A Day at the Races Goes Badly!: Remembering Dr. Norbert McNamara M.D.

 A Day at the Races Goes Badly! Remembering Dr. Norbert McNamara M.D - Part Three

The following series of photos were taken at Cotati.

                Norbert McNamara visually inspecting the sad remains of his Fairthorpe. 

                Is this Fairthorpe an Electron or an Electron Minor or both? These photos were taken at Cotati Raceway, but don’t know exactly when. Also notice Norbert is wearing a white short sleeve shirt, but the corner workers in the background are wearing heavy coats (was this photo taken the middle of winter?).

 

Norbert A. Tracy on the left, Norbert J. McNamara on the right both enjoying a beverage of their choice.

 

 

“A Pile of Trash in a Field” 

            That was the A.I. suggestion as a caption for this photograph above, so I went with that.

"Not much left of this Fairthorpe"

Also notice that the rollover bar only covers the left or driver’s side. Whereas the Fairthorpe Electron #161 in my previous post, had a roll over bar that spanned width of the full cockpit.

            Norbert McNamara picks up his Fairthorpe for a closeup inspection.

The eagled eye among you will spot that this is a Mark 1 Electron Minor chassis with a Coventry Climax motor installed as it has Standard Ten front suspension and back axle. I believe that it also has an MGA gearbox as would be fitted to a Lotus Elite so likely also the 1220cc Climax engine. Looks like the right front coil-over shock absorber has collapsed. The cause or because of the accident? I also see that the rear SU carburetor broke off the Climax intake manifold, likely starting the fire.

The Fairthorpe Electron, in 1957, started out in G production where it was competitive. But it then moved first to F production, and then to E production, where it was no longer competitive.

Using an Electron Minor chassis with a Coventry Climax engine would be significantly lighter and therefore more competitive than Electron with  the heavier Triumph TR3 suspension. Did the Norberts think they were “cheating”? Or did the Norberts know that Fairthorpe were building Electrons from 1962 with the lighter Electron Minor Mk. II chassis? most likely the later. And that Fairthorpe had updated the homologation papers for the Mark II Electron using the EM Mk. II chassis to entry the Monte Carlo rally? 

        In 1964, McNamara entered two races in an Electron, the first was the U.S. Road Racing Championship in May 1964 at Laguna Seca in an Electron with a 1098cc Climax engine, program below.

            And the second entry was at Vaca Valley raceway, in September 1964, with a 1220cc Coventry Climax FWE engine, program below.

At some point, I’m told that the 1098cc engine from the original Electron threw a rod out the side of the block. Was the 1220cc FWE Climax engine and gearbox then sourced from, perhaps, a crashed Lotus Elite? Were both entries in 1964 the hybrid Fairthorpe Electron? Or the original Electron? Their Fairthorpe Electron Minor was last raced in 1963, and not raced in 1964, was that because it had been transformed an “Electron”? If so, the photos above taken a Cotati, probably late in 1964 or early in 1965.

With one Fairthorpe burning to the ground and the other having a rod out the side of the engine, was too heavy to be competitive, and the Fairthorpe Electron was being moved from E production to D production for 1965, was it time for Norbert to look for other options? Yes, I think so!

Remembering Dr. Norbert McNamara M.D.: Are Two Norberts Better Than One?

 

First, I should mention that I have updated part one,

Remembering Norbert McNamara: May I Borrow Your Fairthorpe?

 as I have learned of and therefore added additional entries for McNamara at Laguna Seca in October1961 for both the Electron and Electron Minor. With that said, now to continue with Part Two:

Remembering Dr. Norbert McNamara M.D.: Are Two Norberts Better Than One?

In 1963, after graduating from medical school. Dr. Norbert McNamara M.D. moved to Palo Alto where he was doing his residency at nearby Stanford Medical Center. Norbert McNamara again entered the Fairthorpe Electron Minor in the Monterey Pacific Grand Prix at Laguna Seca, but this time the entrant was Norbert Tracy. Not sure if this is the same Electron Minor that David Dinsmore entered in 1961 and 1962? Most likely they were one and the same, both were white, but can’t be sure. Interesting is the engine displacement was listed at 1056cc. If they were still using the Triumph 948cc engine, the 63mm bore would need to be increased to 66.5mm achieve 1056cc.

