John Fitch (driver)

John Cooper Fitch (August 4, 1917 in Indianapolis, Indiana – October 31, 2012) was an American racing driver and inventor. He was the first American to race automobiles successfully in Europe in the post-war era.

In the course of a driving career which spanned 18 years, Fitch won such notable sports car races as the Gran Premio de Eva Duarte Perón – Sport, 1953 12 Hours of Sebring, 1955 Mille Miglia (production car class), and the 1955 RAC Tourist Trophy, as well as numerous SCCA National Sports Car Championship races. He was also involved in Briggs Cunningham's ambitious Le Mans projects in the early 1950s, and was later a member of the Mercedes-Benz sport car team. He also competed in two World Championship Grands Prix.

After retirement in 1964, Fitch was the manager of Lime Rock circuit, and a former team boss of Chevrolet's Corvette racing team. His biggest legacy is motor sport safety, as well as pioneering work to improve road car safety, and this has helped save countless lives. He had worked on advanced driver safety capsule systems. He was also a track design consultant, as well as inventing many other automotive devices. Even into his 90s, Fitch was still a consultant, and appeared at historic events.

Early life

John Fitch was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1917. He was a descendant of the inventor of the steamboat, John Fitch. Fitch's stepfather was an executive with the Stutz Motor Company, which introduced him to cars and racing at an early age. In the late thirties, Fitch attended Kentucky Military Institute, then studied civil engineering at Lehigh University. In 1939, he travelled to Europe and saw the last car race at Brooklands before the outbreak of World War II. He returned to the United States, and sailed around the Gulf of Mexico in a 32-foot schooner from Sarasota to New Orleans.

World War II

His first passion was not cars, but airplanes, so it was not surprising that when war broke out, he volunteered to become a pilot, whilst in England on an extended trip around the world (1939). In spring of 1941, he volunteered for the United States Army Air Corps. His service took him to North Africa, where he flew the A-20 Havoc and then on to England. By 1944, Captain Fitch was a P-51 Mustang pilot with the Fourth Fighter Group on bomber escort missions, and became one of the Americans to shoot down a German Messerschmitt Me 262 jet fighter. Just two months before the end of the war, he was shot down himself while making an ill-advised third strafing pass on an Axis train and spent the rest of the war as a prisoner of war.

Racing career

When Fitch returned to the U.S., he was among many young pilots who had developed the need for speed during the conflict. Fitch opened an MG car dealership and also began racing an MG-TC at tracks like Bridgehampton, Thompson, and Watkins Glen. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Fitch was good. So good in fact, he caught the attention of the wealthy racing enthusiast, Briggs Cunningham, who encouraged Fitch to start the 1951 season racing in Argentina.

In 1950, Fitch raced his Ford Flathead engined Fiat 1100, which he soon modified into the " Fitch Model B", and ended the year by driving a Jaguar XK120 in the Sebring Grand Prix of Endurance Six Hours. In 1951, in addition to campaigning in his Fitch-Whitmore, he boosted his early reputation by winning the Gran Premio de Eva Duarte Perón – Sport in his Allard-Cadillac J2. As a result of that win, Juan Perón generously awarded him membership in the Justicialist Party, whilst the trophy and a kiss were given by Eva Perón. He also clinched the support of Cunningham, whose financial clout allowed Fitch to race. He drove a Cunningham C-2R for the Cunningham team at several races, including the 1951 24 Hours of Le Mans, scoring a number of impressive victories in the early '50s at then-fledgling road courses like Elkhart Lake and Watkins Glen, and was crowned the first SCCA National Sports Car Champion. In 1951, John raced an Effyh Formula Three car, winning at Bridgehampton and a class win at Giants Despair.

In 1952, Fitch continued to race the Fitch-Whitmore as well as a Chrysler-engined Cunningham C4-R for the Cunningham team at several races (once again including Le Mans), a works Sunbeam at the Alpine Rally. Seven years after shooting at Germans, he was racing their cars - a Porsche 356 at a race at the legendary Nürburgring, and a Mercedes-Benz 300 SL prototype in the Carrera Panamericana. It was at Le Mans that Fitch came close to making Cunningham's dream of an all-American Le Mans victory come true, when, after setting the fastest lap in his C4-R, he was forced to retire late in the race as a result of 'bad fuel'. During the race, Fitch was impressed by the new Mercedes-Benz 300 SLs, while Mercedes' team chief engineer, Rudolf Uhlenhaut, who was impressed by Fitch's performance, offered Fitch the opportunity to test the car at Nürburgring. Advised by Mercedes's team manager, Alfred Neubauer, to take it easy, Fitch's agenda was more aggressive as he saw this as an audition to join the Daimler outfit. He drove his allotted two laps as if his career depended on it. Neubauer's response was to have Fitch do one more lap to prove they weren't flukes. Fitch shaved a few seconds off his previous lap and the session ended with the proverbial, "We'll be in touch if something comes up." He decided to make "something" happen, and persuaded Neubauer to send a team of 300 SLs to Mexico for the Carrera Panamaricana, a race that the German team weren't going to enter. Fitch's persistence won, and he was invited to Mexico City to pilot one of the team's trio of cars and drivers Hermann Lang and Karl Kling, two coupes of the Germans and a new, but untried, roadster for Fitch. Fitch's car kept throwing the treads off its tyres and he also experienced a high-speed blowout that took out one of the shock absorber mounts, which affected the front suspension. With Kling and Lang finishing first and second, putting Mercedes-Benz back on the map in North America, as for Fitch, the repairs on his car were illegal and he was disqualified. He may not have won the race, but he did win Nuebauer's respect.

In his most notable year, 1953, Fitch and co-driver Phil Walters defeated the powerful Aston Martin team in the 12 Hours of Sebring, in a Chrysler-powered Cunningham C4R, much to the surprise of the English team's manager, John Wyer. He thought he had the race won, "I never imagined anyone would beat us. Especially not Americans." It was the first Sebring victory for American drivers in an American car. Fitch competed in many European races that year and was named "Sports Car Driver of the Year" by Speed Age magazine. In addition to again racing a Cunningham C4R and Cunningham C5R for the Cunningham team, competing in European rallies in a Sunbeam-Talbot for the Sunbeam team, and racing a Porsche 356 at Nürburgring, he also competed in the Mille Miglia in a Nash-Healey for the factory team, the Aix-les-Bains

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