Who Was Team Owner and Racer, Lloyd Perry “Lucky” Casner?
And Why Are We Talking About His 1960 Corvette Race Car?
This story first appeared in the August 2024 issue of Vette Vues Magazine.
Lloyd Perry “Lucky” Casner was an international sports car team owner and racer from 1960 to 1965. During that time, Casner’s race cars were mostly exotic purpose-built Porsches and Maseratis. In fact, during that time, Casner was one of Maserati’s best customers. Given his passion for exotics, it was interesting that he bought two, loaded-for-bear, fuel-injected 1960 Corvettes to race. “Racer Kit” heavy-duty parts aside, the Corvettes were mostly stock production cars and definitely not exotic.
In the five years Casner raced, he was never a champion, had no podium wins, no points, no pole positions, or record-setting lap times. So, why are we still talking about Lucky Casner? Three reasons. First, for a brief time, he raced a pair of 1960 Fuelie Corvettes. Second, he helped bring into international sports car racing corporate sponsors. And three, for five years, he was always a player in the sports car racing scene.
A smart young guy with big plans
Casner was born on August 30, 1928 in Miami, Florida. A bright young man, Casner went to Miami University and pursued a career as a commercial airline pilot in the early ’50s. This was when commercial flying was mostly for wealthy people and airline pilots were very cool. Casner had a side hustle buying and selling cars, and quickly developed a reputation as a master salesman.
While men had been racing various kinds of cars since 1901 when Henry Ford raced his purpose-built “Sweepstakes” car against Alexander Winton. Speed Racers were setting astonishing speeds at Daytona Beach beginning in 1902. The Indianapolis 500 and the Bonneville Salt Flats Speedway were established in 1911, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1923. But it was sports cars, stock cars, and drag racing cars that took America by storm in the early 1950s.
Blood Sport for hooligans and daredevils.
Automobile racing was a dangerous, high-testosterone game. With more and more young men racing in the 1950s, and almost no safety regulations, drivers were being killed on race tracks weekly. As we told you in our Briggs Cunningham story in the April 2024 issue of Vette Vues, Briggs’ mother made him promise that he would not race cars while she was alive. Briggs’ competitive spirit was so strong, he raced yachts until his Mom passed, upon which, he immediately started racing cars.
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Before WW II, race cars were hand-built mostly by or for rich guys. After WW II, small European car companies started building sports racing cars. This was the Golden Era of the European “sacred cow” exotic sports cars that became available to the well-healed public. Many post-WW II returning G.I.s got a taste of how much fun it was driving small lightweight cars on the curvy roads of Europe. When entrepreneur businessmen started importing these cars into the U.S., sports car racing took off.
Car magazines, such as Motor Trend, Hot Rod, and Sports Car Graphic stoked the passions of young men. Lloyd Perry Casner was one of those young fellows. While European sports cars were available to the public, they were very expensive, even back then. A 1954 Mercedes-Benz 300SL cost around $6800 new while the base model 1954 Corvette cost $2,774 and a regular 1954 Chevy two-door sedan cost $1,680.
Lucky Casner’s plan to race with the big dogs
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Casner’s day job paid well, but not enough to afford an exotic European sports racing car, plus the mechanical and travel expenses to go racing. For rich guys, such as Briggs Swift Cunningham (his grandfather was Gustavus Franklin Swift, founder of Swift Meat Packing Company), aristocrat Marquis Alfonso de Portago, Lance Reventlow (heir to the W.F. Woolworth fortune), and others, racing was an amusing pastime for playboys. So Casner came up with a plan to run with the big dogs; it was called “marketing”.
In 1959 Casner formed a company, “Casner Motor Racing Division”. His cars were branded “Camoradi U.S.A.”, which was a contraction with letters lifted from Casner Motor Racing Division”, to form the exotic, Italian-sounding name, “Camoradi”.
In March 1959 at an SCCA race at Opa-Locka Naval Air Base in North Miami, the brash 31-year-old Casner managed to get a hold of the track announcer’s microphone. Casner announced that he was accepting memberships to his new racing team. It was a clever ploy for an average American guy to finance his racing passion.
As Fate would have it, the right person was at the event. Automotive journalist Fred Gamble took the gamble and also wanted to go racing too! Gamble planned to write and sell stories to car magazines to finance his racing travel expenses. Clever stuff.
The Marketing of Automobile Racing
In an interview by Richard Prince for Corvette Magazine, 91-year-old Gamble recounted that while he knew Casner was a marksman when it came to sales, as well as a bit of a con man, he took Casner up on the offer. Gamble was exactly what Casner needed, an automotive journalist with some background in marketing.
Gamble and Casner were very impressed with the racing business model of Ecurie Ecosse. The Scotsman helped launch the careers of eventual 1963 and 1965 Formula One Champion, 1965 Indy 500 winner Jimmy Clark; and eventual 1969, 1971, and 1973 Formula One Champion, Scotsman Jackie Stewart. Casner and Gamble created their plan for an All-American, Olympic-style auto racing team. But they needed big corporate money.
