Riverside, October 1960: chassis 2469 is unhooked from a Ford pickup truck before the Times GP, where Billy Krause took it to a great victory. (Photo: William Oosthoek)
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SHELBY GOES OUT IN STYLE
Moss got his revenge at Laguna Seca the next weekend. The Lotus 19 won both heats, although Jim Hall led for 17 laps in a one-off ride in 2452, the Sugarman Birdcage. Krause had distributor problems in the first heat, while Jeffords dropped out due to oil loss. Driving a consistent race and helped by attrition, Shelby finished second overall with the Harrison 2467 to capture the 1960 USAC Championship crown. It was also Shelby's last race. Heart problems forced him to abandon his career as a race driver.
At Nassau in December 1960, no Tipo 61 managed to lead even a single lap of the feature, which went to Gurney's Lotus 19. In spite of the best efforts by Hall, Jeffords, Andrey and Alan Connell (in a former Camoradi long tail, chassis 2461), the tide seemed to have turned for the Birdcages. In Modena, the factory completed three more Tipo 61s, with the first two sold via Rallye Motors: 2470 to Hinkle (his second car) and 2471 to Roger Penske. The final one, chassis 2472, was finished in February 1961 and went to Casner. This brought the total production run to 16 Tipo 61s and six Tipo 60s (including the prototype subsequently converted). At the same time, Maserati introduced a rear-engined successor, the Tipo 63 Birdcage.
After another show of dismal lack of reliability at Sebring in 1961, this time by front- and rear-engined Birdcages, Maserati worked feverishly on improvements. Unlike the Tipo 61, the short-nosed Tipo 63 with a 4-cylinder Tipo 61 engine and independent rear suspension was an unbalanced design, making it tail-heavy. Upgraded with longer noses, extended wheelbases and V12 engines, they became too complicated for U.S. privateers to maintain. In World Championship events Casner's slimmed-down team scored once more at the Nürburgring, but it was aboard 2472, the last Tipo 61 built. The Cunningham
team persevered with the new V12 Tipo 63, with a fourth place Le Mans finish-the highest in Maserati history-as a reward. Back in the U.S., the same V12 model won victories at Bridgehampton and the Road America 500. It was all downhill from there for the intricate, rear-engined small-tube Tipo 63.
THE BIRDCAGE ERA COMES TO AN END
Before the arrival of the rear-engined model in the U.S., Tipo 61s in the hands of Walt Hansgen and Roger Penske scored a number of SCCA National victories in 1961. But the Birdcage era was about to come to an end, two years after it started. The last hoorah for the front-engined cars was perhaps the marvelous show they put on during the June Sprints at Road America. Three private Tipo 61s slugged it out that day, with Penske in 2471, Jim Hall in 2463 and Bob Schroeder in 2458 (the Salon car). The dogfight lasted the entire 100-mile race. According to the lap charts, Penske led 15 of the 25 laps, compared to Hall's nine.
Officially, Schroeder came by in the lead once, on lap 13, but out on the circuit he showed Hall and Penske the way a number of times. On the last lap, Penske passed Hall and beat him to the finish line, with Schroeder third, one second behind. Quite a performance for a well used Birdcage.
Author Willem Oosthoek, a retired banker, is a recognized authority on the subject of Birdcage Maseratis. He is often consulted by private owners, museums and auction houses on competition Maseratis. His book "Birdcage to Supercage" is still available at
www.daltonwatson.com His recent books on the history of the 450S and Tipo 151 Maseratis are available at
willemoosthoek@aol.com
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