-lap prelim. Switching to the #69 2.5-liter, he finished 3rd overall in the 20-lap feature. After Mansfield, chassis 2431 found a ready buyer in Bobby Aylward of Wichita, Kansas, who had raced a Lotus 11 till then.

The Gran Carrera Lafitte at Galveston in April came next, with a formidable entry list. After some warming-up laps, Shelby handed a brand-new Maserati 450S over to its owner, Ebb Rose. Shelby was entered in John Edgar’s Ferrari 375 Plus that day, while Hall ran a 250S Maserati. The 20-lap feature provided a terrific duel between Rose and Hall in the less powerful car. Jim took the lead on lap 10 and held it for two laps until he came in with a misfire. Three minutes were lost in the pits. At the end of the race, Jim crossed the line 6th overall, but SportsCar magazine called his driving that day magnificent.

Photos show Jim practicing the Lotus 11 for the June Sunburn Races at Eagle Mountain, but on raceday he opted for a 250S again. In the feature he finished 3rd overall behind Frank Davis in Stormy Mangham’s powerful Chevy Special and Ray Jones in the Logan 500TRC with Monza engine. One of the spectators that day was a local cattle rancher by the name of Alan Connell, who, after some practice laps, bought chassis 2430 from Hall to launch his own race career.

With all agency Maseratis now sold, Jim moved on to other cars. Early in the year, CSSCI had also become a Lister dealer [West of the Mississippi], a fact Hall only discovered after a phone call from Shelby in Cambridge, England. Carroll informed his partner he had ordered seven Listers, although only one with the traditional Jaguar engine. Shelby thought a Chevrolet Corvette unit would be a better proposition for U.S. racing. The first engineless car to arrive was chassis BHL 108, the eighth “knobbly” Lister built. It became Jim’s personal mount. Sonny Balcaen, relocated to California and soon to join the Scarab team, installed the Chevy for Hall. The other chassis came in gradually, the next two Lister-Chevys sold to Texans Ronnie Hissom and Jimmy Younger.

Jim’s first race in the dark-blue car came at Santa Barbara in August 1958. Teething problems meant a retirement, and the additional development process forced him to fall back on another Ferrari Monza at Galveston in September. It was not the chassis 0510 Monza that Dick had bought in 1955. This one was a well-used chassis 0502, previously raced by Ernie McAfee [when owned by Bill Doheny of Union Oil] and Masten Gregory and Dabney Collins [when owned by Temple Buell]. Its next owner was Old Jim Hall of Houston, from whom it went to Tony Foyt, A.J.’s father, who installed a Chevy V-8. The Hall Monzas could be told apart by the fact that 0502 featured a small windshield and no headrest. It was a typical backup car that went by the nickname Pig Pen, since it was always painted in an unglamorous gray primer coat.

The Galveston Golden Days races attracted a good field, with several contenders racing cars previously supplied via CSSCI: Aylward’s 250S, Sharp’s 200SI, and Younger’s Lister-Chevy. Jim’s Monza-Chevy ran in CM and occupied 2nd overall early on, chasing Rose’s 300S. After both Aylward and Bobby Burns’s 550RS passed him, Pig Pen crossed the finish line 4th overall.

By October, the Lister-Chevy was again ready for action. At Eagle Mountain, Rose was back in his 450S Maserati, prepared by his mechanic Lloyd Ruby. The combination proved too strong for the Lister-Chevy, which finished 2nd in the 10-lap prelim and the 20-lap feature. At the end of the season, however, the hybrid finally emerged victorious at Hondo, Texas. After winning the prelim, Hall had a spirited duel with Sharp’s 200SI in the feature. When Sharp blew his engine on lap 7, Younger’s Lister-Chevy inherited 2nd for a Lister 1-2.

During the winter, Hall upgraded his Lister with a Latham supercharger, bumping it to BM class. The idea was Byron’s but it was not a success, as among other things, the add-on device had a tendency to throw its belts. Commercially, things did not go well with CSSCI either. By December, the sports car dealership went bankrupt and folded. Byron, Schroeder, and Lance stayed on to work for Jim’s personal racing operations, taking care of Sharp’s cars as well. Shelby left for Europe again for a full season with Aston Martin, although the Halls maintained the name CSSCI for a while.

