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Gentleman at Speed: Fred Wacker Jr.

VeloceToday
By S. Scott Callan

What could be more appropriate for VeloceToday than an American racing French Gordinis in Europe? Author S.Scott Callan allowed us to publish part of his full length interview with the late Fred Wacker, below. Stay tuned as next week we’ll review the new biography of Fred Wacker authored by his son and Bob Birmingham.

Fred was a friend of my Dad’s. He and Fred and Jim Kimberly spent a lot of time together in the early days of Midwestern racing.

After my Dad passed away Fred and I got into the habit of talking in the spring, when he was heading back to Chicago after wintering at the Palm Springs house, and in the autumn when he had just arrived. Fred would regale me his stories of getting started in racing with his black Cad-Allard, the eight ball. Racing at Sebring, around the roads of Elkhart Lake before they built Road America, at Watkins Glen, and down Argentine way.

In 1997, during our Spring call, I said we should get together and record these stories for my Velocity Group archives. When he later in the conversation mentioned he was getting experimental prostate treatment at Loma Linda, I was on the next plane. The following is an excerpt from the complete Fred Wacker story that appears on the site, detailing Wacker’s two years of Grand Prix racing in Europe with Gordini.

Let’s let Fred pick up the story from here

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