Unlike Davis Dinsmore and James Kirrs, I did find Norbert Tracy’s obituary published by Marin Independent Journal on Dec. 10, 2003, and it is as follows:

“Norbert A. Tracy passed away Saturday, December 6, 2003, after a ten-year illness with non-Hodgkins’s lymphoma. He was born in Cork City, Ireland, October 3, 1936, to Peter and Eleanor Tracy. He came to the United States in 1958 and lived with his relatives in San Francisco. He attended City College of San Francisco and U.C. Berkeley, studying electrical engineering. His studies were interrupted by the draft into the U.S. Army. He was stationed in France and upon discharge, returned to Cal and changed his major to Civil Engineering. While at Cal, he received his master’s degree in Geotechnical Engineering.

In 1974 he began a 28-year career with Jacobs Associates, Engineers/ Consultants. He served as President from 1992 to 1999. From 1999, he was Chairman of the Board of Directors until he retired in 2002. During his career, he was involved in many high-profile projects, some of which were tunnel and infrastructure design projects, such as the Melbourne CityLink and Sydney M-5 Motorway, Chicago’s TARP project, New York’s Light Rail, major sewer system tunnels in Rochester, New York and Boston’s Inter-Island and Metro West Water Supply Tunnels. He was involved in a number of pump/ storage and mining projects throughout the U.S. and overseas. He worked on such local projects as the City and County of San Francisco’s Clean Water Tunnel, East Bay Municipal Utility District’s Claremont Tunnel, the Walnut Creek/ San Ramon Improvement Project and the Mokelumne Aqueduct. In earlier years, he and his cousin worked on developing a race car for the Can Am series. He enjoyed auto racing, golf, the Giants and 49ers, home improvement projects, but most of all, he enjoyed his family. Norbert is survived by his wife and best friend of 33 years, Barbara and children: Kevin of Larkspur, Ellen of San Rafael, and Shannon of San Diego; his sisters Ruth Dumas of Point Lookout, NY, Gillian Tracy of Rye Brook, NY, his brother Michael of Waterford, Ireland and many loving sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law, nieces, nephews, cousins, and many good friends. He had a delightful sense of humor and was a quiet wonderful man.”

I find the line highlighted above interesting, and the same line repeated below:

“In earlier years, he and his cousin worked on developing a race car for the Can Am series.”

Was the cousin mentioned, Norbert McNamara? I believe McNamara was, indeed, his cousin and they both worked on the Fairthorpes together and later, they worked on the Costin sports racer which would later be raced as the ZMT Climax.

The Fairthorpe in the photo below was photographed outside of Nadeau Bourgeault’s workshop, on the back of the photo is written “Fairthorpe Electron Bourgeault”. His shop was located next to the Bill Breeze Sports Car Center in Manzanita, CA near the base of the Richmond Bay Bridge. It is likely that the Fairthorpe was there to have work done on the car. Perhaps having a roll over bar installed, if so likely photographed before it began racing in 1961?

            I believe that the Fairthorpe above is an Electron Minor. Well, it is hard to tell from the quality of the photo.  You can’t see if it has 15” TR3 wheels or 13” Herald wheels. On an Electron with a TR3 rear axle the rear wheel will be slightly tucked under the body, where the rear wheels on this Fairthorpe appear to fill the rear wheel aches. Only about one third of the steering wheel rim is visible in the photo, that certainly makes it an Electron Minor, as the Electron steering was mounted much higher.

            Nadeau Bourgeault or “Nado” as he was usually called, could be described as a wizard or a genius working on sports cars, having re-bodied several cars in beautiful alloy bodywork. Additionally, he went on to build a series of his own racing cars.

            The next photograph below is of Norbert McNamara Fairthorpe Electron. On the back of the photo is written “Fairthorpe Electron New! 31^st Avenue” Note that the indicators are on the side of the bonnet, whereas the Electron Minor above had its directionals at the front of the bonnet. This Fairthorpe was first sold in 1959 but first titled in California in 1961, about the same time that Norbert began racing Fairthorpes. Perhaps it was first registered in another state. Notice also that the steering wheel is very high in this photo as you can almost see the steering wheel hub which makes it an Electron.

            Below is also photograph of a Fairthorpe Electron, on the back is written “Fairthorpe Electron Cotati”.