1959

The season opener came at Eagle Mountain in February, where the supercharged Lister underwent its baptism with Hall. Schroeder was at the wheel of Pig Pen, the Monza-Chevy in primer coat. In the first corner of the prelim, Hall spun out while battling for the lead. He was not a threat again, while Schroeder finished 3rd overall. Ten minutes into the 30-minute feature Hall led again, only to drop out with a burned piston. Schroeder brought Pig Pen home in 4th overall.

In March, Hall made his first appearance in a professional event, USAC’s Examiner Grand Prix at Pomona, California. The Lister-Chevy was relatively swift in a straight line as recorded by the speed  trap; Jim did 130.43 mph for a shared 8th fastest, although Jack Flaherty’s Jaguar-engined Lister was only marginally slower with 129.36 mph. Hall’s qualifying time of 1:25.9 was disappointing, almost 6 seconds off the pace and only good for 31st spot on the grid. In the 10-lap prelim, the Lister finished 16th overall, beaten even by Bob Drake in Joe Lubin’s small bobtail Cooper-Climax. The feature result was worse; Hall was forced to retire, as was Schroeder, taking a one-off ride in Ebb Rose’s 300S.

Three weeks later, Hall and Sharp shared the latter’s 200SI Maserati, upgraded to 2.5-liter, in the 12 Hours of Sebring, the first World Championship event for both drivers. The car was still entered in CSSCI’s name, with Red Byron listed as reserve driver. Both Byron and Schroeder served as the pit crew. Delayed by numerous pit stops for electrical problems in the rain, the entry finished a dismal 41st overall with 138 laps completed.

In April at Stuttgart, Arkansas, Hall was back in the Monza-Chevy. Although Pig Pen was assigned to Schroeder that day, Jim’s Lister suffered engine problems, forcing him to use his backup car. He dropped out of the prelim, and while leading the feature over Sharp’s Maserati, spun and could not restart because the Monza had not received a starter motor after Foyt’s Chevy conversion. There simply was no room for one without converting the original bellhousing. Aylward won the silverware in the 250S raced by Jim the year before. It was Pig Pen’s last race under Hall’s ownership. A few months later, the Monza ended up with Harry Washburn in Louisiana.

The supercharged Lister finally managed to stay in one piece for a victory at Hondo in May. More success followed the next weekend at Coffeyville, Kansas. Jim claimed the 10-lap prelim with the Lister-Chevy, although he switched to Frank Harrison’s 450S Maserati in the feature. He won that one as well, while Schroeder, replacing Hall in the Lister, lost a secure 2nd place on the last lap after an oil line ruptured. At the time, Hall had not yet sold his entire order of Listers and he advertised “four new Listers, three with Chevy and one with Jaguar power.” Schroeder soon delivered a Chevy version to Midland’s Joe Mabee of Bonneville fame, while Ed Cantrell of Florida bought the next hybrid.

By June at Galveston, Hall’s Lister ran in CM, which indicates the experiment with the supercharger had come to an end. The car had enough horsepower left to leave all other competitors in the dust. In the 10-lap prelim, Hall beat Connell’s 250TR. Their battle resumed in the 20-lap feature, which saw the 250TR in the lead a few times thanks to its faster cornering. But the Lister’s top speed enabled Hall to out-drag Connell repeatedly and when the Ferrari retired with gearbox trouble with two laps to go, it was smooth sailing for Jim.

In September, Hall and Schroeder made a memorable trip to Europe where, provided with pit passes by Shelby, they attended the Goodwood 6 Hours and the Italian Grand Prix up close. After Aston Martin clinched the Championship at Goodwood, David Brown paid Shelby his winnings in cash. Afraid he would have trouble bringing all that money through customs by himself, Hall and Schroeder were mobilized to carry a sizable chunk of it back to Dallas, where Shelby took possession again. He also shipped over a new Aston Martin DB4 Coupe, courtesy of a grateful David Brown. When Hall’s regular import agent presented Jim with the bill for the car’s import duties, he politely refused and redirected the paperwork to his former partner.

