Augie Pabst, at the wheel of the Scarab, during the 1959 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix at Riverside. Pabst went on to finish 9th behind eventual winner Phil Hill in a Ferrari.
Photo: Bob Tronolone
Harry Heuer, whose father was the CEO of the Peter Hand Brewing Company, decided in the late ’50s to go racing. So he bought a BOCAR from Bob Carnes. And after winning his first race at Meadowdale, I think he decided to start a full team. Harry had heard that Lance Reventlow was selling the front-engine Scarabs, of which they built one left-hand drive version and two right-hand drive. I think the price was $17,500. So he talked the directors of the company into buying it.
Augie Pabst
I got a call from Harry one day asking if he could speak with Paul O’Shea—who was working for me at the time, in my foreign car agency—because he wanted him to drive the Scarab. Paul wasn’t there but I knew that he had a commitment to drive for somebody else and, while I don’t know what got into me, I said, “Well, I know somebody who would be happy to drive it for you.”
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