 

            Notice that this Fairthorpe also has directionals on the side of the bonnet. Is it the same Fairthorpe as the one on 31^st Avenue, maybe? Maybe not? Also, I can just see that the roll over bar spans the full width of the cockpit, with a single brace to the rear behind the driver.

            “Cotati” on the back refers to the local racetrack at that time, about 45 minutes north of San Francisco. It was an abandoned WWII Naval Airfield, see below, from a page on “Tam’s Old Racecar’ website. There were many regional SCCA races held there, and it is certain that Norbert and his Fairthorpe raced in some of those events there, but no records were kept. 

    

            Are two Norbert's better than one? Yes, indeed they are!

Remembering Norbert McNamara: May I Borrow Your Fairthorpe?

 For many years, I had seen the listing on the racingsportscars website for Norbert McNamara as Fairthorpe racer. I was somewhat puzzled as to who he was and what was the connection to David Dinsmore and James Kirrs? Well, his connection with David Dinsmore and James Kirrs remains a mystery other than they owned the Fairthorpes that Norbert raced.

A simple google search, however, turned up McNamara’s obituary which was published by San Francisco Chronicle on Jan. 31, 2010, and is as follows:

“Norbert Joseph McNamara, MD, Colonel US Army-Retired passed away on January 17th, 2010. He had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for many years. Norbert was born on February 3rd, 1933, in San Francisco to Joseph and Nancy McNamara. Norbert was predeceased by his wife Sabra and two sisters, Ann & Nancy. He is survived by his nieces Margaret, Jennifer and Gillian and their families. Norbert graduated from the University of Oregon Medical School with his M.D. in 1962 and completed his Psychiatric Residency at Stanford Medical Center in 1966. He retired from the military in 1986, at which point he continued his lifelong passion of collecting, racing and restoring historic race cars.”

From what I have read, Norbert had some 40+ cars in his collection at the time of his passing. 

Nobert first raced a Fairthorpe Electron Minor which was owned by David Dinsmore of Larkspur, CA in August 1961 at the Vaca Valley Sports Car Races. 

 

Then again, a month later in September, at the Reno Sports Car Races. And at the same race, Nobert also raced a Fairthorpe Electron, with a 1098cc Coventry Climax engine, this one was owned by James Kirrs of San Francisco. Norbert was living in and attending medical school in Portland, Oregon at this time. 

Finally, the last race in Octomber1961 at the Pacific Grand Prix race at Laguna Seca. McNamara raced the Fairthorpe Electron Minor, again with David Dinsmore as the entrant. This listing is not in the racing sports cars archive, but I did find the program on the Cliff Reuter Ecterrini website. I don’t have program page for the E production race, but I have information from historian John de Boer, that Norbert also raced the Electron with James Kitts as the entrant. John has the spelling of his last name as Kitts, not Kirrs, but surely the same person. A spelling error on one or the other of the two entries.

A year later, in October 1962, McNamara again raced the Electron Minor, but this time at Laguna Seca. This was the last time for David Dinsmore.

Fairthorpe Electron in Northern California: WANTED DEAD or ALIVE

 

Looking for information to locate Rusty Johnson and/or his Fairthorpe last seen in Northern California in 2006. The following photos were sent to the Fairthorpe Sports Car Club nearly twenty years ago.

Rusty's grandfather owned this car since the mid-seventies and finished restoring it about thirty years ago, his name is Arthur Watson.  With the Triumph TR3 wheels, this is definitely a Fairthorpe Electron, very rare with only around 40 being built and perhaps less than 20 made their way to the States.

The Fairthorpe Electron with its “SPEED NOSE”. Is this Fairthorpe Electron still owned in Northern California by Rusty Johnson?

The cockpit of the Election which had the speedometer and tachometer stacked, one above the other as on this Electron.  The shift lever appears to be from the Triumph TR3, which was the “heavy” gearbox options for the Electrons. Does this Electron still have its original Coventry Climax engine? There is currently only one Fairthorpe Electron known in the United States with the original Climax motor, that Electron is also in Northern California.

Arthur Watson bought it from a guy who used to race the Fairthorpe in Long Beach, this car could possibly be the Electron that was raced in the early sixties by Jack Brabban. But, there were at least two Fairthorpes that were raced by Norbert McNamara in Northern California. Additionally, a few Electrons were also raced in Arizona.