While Hall was in Europe, Byron arranged for Jim Rathmann to race Jim’s Lister-Chevy in the USAC race at Meadowdale where he destroyed it in a spectacular crash after brake failure while running 4th. Without an immediate replacement, Hall accepted an offer by Frank Harrison [for more on Harrison’s background, see the March 2009 issue of Vintage Racecar] to race his 450S Maserati around the Southeast. Having already won the May Coffeyville feature in Harrison’s chassis 4510, Jim saw it as an opportunity to hone his skills while handling the most powerful sports racer in existence, as Shelby had done before. Twice Jim ran the 450S in Alabama in October, losing the lead at Courtland due to a tire change and finishing 2nd at Dothan, beaten by the latest Maserati product, E.D. Martin’s Tipo 61 Birdcage. Both Hall and his sponsor realized the potential of the new Birdcage. Hall, still a Maserati dealer for the Southwest, ordered one for himself and one for Harrison. Such was the sudden demand for the Tipo 61 that they had to wait many months for delivery.

Hall joined his friend Ronnie Hissom at Oklahoma City in November, arriving without a ride. For the feature, Dean Knight offered his Chevy-engined Ferrari which Jim, after some fender bending, took to an excellent 3rd overall behind Jack Hinkle in the former Sharp 200SI and Gary Laughlin’s 250TR.

At the end of the year, Jim was scheduled to drive the Bert Kemp-prepared Harrison 450S at Nassau. In addition he brought with him another big Maserati, chassis 4508, the 5.7-liter former Temple Buell car. After the March Examiner Grand Prix, where Shelby drove it, Buell had lost interest in racing and stored the 570S in Hall’s Dallas shop. Jim finally made Buell an offer that was accepted and, under Byron, a complete overhaul began that included rebalancing its heavily shaking speedboat engine. Repainted white with blue scallops, the 520-bhp car was completed in time for Nassau, where Jim offered the ride to Shelby.

In the five-lap prelim for the Governor’s Trophy, Shelby’s 570S finished 3rd, with Hall in 9th place. Jim took the Harrison 450S to 5th overall in the Governor’s Trophy, but Shelby retired with brake problems. Lloyd Ruby took over the 570S in the Nassau Trophy, finishing 15th after a delayed start. Hall’s final race in chassis 4510 ended with 12th overall. In July 1960, they would be reunited one more time, for the Courtland One Hour, but it came to naught when the 450S blew its engine in practice.

Hall’s support team lost a few of its members after Nassau. Harry Heuer hired Byron away to join the Meister Brauser team with its Scarabs, while Lance left as well, first for a Houston Renault dealership, then to join Ebb Rose’s team, where Lloyd Ruby needed a mechanic for Rose’s Indy cars.

1960

Jim’s regular mount for the early part of 1960 became the big 570S Maserati, which he ran for the first time at Palm Springs in January. After finishing 4th in the five-lap prelim, he dropped out in the feature race, won by Bob Drake in the Lubin Tipo 61 Maserati. Although he was fond of his renovated 570S, Hall was eager for his more agile Birdcage to arrive.

Early in March at Mansfield, the weather turned wet and cold. Hall saw action four times that day. Chassis 4508 needed the entire eight-lap Race 4 prelim to warm up and run properly, crossing the line 3rd. In the feature, the Maserati burned its plugs on the opening lap, forcing Jim to retire. The weekend was not entirely wasted, though. At the wheel of his second entry, a new Elva-DKW Formula Junior bought from Carl Haas, Hall captured the eight-lap Race 2 for under 1.6-liter sports racers, Formula 3, and Junior open wheelers, beating the similar car of Hissom and the Emory Cantey Porsche 550RS. Jim borrowed an AC Bristol to finish a close 2nd in the production race behind the Truett Helms Corvette, while Sharp borrowed Jim’s Elva-DKW to win Race 5.

