Pat
Supporter
From Vintage Motorsport
Santa Fe, NM --In Denise McCluggage, motorsport has lost a true icon, a lady who went sports car racing and wrote about it in her own inimitable way, making friends the world over and whose accomplishments and zest for life would be hard to duplicate. Born in Kansas, McCluggage was 88 when she passed away here on May 6, and along the way touched many as a friend, colleague, sports reporter and photographer, facing the obstacles of an era that discriminated against women and thus forbade them from participation in certain trades or activities.
McCluggage went sports car racing not to break down barriers but because she liked it, and held her own wearing a catchy polka dot helmet at venues like Sebring, Nassau, Daytona, Monte Carlo Rally and the Nürburgring. Although her first sports car was an underpowered MG TC, later she'd drive competitively in Ferraris, OSCAs, Alfa Romeos, Porsches and others. Her contemporaries were the greats of the golden age of motorsport -- Fangio, Hill, Gurney, Moss, Von Trips, Shelby.
Though she ended her racing career in the late 1960s, Denise did not walk away from the sweet fragrance of Castrol R. She became one of the founding editors of Competition Press, now known as Autoweek, and remained as a senior contributing editor up until the end, writing in her unique perspective about racing, automobiles and the people who made it all go.
McCluggage was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2001, the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Sebring Hall of Fame in 2012, where she enjoyed a class victory in 1961. She won both the Ken Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism and the Dean Batchelor Lifetime Achievement Award for her writing.Spending time with Denise was always enlightening and uplifting, and those who knew her will miss that spirit and life sparkle she radiated like the fresh morning sun. --D. Randy Riggs
Denise McCluggage 1927-2015
Santa Fe, NM --In Denise McCluggage, motorsport has lost a true icon, a lady who went sports car racing and wrote about it in her own inimitable way, making friends the world over and whose accomplishments and zest for life would be hard to duplicate. Born in Kansas, McCluggage was 88 when she passed away here on May 6, and along the way touched many as a friend, colleague, sports reporter and photographer, facing the obstacles of an era that discriminated against women and thus forbade them from participation in certain trades or activities.
McCluggage went sports car racing not to break down barriers but because she liked it, and held her own wearing a catchy polka dot helmet at venues like Sebring, Nassau, Daytona, Monte Carlo Rally and the Nürburgring. Although her first sports car was an underpowered MG TC, later she'd drive competitively in Ferraris, OSCAs, Alfa Romeos, Porsches and others. Her contemporaries were the greats of the golden age of motorsport -- Fangio, Hill, Gurney, Moss, Von Trips, Shelby.
Though she ended her racing career in the late 1960s, Denise did not walk away from the sweet fragrance of Castrol R. She became one of the founding editors of Competition Press, now known as Autoweek, and remained as a senior contributing editor up until the end, writing in her unique perspective about racing, automobiles and the people who made it all go.
McCluggage was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in 2001, the SCCA Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Sebring Hall of Fame in 2012, where she enjoyed a class victory in 1961. She won both the Ken Purdy Award for Excellence in Automotive Journalism and the Dean Batchelor Lifetime Achievement Award for her writing.Spending time with Denise was always enlightening and uplifting, and those who knew her will miss that spirit and life sparkle she radiated like the fresh morning sun. --D. Randy Riggs
Denise McCluggage 1927-2015
