Bill Wuesthoff: Smooth and Fast, Nuff Said!

by Robert Birmingham.    Foreword by Augie Pabst

Bill Wuesthoff was among America’s best sports car racers beginning in the mid-1950s and culminating in 1964 after winning the United States Road Racing Championship, USRRC Under 2-liter title. Throughout his ten years competing, Bill kept a low profile as could be expected from someone who enjoyed the battle but shunned the spotlight.

Robert Birmingham’s personal relationship with Bill Wuesthoff dates back to 1959 and as much as anyone today, recalls Bill’s “smooth and fast” competitions from Sebring and Pensacola, Florida, Watkins Glen and Bridgehampton in the east, to Riverside, Laguna Seca, California and Continental Divide in Colorado out west and countless road-racing venues in between. Internationally, he competed at Mosport, Canada, at Nürburgring in Germany, and in Nassau for the popular yearend Speed Week series.

Bill enjoyed success co-driving with his long time close personal friend Augie Pabst, also with Harry Heuer, Chuck Dietrich, Jim Jeffords, Fred Gamble, Bruce Jennings, Frank Rand, and Joe Buzzetta, all nationally ranked competitors of that era. Team car owners included Heuer’s Meister Bräuser Scarab team, Luigi Chinetti’s North American Racing Team, Ollie Schmidt, Carl Haas, Camarodi USA, and Eddie Weschler.

A brief history of Bill’s relationship with to automobiles began at a very early age, stemming from his father who was an early Milwaukee Region SCCA member. Post-racing activities centered on automobiles, his professional business, and sons’ Karl and Lee’s ten years of highly competitive off-road racing.

Many never-before-published photographs, together with numerous documents and other race-related mementos, total over 150, along with Bill’s ten-year race history. In recent years, there has been a growing interest in the recovery of long-forgotten sports car events, tracks and of course, competitors of the 1950s and 1960s. Smooth and Fast, Nuff Said! will be a wonderful addition to any early motorsports collection.

Full color, hardcover coffee table book.