Hall and Sharp teamed up again for the Sebring 12 Hours in March 1960. It was Jim’s first exposure to driving a rear-engined car, Hap’s 2.5-liter, Maserati-engined, Cooper Monaco T49, chassis 7/59. Sharp took the start and since the Monaco lasted only 26 laps before its engine went sour, it must have been a short ride for his codriver. Jim had better luck the Friday before the 12 Hours, when 23 cars lined up for a Formula Junior race. Hall won the event with his Elva-DKW, taking the win after Eddie Crawford blew a front tire on his Cunningham Stanguellini half a lap from the finish. Bob Jackson, whose rare photos embellish this article, and bodyman Barrett towed the Formula Junior back to Dallas.

USAC’s Examiner Grand Prix at Riverside in April should have been an ideal race for the powerful 570S. Hall qualified 7th fastest at 2:09.27, but more trouble lay ahead. The car blew its rear end on the starting grid. Jim threw both arms in the air to warn the cars behind him and fortunately everybody managed to avoid the stationary car, the first retirement of the day. Shelby won the race in a Birdcage Maserati entered by Lucky Casner, chassis 2458. A few weeks later, while the same Tipo 61 was waiting at the New York docks to be shipped back to Italy for an overhaul, an impatient Hall, his own order still not delivered, bought the car from Casner. Meanwhile in Dallas, after his brief Houston stint with Ebb Rose and Lloyd Ruby, Frank Lance rejoined the Hall team where Schroeder now functioned as the chief wrencher and team manager.

At San Marcos in April, the big white Maserati finally delivered. Hall had a bad start in the prelim, won by Jack Hinkle’s Birdcage, but in the feature, the 570S led the entire race and set the fastest lap. This time it was the Elva-DKW that caused him problems. In the first race of the day, Hall was leading when the Junior lost its transmission.

After the Riverside-winning Birdcage arrived in Dallas, Schroeder and Lance were towing it to Colorado for a race at the new Continental Divide Raceway in late April, when they were stopped by the Highway Patrol near Wichita Falls. In Dallas, Hall had heard that snow in Colorado made cancellation of the event a strong likelihood. His request to direct his Birdcage handlers to a race at Longview, Texas, that weekend was duly executed by a friendly trooper, who had never seen a Birdcage before. Longview became Jim’s first Tipo 61 victory, beating Delmo Johnson’s XK-SS in the prelim and Sharp’s Cooper-Maserati in the feature. Now he had a selection of two very different Maseratis, each with strengths for different tracks. Unfortunately, in his personal life things weren’t going well. His marriage to Nancy was on the rocks, but he soon found solace with a girl from Abilene, Sandra Carol, who joined him as part of his pit crew. He would eventually marry her.

Two weeks after Longview, the rescheduled CDR Invitational took place. Hall won a prelim on Saturday with his Birdcage but, rubbing in new tires, he spun while leading Sunday morning’s prelim. Danny Collins’s Corvette could not avoid the Tipo 61, which was facing the wrong way, and hit it head-on. Jim’s Elva-DKW caused additional grief when it lost all but fourth gear on Saturday.

Top U.S. and international drivers descended on Long Island in June for the Vanderbilt Cup Formula Junior races, Jim among them. A triangular course was laid out in the parking lot of Roosevelt Raceway, normally associated with horse racing, and the large field required two five-lap qualifying heats. Walt Hansgen won Heat 1 in a new Cunningham Lotus, while Charlie Kolb’s Elva claimed Heat 2 ahead of Charlie Wallace [Scorpion] and Hall [Elva-DKW]. Jim finished ahead of name drivers such as Lorenzo Bandini, Pedro Rodriguez, Rodger Ward, George Constantine, and his old mentor Shelby. In the feature, Hall led the 33-car field at one point, but ultimate victory went to Harry Carter’s Stanguellini after Jim dropped out.

In April, the factory finally filled Hall’s Birdcage order placed late in 1959. The new Tipo 61 was chassis 2463. Jim ran the car with his favorite #66, while his brother Dick took over the older Birdcage, put to work by Schroeder under #77. The cars appeared at CDR in late June, where both won their Saturday prelims hosted by the SCCA. The USAC professional race on Sunday offered stiffer competition. Shelby and Honest John Kilborn finished 1-2 in Meister Brauser Scarabs, followed by Jim in 3rd overall and Schroeder 7th.

