Richie Ginther - Early Career

Early Career

Richie Ginther was raised in the same Californian town as future Formula One World Champion Phil Hill, and it was through Hill, a friend of Ginther's older brother, that Richie Ginther first began to race. After finishing school, in 1948 Richie Ginther followed in his father's footsteps and went to work for Douglas Aircraft, initially in the tool and die shop. In his spare time he helped Phill Hill to repair, maintain and race his collection of old cars and hot rods, as Hill's race career began to gather pace. Ginther made his own race debut at Pebble Beach in 1951, driving a Ford-engined MG T-type sports car.

However, Ginther's own career was put on hold shortly after when he was drafted for two years national service during the Korean War. During this time he received training and experience working in aircraft and engine mechanics, skills which he would later put to good use during his driving career. On emergence from the military Phil Hill requested that Ginther join him, principally as a riding mechanic, in driving a privately-entered 4.1-liter Ferrari in the 1953 Carrera Panamericana. The pair ran high in the rankings until Hill lost control, crashed, and wrote off the car. Both Ginther and Hill were unharmed and returned in 1954 to take second place, beaten only by the works Ferrari of Umberto Maglioli.

1954 was also the year that Richie Ginther returned to race driving himself, mostly in a self-prepared Austin-Healey. His results were impressive enough that the following year VW and Porsche dealer John von Neumann hired him to drive a Porsche in domestic competitions. When von Neumann started dealing in Ferrari cars in 1956 Ginther also got the chance to drive these. In between working in von Neumann's Ferrari dealership — including trips to the Ferrari factory in Italy to sort customer problems — Richie Ginther began to build an impressive racing reputation on the West Coast. This and his choice of Ferrari mounts brought him to the attention of the East Coast Ferrari franchise-holder, three-time 24 Hours of Le Mans-winner Luigi Chinetti. Aside from importing Ferrari road cars, Chinetti also operated a successful race team, soon to metamorphose into Ferrari's official motorsport presence in North America: NART. Ginther first raced for Chinetti in 1957 and with him made his first appearances in international level events, first in the 12 Hours of Sebring and then driving a 2-liter Ferrari 500 TR in the 1957 Le Mans race.

Also in 1957, Ginther signed to drive the Aston Martin of Joe Lubin and over the next three years would continue to compete in many sports car racing events in both Aston and Ferrari machinery, with great success. That June he won a 15 lap GT race at the new Lime Rock Park, and won the opening race of the national championship in his Ferrari. In early 1958 he piloted a 2-liter Ferrari to victory at the County Fairgrounds in Pomona, California, averaging 83.8 mph (134.9 km/h), and won in a 3-liter GT in a 5 lap qualifying preliminary for the SCCA Pacific Coast Championship. By the end of the year Ginther had captured the Pacific Coast Sports Car Championship outright. He triumphed by a wide margin at Pomona at the opening sports car race of 1959, in a John von Neumann 4.1-liter Ferrari, and in June 1959 won in a 3-liter Ferrari TR in the first Hourglass road races in San Diego, California. Throughout this period he continued to mix his race driving with a steady job at von Neumann's dealership, and by late 1959 the strain was beginning to show.