Loading up the pair of entries for Mexico City onto Ronnie Hissom’s trailer in Midland. Mechanics Donn Allen (shown) and Gary Knutson stayed behind in Texas to continue building the Chaparral 2.
Photo: Heidi Allen Collection
Photo: Bob Jackson
In 1962, I was Jim Hall’s mechanic. There are many stories I could tell about the five years I worked for him; this is one of the more interesting ones.
Jim decided we would go to the inaugural Mexican GP, scheduled for November 4, 1962. This was a non-points event held about a month after the USGP at Watkins Glen, which counted toward the 1962 World Championship. That year was the second season of the 1.5-liter engine formula, and most of the teams used V8 engines from Coventry Climax or BRM. The cars we took to Mexico had less powerful 4-cylinder Coventry Climax engines from 1961.
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