Well, digging around does get some answers. Even I had something on the Pacific Raceways accident in July, 1963. The link shows the dnf of Bill Stephens.
Vince Howlett, "raceannouncer", has this to add from the AtlasF1 nostalgia forum thread on Listers:
As mentioned in post 17, this Lister-Chev was bought by Tom Carstens in 1959 and raced by him in 1959 and 1960. It was then sold to Lew Florence, who had a fine third in 1962 Northwest GP at Pacific Raceways, Kent, Washington, behind the Lotus 19s of Gurney and Gregory. I talked to Lew a few years ago before he passed away. He said Bonnier's Porsche people didn't give Lew much of a chance, as they thought the car was too old. Lew said, "I lapped him" (Bonnier in the flat 8 Porsche).
In 1963, Florence sold the Lister to young British Columbia university student Bill Stephens. In the 1963 Player's Pacific at Westwood, Stephens finished sixth in the first heat, and held off Pete Lovely in a Lotus 23 in the second heat for fifth overall. That was followed by a win at the Rose Cup Race at West Delta Park (Portland), where Stephens was described in CP as "...doing a satin-smooth job at the wheel of his thundering Lister-Corvette..."
Then at the 1963 Kent USRRC, he is listed as "...spun off course, wrecked..." A few years ago, Bill told me "...I had been running well at the time and was moving up through the field after a rather nervous start. I was beginning to feel that top 5, or even better was in the cards. Then disaster struck. I approached the fast ess curves (about 2/3 way through the lap) at my usual speed of approx. 135 mph. However, since my last time through a small rainstorm had hit on only this part of the track, normally it would not have been too much of a problem, but I was pressing, and lost it at the first part of the curve. I was sure I had saved it sliding up the hill, but to my surprise the car let go again and I hit the left side embankment pretty hard. Probably at about 100mph. I wasn't hurt, but the car was. I was racing on a shoestring budget, and the only way I could pay for the repair work to that aluminum body, was to sell the car...I had planned to race the Lister in California, however the crash I had at PRI ended that plan as I had to sell the car in order to pay for the repairs!!..." Bill now lives in Kelowna, B.C.
Then in 1964, to Stan Bennett. From Martin Rudows book, Bennett says "...I got the car for $5500--it still had a great engine in it..." All I have at the moment is Kent USRRC, May 10, 1964, 16th, 55 laps.
The clippings come from the UBC student newspaper, The Ubyssey, which is online, and if you dig hard enough you can find gems like this upbeat story on an up and coming racer. Of course, stuff happens....
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