CAMORADI

For those who have memories of this happy era, I'm looking for info about Lloyd "Lucky" Cassner, an American driver and team owner who used to race on Maserati towards the end of the 50s, begining of the 60s.
Cassner entered Maserati 'Birdcages' & Corvettes also in international events with drivers like Gregory, Hansgen, Gurney, etc...(one won at the Nurburgring)
under the banner CAMORADI - Cassner Motor Racing Division.
He died during April practice at Le Mans in 65, after a crash on the Maserati France tipo 151/3.
I would like to know more about his team: how did he finance it? did he have personal fortune, etc... Unlike other private teams, CAMORADI seemed to obtain the lastest cars from Maserati and recruit good drivers too.

 

Casner was a very colorfull charachter. He was always short of money. He found a small sponsor in the USA and talked Maserati into the Birdcage. He actually never paid for the cars! There is a book in french available from Michel Bollée with great photos. You can contact him by email ([email protected] OR/and [email protected]).
Casners team was twice very successfull on the daunting Nuerburgring for the 1000 km!
Moss/Dan Gurney won in chassis #2461 in 1960 and in 1961 it was Gregory/Casner with chassis #2472.
Both cars are still existing but #2461 is today more or less a "replica" based on a new chassis made by Dieter Holterbosch from NYC!

Ciao!
Walter

 

Thanks wbaeumer!
I'll try to get hold of that book.
Unfortunately Cassner kind of predicted his demise 2 years before his fatal accident. In 1963, co-driver Simon heard him saying "This car is lethal, it will kill me" and refused to race it the following year.
For 1665, he was tempted again by Col. Simone (an ex-US pilot who was involved with Maserati import in France) to drive again.
The much modified 152 (151/2) was supposed to be driven by Cassner and Gregory.
I read somewhere that the replacement car (tipo 65) was, in fact, constructed in France in 31 days at the request of Col. Simone, then went to the factory to have the engine (salvaged from the wreck of 152) fitted.
Although sanctioned by Maserati (they sent Bertocchi to oversee it at Le Mans), the car started the race untested, and crashed on the second lap!

 

Yep, everything went wrong in France at that period for Maserati-racing cars. Col. Simone was the french importer together with Monsieur Thepenier. They run their dealership in St. Cloude, a suburb of Paris. About the 151-adventure you also can contact Bollée as he wrote a book about those 3 cars together with Willem Oosthoek.

Ciao!
Walter

 

Thanks for the tip wbaeumer!
Just ordered the 2 books on line.

Cheers.
William

 

William; I have a couple of magazine articles you might like to see.

Road & Track, August 1960, has a 5-page article on the Camoradi team, by Bob Morrison.

Sports Car International, September 1992, has an 8-page article (largely taken up by pictures) on Lucky Casner, by Joe Scalzo.

If you are interested, I can scan and send copies to you if you send me a PM with your email address.

 

I have a VHS tape of a movie made in the early sixties of the Camoradi Birdcage lapping Nurburgring. It was commisioned by Zerex since they were an early sponsor of racing.
The team Camoradi mechanic in the film is Bob Wallace who now has a very succesful engine building shop in Scottsdale, AZ.
I have recently transfered the tape to DVD but the quality goes down wih each copy. Send me a PM if you'd like a copy.

David

 

David,
this video is titeled "PIT PASS" and shows Cassner driving the old Nuerburgring with the Drogo-bodied Birdcage #2472. The car had problems with the suspension so the mechanics upwelded the inner wheelarches. The car is today part of the Panini-Collection in Modena.

As of Bob Wallace: he is most known for his great input in the early Lamborghini-cars with highlights like MIURA and COUNTACH.



Ciao!
Walter

 

William -

also a nice (short) mention of Lucky Casner in the new issue of AutoAficionado in an article on Corvette racing history. A pic of the 1960 LeMans entry on page 42.

James

 

The Jul/Aug 2005 issue of Vintage Motorsport has a great 11-page article on Casner and the CAMORADI racing team.
Image Unavailable, Please Login