Bridgehampton Race Track

[Tom White]

I had an opportunity to give something back to Mr. Shelby. For as many years as I can remember I have been a Shelby car enthusiast. The 289, GT40, 427, Boss 302 Trans Am cars, all great cars in American racing history. A little over a year ago I had a chance meeting with Mr. Shelby at his Las Vegas facility. I was waiting to pay for a poster when Mr. Shelby walked in, saw me standing there with the poster in hand and asked if I would like him to autograph it. I was thrilled to say the least. After a short conversation about the 289’s racing history I asked Mr. Shelby if he would like a piece of the original Bridgehampton racetrack. He smiled and said “yes”.

Bridgehampton was the site of the first FIA win by an American-made car on September 14th 1963 (Dan Gurney drove the car #97). The track, now mostly cover by a beautiful golf course with the “Bridge”, front straight-away and some of the corner towers standing in tribute to early American road racing. Talking to the owner of the track I explained what I wanted to do with a piece of the track. His smile grew as I described my project. He gave me a chunk a track and later sent me a letter “authenticating” the piece of tar. Anyway, after months of pondering a suitable presentation platform I sent the track to Mr. Shelby. It consists of an aluminum (of course) base and stainless steel rods suspending the track a few inches above. The base is highly polished scrap aluminum inspired by photos of the winning 1963 car. The fenders on the car had roughly hammered flares, purpose built, certainly not for show. Anyway I don’t want to ramble anymore than I already have. I thought some of you might enjoy seeing the results. Regards, Tom