On Independence Day weekend, Jim brought the 570S and Tipo 61 to Galveston and practiced them both. Although the local press called the 1957 car a dinosaur, its owner decided it was better suited to the fast Scholes Field track than his Birdcage. He was right. Showing new reliability, the 570S managed to annihilate all opposition in both prelim and feature. Two weeks later, at CDR for the SCCA National, Hall took the 570S to victory in the prelim, but the combination dropped out on Sunday after a flat tire and resulting rear suspension problems.

Not willing to discourage the less powerful local competition in Dallas/Fort Worth with his big-iron, Jim entered a Porsche RS-60 at Green Valley in August, but the end result was the same: another victory.

At the end of July, both Hall and Schroeder entered their Birdcages at Road America for the USAC 200 miles for professionals. It turned out to be a Maserati bonanza, with Tipo 61s crossing the line in 1st [Jim Jeffords], 2nd [Hall], 3rd [Loyal Katskee], and 7th [Schroeder].

Jeffords invited Hall to share the new Harrison chassis 2467 Birdcage for the Road America 500 in September. The men had finished the July race in 1-2 and both measured around 6 feet 2, making the cockpit setup of the car much easier. Jeffords took the start and handed Hall a comfortable lead after 40 laps. Jim returned to the pits within a few laps and poured a bucket of water over his feet. The exhaust manifold had broken, throwing flames into the pedal area. No fast repairs were possible, and the car was withdrawn.

One week later, Jim swept the Midland Air Park races with his own chassis 2463 and looked forward to the Times Grand Prix at Riverside in October. He brought the Tipo 61 with the 570S as backup. When his Birdcage lost its engine in practice, the dinosaur became his ride with a qualifying time of 2:06.07. This was more than 3 seconds faster than in April, but still good for only 7th place on the grid. Hall hoped to show the top speed his Maserati was capable of on the one-mile Riverside backstretch.  In a straight line, the car was probably the fastest in the country but since its brakes were slightly spongy that day, Jim had to slow down before reaching the speed trap, so no new speed record was established. On raceday, Hall ran 8th after two laps when he was black-flagged. His gas cap had worked itself open, spilling fuel. He lost a full lap before rejoining the field in 17th. For the remainder of the 203-mile event, the 570S did not miss a beat, crossing the line in 9th place, an excellent result considering the delay.

If racing fans had not fully recognized Hall’s prowess at Riverside, they certainly did at Laguna Seca one week later. The Pacific Grand Prix track was unsuitable for the big 570S, so Jim struck a one-time deal with Stanley Sugarman, owner of the old Lubin Birdcage, chassis 2452. This car had lost its transaxle at Riverside and no spare was available. Hall offered the transaxle of his own crippled Tipo 61 on condition that he could drive the Sugarman entry. Geared just right for Laguna Seca by Stanley’s mechanic Bill Rudd, the Birdcage qualified 2nd fastest, bested only by the brand-new, state-of-art Lotus 19 driven by Stirling Moss. Bill Krause equaled Hall’s time in his Riverside-winning Birdcage, but did it later in the session, ending up on row 2.

Hall led the first 14 laps of Heat 1. Moss and Krause passed him, but he regained 2nd place when Krause dropped out. Moss lapped the entire field except Hall, who was only 39 seconds behind at the finish. In Heat 2, Hall led the opening laps again, to be passed by Moss on lap 9. Augie Pabst’s brilliant ride in the M. B. Scarab paid off and on lap 27 Jim was back in 3rd, closely pursued by Krause. As indicated by their practice times, both Birdcages were equally fast. Two laps from the checkered, Krause dove deep into Turn 9, the last corner before pit lane, challenging Hall for the position. The Birdcages exchanged paint and a startled Hall brushed some hay bales on the outside of the corner, pinching a fuel line. This starved Jim’s Tipo 61, but he still finished the heat in 7th place. The combined results showed Hall 3rd behind Moss and Shelby, who won USAC’s 1960 road-racing title with 1,035 points. Jim’s total of 762 points gave him 2nd place in the USAC Championship.

