Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/269902
March / April 2014 24 GUEST COLUMN By Jim Rand The Rocket and the Flash The Midwest has spawned its fair share of winning profes- sional race car drivers over the last one hundred years. Many of these daring young men endured their first taste of dirt track mud, the smell of burned skin from hot engine oil, and bruised faces from concrete and asphalt chips, right here in Kansas City. In the early 20th century, drivers and their ride along mechanics could also suf- fer piercings from flying shards of wood as the board tracks disinte- grated in mid race. Such a track once stood on the grounds of the shuttered Bendix plant at 95th and Locust. But I digress. In what many call the golden age of sports car racing, the '50's and '60's, Masten and Riddelle Gregory, of Kansas City, roared onto the scene, tail- pipes a blazing. (more on that later) Now much has been noted of Masten's career that took him from dusty and windblown Texas and Oklahoma post war airport tracks, to the Crown Jewels in our sport, Monaco's Formula 1, and France's 24 Hours of Le Mans. In the '65 Le Mans, Masten, co-driving with Jochen Rindt, was first across the finish line. Masten was checkered flagged on track by a nattily attired Frenchman, just inches from his oil and rock tattooed Ferrari 250 LM. As teenagers, Riddelle and Masten shared the need for speed that boils deep inside many a young man. Drag racing on KC's tree lined boulevards in early '30's Ford Coupes fed their habit at first. Riddelle once blasted underneath a police patrolled KC bridge, let- ting up on the gas then shifting down a gear mid way under the arch. The ensuing flames exiting from the tail pipe, accompanied by an explosive sound echoing off the stone bridge's cavern earned Rid- delle his "Rocket" nickname. The allure of racing in a sexy and better suited post war foreign sports car on a true road course soon snared the boys in to that world. Riddelle and Masten of- ten entered the same race, sharing near equal skills. Allards and C type Jaguars were their early rides. However, as Masten had started racing earlier, and showed suc- cess, he began to catch the eyes of car owners. Soon these owners began to put him in to the seats of cars entered in more prestigious races. Masten now was often re- ferred to in the sport pages as the "Kansas City Flash" for his grow- ing accomplishments. The mid '50's found Masten racing on various tracks around the world, mostly in Europe. Of- ten his co drivers would be Phil Hill and Carroll Shelby. In 1955 Gregory and Shelby teamed up for a class win in a little silver Porsche 550 Spyder. That Masten lived through this era is surprising, especially when he got to be infamous for his self ejection from crashing rac- Riddelle once snuck away to fulfill a racing need. Having secretly sent his car to Louisiana to enter a race, Riddelle pulled out the old "I've got to go golf with a friend" ploy.