RE: [Chrysler300] Chicago Sun Times on Gregg Ziegler

["Rich Barber" <c300@xxxxxxx>]

Excellent article and a must read.  If unable to hit the link, here is the
text.  I was not aware the B's record stood until 1960.  I guess it was its
streamlined shape and firmly attached windshield trim!

C-300'ly,
Rich Barber
Brentwood, CA (105 in the shade today)
1955 Chrysler C-300 (headed for another local show this weekend--last week
was a bust with no judging, plaques, prizes or recognition--oh well, it was
cool by the San Joaquin River in Antioch)

Gregg Ziegler stands next to a 1961 Chrysler 300G.   
Glory days
Beach racing before Daytona 500
July 9, 2008
BY ANDY MIKONIS SearchChicago - Autos Contributor
Long before the Daytona 500, the sands of Daytona Beach were a prime
location for land speed record attempts dating back to the early 1900s. In
the late 1940s, one of newly formed NASCAR's first sanctioned series of
events was Speed Week, which included the Flying Mile and Standing Mile
acceleration competitions run on Daytona Beach. 

In the Flying Mile, drivers got one mile to accelerate to top speed, then
were timed over a measured mile running full throttle. The Standing Mile
clocked the speed achieved at the one-mile mark from a dead stop. Chicago
area resident Gregg Ziegler, a hardware store owner and car enthusiast, set
a Flying Mile record of 144.9 mph in a 1960 Chrysler 300F that still stands
today. 

Ziegler drove to Daytona in 1956 to attend Speed Week as a spectator and was
astonished by the performance of the 1956 Chrysler 300B. It attained 139.4
mph, shattering the previous year's Flying Mile record of 127.6 mph set by a
1955 Chrysler 300. 

"I came home and I was just sick," recalled Ziegler. "I had to have a
Chrysler 300, so I went to almost every Chrysler dealer in this area and I
finally wound up in Lake Forest at Knauz Motors" where he traded in his 1956
Buick Century on a 1956 Chrysler 300B. 

Subsequently, Ziegler bought 1957, 1958 and 1959 Chrysler 300s and with no
previous experience raced them during Daytona Speed Week. "The '59 wasn't a
good year," said Ziegler, though it netted him a fourth-place finish in the
1959 Flying Mile. 

This caught the attention of Burt Bouwkamp, then chief engineer of the
Chrysler division. Though the 1956 record still stood and a 1957 Chrysler
300C won its class, Pontiacs had swept the 1958 competition and placed
second and third in 1959 behind an Oldsmobile. Bouwkamp had been attending
Speed Week to help out Chrysler drivers and had just been tapped to lead a
team to develop a special car for the 1960 competition. 

Rules prohibited direct factory sponsorship, stating the cars had to be
entered by private owners (though cars could be driven by professional
drivers). In theory, these were production vehicles that could be purchased
from dealers; in reality, manufacturers, including Chrysler, prepared
extremely limited-production performance packages to give select drivers an
extra edge. Six 1960 Chrysler 300Fs with special 400-horespower engines and
four-speed manual transmissions were planned for Daytona, plus another
engineering prototype car. A few were spoken for by Chrysler dealers who had
previously competed, but Bouwkamp needed some more owner/drivers. 

"To find the other owners we scanned the Chrysler 300 entries from previous
years and I called them to see if they would like to buy and drive a
competitive car at Daytona," Bouwkamp told a meeting of the Chrysler 300
Club International. "Gregg Ziegler says he will never forget that phone
call." 

A friend drove Ziegler to Detroit to pick up the 300F, for which he paid the
normal dealer price, some $5,400, despite all the special preparations. He
drove it back to Elgin and then in February he drove it to Speed Week. As in
other years, he closed the hardware store on Saturday night, hit the road
about 10 p.m. and drove straight through to Daytona Beach. 

Chrysler's effort paid off. The 300Fs took the first seven places in the
Flying Mile - even the engineering prototype car was entered last minute.
Ziegler took top honors with a two-way average of 144.9 mph and the 1956
record was finally broken. 

Asked what it was like to drive so fast on a beach, Ziegler responded, "on
the sand you wanted to get as close to the water as you could because that
was packed hard, but if you got too far you'd go in the water and I've seen
many a T-Bird and Corvette flip into the ocean. It would grab them like snow
. you had to be very careful." 

Ziegler sold the 1960 car and bought a similarly modified 1961 Chrysler 300G
for the next Speed Week. "In 1961 I did it again," Ziegler said, "but that
was partially because one of the other fellows lost a piece of his car." A
total of three Chrysler 300Gs were disqualified for losing windshield chrome
strips according to Bouwkamp, and Ziegler won the 1961 Flying Mile at 143.0
mph, but didn't break his 1960 record. 

Later Ziegler bought a 1962 Chrysler and headed for Speed Week, "but [NASCAR
founder] Bill France had closed the beach on me," said Ziegler. The Flying
Mile was not run after 1961, with Ziegler its last winner. "But 1960," he
reminisced, "that was the epitome." 


-----Original Message-----
From: Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:Chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx] On
Behalf Of Andy Mikonis
Sent: Wednesday, July 09, 2008 10:48 AM
To: chrysler300@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [Chrysler300] Chicago Sun Times on Gregg Ziegler

Hi Gang,

An article I wrote based on my meeting with Gregg Ziegler appears in today's
Chicago Sun Times, and online here:

http://searchchicago.suntimes.com/autos/news/1046862,AM070908_speedweek.arti
cle

It even mentions the Club and has a recent photo of Ziegler with a pretty
good looking 300G. If you are in the area, the hard copy includes a couple
vintage photos from Daytona supplied by the Ziegler family.

In addition to the Sun Times, it's also in other Sun Times-owned papers
today.

Enjoy,
Andy


      

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