Sad to announce the passing of Denise McCluggage. Grand lady, great writer, photographer, but most of all, great race car driver...

That sucks

My friend Mac Tilton has a scrap book that is something of a time capsule. A long time ago I was browsing it at his shop in Santa Barbara and the one thing that grabbed me is all the faces were so young. I recognized almost everyone but the images were way before my time or even close to the age when I could drive.

There were the photos of this girl all dressed up in whites and innocently cute. (reminiscent of Amelia Earhart) . That's when Mac told me that it was Denise. I was shocked because I knew her writing and photography very well. Way back I had no idea she was a driver. I could tell Mac liked her a had a lot of respect for her.

Next time I saw Mac I handed him two color copies of these photographs. It was the only photos Mac didn't have in his book. Mac stared at them for a full minute before saying a word. He then said "thank you and asked where did you get these? I told him I stole it off the internet. I'm going to put this in my scrap book". I could tell it meant a lot to him. He then chuckled and said "that was a long time ago at a drivers meeting at Lime Rock when I raced $100 cars with $10,000 engines. That's Denise and Harry Carter (and a very young Mac Tilton).

Mac then told me Denise had a huge crush on Steve McQueen. They remained close up until Steve's death. It was Denise that took the photographs of Steve at so many events that all of us have seen. Those candid photos only someone close could take.

Godspeed to you Denise. A great writer and photographer of motorsports. One of the few women to pilot a race car and win. (you had balls)

Denise 1960

On the grid

Keeping up with the boys.

...wish that some of the knuckleheads in the "Danica" thread in the garage would come read this one.

The Times did a great story on her. She was the real deal.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/sports/a...at-88.html?_r=0

RIP