Scooter Patrick, who will forever be remembered as the last driver to post a victory in the original unlimited Can-Am series, has passed away at the age of 83. Patrick began racing in 1960 at Riverside’s USAC Road Racing Championship round in a Porsche. He raced occasionally for the next few years, mainly in Porsches, then won the USRRC’s Under-two-liter championship in 1966 and the Doug Revson Trophy in ’67, both with his Porsche 906. Moving into a Porsche 910, he won the SCCA’s National Championship in B Sports Racing at the 1968 Runoffs.
He also raced a Corvette for James Garner and Alfas for Otto Zipper (above) before tackling the West Coast rounds of the inaugural Can-Am season in 1966 and continuing to be a regular contestant in the SCCA’s unlimited sports car series until 1974 when he scored his historic win at Road America in U.S. Racing McLaren M20-Chevrolet to close out the series. To his family and many friends in the sport, Vintage Racecar extends its sincerest sympathies.
I raced against Scooter Patrick in 1971 in the Mexico 1000 in Monterrey, along with my co-driver Paul Piper. We were running a 1098cc Mini against his U2 911. He was co-driving with a California couple if memory serves.
My strongest memory was being passed by Patrick and another 911 just a few minutes (lap or two) from end of 1000K. They were side by side and seemed to be banging off each other as they overtook me, fighting tooth and nail! I was going down a short straight and didn’t know where to go, so just kept going down middle of track.
One 911 passed me on left side and the other on the right, meeting side by side in front of me, seemingly banging off each other. I remember yelling “Are you two f****g crazy? The race is almost over!” It turned out they were fighting for 1st place in class after 1000K! Heck, I was just trying to finish and get enough laps done to qualify.
Watching Scooter and the other 911s pass me for 6.5 hours got me to buy, build and race a 911 a couple years later. Loved the sound of that flat 6.