1963, Westwood

 From the May 27, 1963 Vancouver Province.

 

1963 photos of Bill Stephens

From the September 1963 issue of Western Wheel.

yet more leftovers

More of this stuff that needs to be used up. This time Bill Stephens and his Lister.

Bill Stephens, Rose Cup winner in 1963, part three

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....

Bill Stephens, Rose Cup winner in 1963, part two

Here's something found on the Vintage Race Club of B.C. website, written by Bob Hayes. This somewhat answers my question re. Stephens and the Lister:

With the destruction of the Jaguar factory by fire in 1956, the need for a replacement for the D-Type Jaguar was required, Brian Lister a successful race car builder in England was contracted to build a car using the Jaguar driveline in a competitive chassis. For 1957/58 he built 18 cars with lightweight aluminum bodies (some were even made with magnesium bodies) which were called Knobbly Listers due to the unusual shape of its body. The first two of these cars were sent to Briggs Cunningham to replace his D-Type Jaguars. He put Walter Hansin in one for the 1958 National Championship which he won with ease. Another seven Lister's went to a dealership owned by Texan's Jim Hall (of Chaparral fame) and Carroll Shelby who put Corvette motors in them and sold them to enthusiasts throughout North America. One of these cars came to the Pacific NorthWest to Tom Carstens in 1957. Tom ran the car then sold it in 1958 to Al Dean of Deans Van Lines for another Northwest driver Bill Pollack drive in the LA Times Grand Prix. After a few more years of hard use this cars was in a destroyed by fire at Riverside (they had to use a front end loader to extinguish the fire by dumping sand on it due to the magnesium), it is rumored that the car is still there under the sand where it was buried in 1962 outside turn 1.

Tom replaced this Lister with a new Costin-bodied Lister (one of approximately 40 built) which had a more pleasing shape but actually was less aerodynamic and slower than the previous cars for the 1959 season. Tom raced this car several times here in the Northwest, placing 2nd in June 1959 at Maryhill Loops, retiring at Shelton in August 1959, and winning at Shelton in 1960. He attempted to sell the car in June of 1960 and eventually sold it to fellow Northwest competitor Lew Florence in March of 1962. Lew raced it first at the July race in Kent, and had an excellent race in September when he placed third behind Dan Gurney and Masten Gregory at Seattle's Northwest Grand Prix; he finished the season at Riverside in October.

He sold the car that winter to Ladner's Bill Stephens for $5,000. Bill was a 22 year old UBC student at the time and had been racing locally for 5 years in a Porsche 356. He and his friends (Harry Holland and Ian Bailey) prepared the 1600 lb car for the 1963 season. The engine was a 327 Chevrolet Corvette motor that had been modified by Edelbrock in California to produce over 400hp, allowing a top speed of 160MPH. He had purchased the car with the hopes of going professional sports car racing full time. In the May 4th 1963 Western Canadian Championships races at Westwood he placed 6th in the first heat and 3rd in the final heat to finish 3rd overall.

Bill Stephens in #62 passing Stan Burnett's Ferrari at the hairpin. Photo by Mike McBride

Bill raced his Bardahl sponsored Costin-Lister winning the May 26th race at Westwood, and The Rose Cup in Portland where he out dueled fellow Vancouver racer Bob McLean.
Unfortunately in the July United States Road Racing Championship race at Seattle, he had a serious crash effectively ending his season. Note-Vic Edelbrock campaigning a 1959 Costin-Lister (SN BLH130), equipped with a 338cu in Chevrolet, had a serious crash at a recent Pacific Northwest Historic race at Seattle when he rolled it on the short high speed straight on the bottom of the hill, the same place that Bill Stephens crashed his Lister-Corvette 40 years ago.

He eventually had to sell the car to Portland's Stan Bennett the following winter to pay for the repair bill. Bennett raced it in 1964 with no success then sold to another Portland racer Bob Erickson who placed 13th at the Laguna Seca USRRC race in 1965.

Bill Stephens, Rose Cup winner in 1963

Stephens? Or Stevens? I'm sticking with Stephens until otherwise told to change.

Bill Stephens raced for a few years in the early 1960s. Seemed to coincide with his education at the University of B.C. He graduated up to a very hot Lister Corvette, won the prestigious Rose Cup in Portland, OR. Not sure how long he continued racing after 1963. I don't see his name much, if at all.

Maybe I need to look harder. Or ask somebody.