Although Hall had every reason to be pleased with his performance in the professional series, the November U.S. Grand Prix at Riverside was the ultimate test. The event was the last held under the 2.5-liter formula. Earlier in the year he had ordered two Lotus 18s, a Formula Junior and a Formula One. Unfortunately, when the Formula One car [chassis 371] arrived, it turned out that Colin Chapman had dispatched it with a 2-liter Climax instead of the expected 2.5-liter. Ever inventive, Jim installed the 2.5-liter engine from another purchase, the former John Coombs Cooper Monaco, but he was beginning to doubt the wisdom of relying on European constructors for his racing. Nevertheless, competing against the world’s best road racers without any factory assistance, Jim did very well. Never worse than 8th, he climbed to 5th before his ring-and-pinion gear collapsed on the last lap. The privateer coasted across the line 7th.

At Nassau in December, Hall’s rides were the Tipo 61 and a Cooper Formula Junior borrowed from younger brother Chuck. Aboard the Cooper, Jim defeated a strong Lotus contingent in the 15-lap Pan-American race. Unfortunately, his Birdcage had suffered valve problems early in the week. Starting the Nassau Trophy with an engine borrowed from Frank Harrison, chassis 2463 held 3rd behind Dan Gurney’s Arciero Lotus 19 and the Rodriguez brothers in a 250TR when its steering went haywire on the final lap. During the hurried engine transplant, one of the mounting bolts had not been fastened properly and the unit vibrated loose, rubbing against the steering shaft until it broke. Based on laps completed, the hard-luck Birdcage driver was still awarded 7th overall.

1961

Hall’s new season began in Mexico City on January 15 with the first Carrera Ciudad de Mexico, a Formula Junior event. Ricardo Rodriguez [Cooper] and Javier Velasquez [Lotus] ran away from the field, but the highlight of the race was Jim’s battle for 3rd with Pedro Rodriguez [Stanguellini]. A few laps before the end, his Cooper overtook the Stanguellini for good, winning some $1,200 pocket money for the Texan.

However, it was a number of other events in January that would change the direction of Hall’s race career. Late in 1960, two Milwaukee Scarab drivers, Jim Jeffords and Harry Heuer, had placed deposits for a lighter and faster version of the Scarab with the car’s original builders, Dick Troutman and Tom Barnes of Culver City, California. When Jeffords contracted a viral infection in January, he was put on Cortisone, which led to substantial weight gain. Afraid he would never race again, Jeffords asked Hall, his old Road America co-driver, if he was willing to assume the funding of this new all-American car. Recalling his experiences with European constructors, Hall agreed to buy Jeffords out. By February, Hall could lay claim to the first new Troutman-Barnes car in production, still called the Riverside by its constructors, although soon to be renamed Chaparral by Hall. When Heuer received the second car, he eventually adopted the new name as well.

Before the new car was delivered in June, Hall successfully campaigned his 570S [1st at Mansfield in March] and Tipo 61 [1st at Hondo and Las Vegas in April, 2nd at Road America in June], as well as the old Coombs Cooper Monaco [1st at Palm Springs in January]. Jim even ran the former Roger Penske Porsche RSK, updated with his own RS-60 engine, at Green Valley in February, scoring once again in the feature and in the Formula Junior race [Elva-DKW]. When no longer needed because of the new Troutman-Barnes arrival, the 570S was sold to Frank Harrison, the Birdcage to Chuck Parsons. Around the same time, a move from Dallas to Midland allowed Hall to join his friends and fellow oilmen Sharp and Hissom. After seven years of competition, Young Jim Hall had come off age and he finally owned a competitive U.S.-built sports racer. Although he was not involved in its design or construction, the ongoing development was all his. Few people realized that this was only the first step in an illustrious career as a top-notch driver and innovative designer/constructor who was about to put his indelible mark on international motor racing.