Watkins Glen, 1950, Jupiter

[PJGD]

I had not seen this before, but clearly others from this parish have. This YouTube link is a video of snippets from the Seneca Cup and the Queen Catherine Cup races at Watkins Glen, NY, in September 1950. Of interest to us is that Jupiter chassis No. 1 is seen racing on the original course in both of these races and driven by Lawrence Whiting Jr., until the engine failed on the 5th lap (thank you Ed.).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4uXhjM1cr6I&t=65s Go to 5.28 and 5.47 minutes.

The original Watkins Glen road race course is very atmospheric of the period (even today) and well worth a visit and drive around on it if you have the chance.

Coincidentally, a while back I picked up the book "Watkins Glen Racing" by Kirk W House and Charles R Mitchell, ISBN978-0-7385-5666-6; it is essentially a pictorial history of the events there. Interestingly, it has a couple of good photos of the 1951 R1 Jupiter, one of which includes a view of Horace Grimley working on the front R/H Alfin brake, and he has a very nice hub extraction tool lying on the ground adjacent. The car looks very clean and smart, so I assume that this was taken prior to the race (Queen Catherine Cup) which it won driven by George Weaver.

In the same book is a picture of another standard body Jupiter (I don't know the chassis number) also in the 1951 Seneca Cup and Queen Catherine Cup races, driven by Hugh Byfield; it came in 14th and 28th in those races respectively.