Born in 1919 in Westfield, New Jersey, Walter Edwin "Walt" Hansgen was the son of the German born Frederick and Elfreda Hansgen. He started his long and glorious racing career in 1951, well over his thirty. In 1956 he won his first of four SCCA (Sport Car Club of America) championships in succession, at the wheel of a Jaguar D-type. In 1957 he was named "Best Driver of the Year" by The New York Times and "U.S. Sports Car Driver of the Year" by Sports Illustrated. In 1958 and 1959 Hansgen won the SCCA title, paired with Briggs Cunningham, driving a Lister-Jaguar.
Hansgen went on along with Cunningham until 1963, driving Maserati sportscars, and in 1964 he won the Bridgehampton Double 400 Km, in a Scarab-Chevrolet. In the same year he finished third in a NASCAR stock car race at Watkins Glen, and he also made the field at Indianapolis, qualifying in the top ten and finishing thirteenth, in a blue MG-Liquid Suspension Huffaker-Offy. He was the fastest rookie and, at age of 44 he became the oldest rookie to that time to ever qualify for the race, holding this record for 28 years, until Lyn St. James had a successful qualifying run at Indy in 1992, aged 45.
At the wheel of the same Huffaker-Offy, Walt Hansgen finished fourteenth in the 1965 Indianapolis 500, and was also scheduled to enter at the Brickyard in 1966.
He made his debut into the Formula 1 World Championship in 1961, driving a private Cooper T53-Climax in the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen - retired. In 1962 he raced a Lotus 18-Climax in the non-championship Mexican Grand Prix at Magdalena Mixhuca, Mexico City, the race in which Ricardo Rodríguez lost his life, and in October of 1964 Hansgen was hired by Colin Chapman to drive the third Lotus 33-Climax works team car at Watkins Glen. He finished in a solid fifth place, scoring two World Formula 1 Championship points.
n April Walt Hansgen traveled to France to fine-tune the Ford GT40 MkII and the new Ford J for the 24-hour classic during the Essais Préliminaires (preliminary tests). While practicing on a wet track on Saturday, 02 April 1966 morning, he drove down an escape road to avoid going off track into a possible accident. But he was not aware that a barrier had been placed across the escape road and he crashed heavily. Taken to the American military hospital in Orléans, France, he remained in critical condition for five days, until he succumbed to his injuries on Thursday, 07 April 1966, without regaining consciousness. He was 46 years old.
Another fatal accident occurred on the circuit of "La Sarthe" at Le Mans during the same weekend of Walt Hansgen's crash. British rider Syd Mizen was killed on Sunday, 03 April 1966 during the "Critérium de l'A.C.O. au Mans", a motorcycle race held as support event to the Essais Préliminaires.
R.I.P