Gamble knew that New York City advertising giant, Young and Rubican had ad accounts for many automotive-related businesses. Y&R’s client, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Company seriously wanted to get into the racing business and was first to sign on with Casner’s Camoradi U.S.A. enterprise. With Goodyear on board, Casner and Gamble quickly picked up more sponsors; first from Chevrolet, followed by Guest Airlines, Shell/BP, Koni, DA Lubricants, Champion Spark Plugs, Excide, and Dow Chemical.
This was the early days of corporate auto racing sponsors. Car dealerships often sponsored race cars but with limited financial resources. As the 1960s wore on, we started seeing race cars with individual aftermarket parts manufacturer decals, typically on the front and rear fenders. The stickers weren’t for decoration, they were for contingency money. If a racer used parts from say; “Champion Spark Plugs”, “Hurst Shifter”, “Goodyear”, etc, and won a major race, the sponsors would pay money to the racer in exchange for advertising rights. These weren’t huge amounts of cash, but with enough sponsor decals, if a racer won a major event, the contingency money could add up enough to keep a sportsman racer going.
Then, in the mid-’70s, big-name companies such as Coca-Cola, Wonder Bread, Busch, Wrangler, etc. began investing millions in sponsorships. Casner and Gamble, and a few others helped get the whole sponsorship game going.
Cole and Duntov step up with some Corvette help
Motor Trend Magazine covered the 1960 Le Mans race and reported that the block of four white with blue stripes Corvettes was very impressive-looking.
After securing the Goodyear sponsorship, Casner and Gamble needed some cars. Fortunately for them, Chevrolet Chief Engineer, Ed Cole, and Chevrolet’s Director of High Performance, Zora Arkus-Duntov were always looking for racers to support. At the same time, arrangements were being made for Le Mans veteran privateer racer Briggs Cunningham to secure Chevrolet’s best-equipped Corvettes. Three fuel-injected Corvettes with Duntov’s “Racer Kit” performance brake and suspension parts were offered at a significant discount for a 1960 Le Mans assault. Casner and Gamble got two similar-equipped Corvettes for their Le Mans assault. Cole and Duntov liked the idea of having five Corvettes on the Le Mans starting line. But things didn’t quite work out that way.
“Field Testing” the 1960 Fuel Injected Corvette
Here is one of the two Camoradi U.S.A. Corvettes at the Grand Premio de la Habana GT Cuban Grand Prix
The agreement was for Casner and Gamble to enter their Corvettes in all of the major racing events in America and Europe with top mechanics and drivers. As Chevrolet was officially “not in racing”, the cars were sold and accounted for as “Field Testing Cars”. (Wink-Wink!) In retrospect, the cars were astonishingly stock. Except for the RPO 687 Heavy Duty Brakes and Special Steering option; a 24-gallon fuel tank; roll bars; extra lighting; racing wheels shod with the best racing tires of the day; open exhausts; and a few other things, the cars were street Vettes.
The first race for the 1960 Camoradi U.S.A. Corvette was in Cuba at the Grand Premio de la Habana GT Race. With driver Jim Jeffords at the wheel, one of the cars won the All-GT race and then a GT Class win in the event’s main event.
The Camoradi U.S.A. Corvette at the Grand Premio de la Habana GT Cuban Grand Prix race. Note the stock front bumpers were removed and the right and left grille openings were not yet covered as they were when the car raced at Le Mans and as it is today after the full restoration.
Next was the 12 Hours of Sebring which had five other privateer Corvettes. During the race one of the Camoradi Corvettes was over-revved and was limited to 5,000 rpm, plus, the car was stuck in 4th gear. Gamble had been itching to drive from the beginning of his partnership with Casner. Since the car was still running, but on its way to having a blown engine, Gamble was offered a seat. Fred limped the Corvette to a 3rd in Class. The following day, the car burned to the ground in Casner’s Florida shop when an open fuel line started an engine fire.
The surviving 1960 Corvette was sent to Europe for a few races but didn’t score any wins, then sent to France for the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The white with blue stripes livery was designed with Le Mans in mind so that the Cunningham and Camoradi cars would have a unified look. Motor Trend was impressed and reported, “The massive block of four white and blue Chevrolet Corvettes at the head of the line looked most impressive.”
Le Mans is the most grueling racing event of all, it’s a marathon. Of the three Cunningham Corvettes, two dropped out, and the #3 finished the race with its intake manifold packed with ice to keep it from overheating, taking 8th place overall and 1st in Class. The Camoradi Corvette came in 10th but was not recognized as completing the race because the car did not race the minimum number of laps.
Briggs Cunningham was not happy with his Corvettes
Cunningham came to Le Mans on his own dime to drive in his seventh Le Mans race. He wanted to “win” the 24 Hours of Le Mans, not just 1st in Class and 8th overall. Plus, Ed Cole asked Briggs to promise to not let Duntov drive, as he was too valuable to Chevrolet.
Zora had already broken his back in 1955 field testing an experimental Corvette at GM’s remote Arizona test track. Cole didn’t want him taking unnecessary risks. Cunningham delivered the news at the Le Mans race, and Zora did not take it well. The two men didn’t talk for many years and Cunningham never got to try out Zora’s 1963 Z06, the Lightweight 1963 Grand Sport, or the big-block L88 Corvettes.
The end of the line for the Camoradi U.S.A. Corvette
The Camoradi Corvette was entered into a few more events in Europe but scored no wins. Remember, aside from some heavy-duty and bolt-on racing hardware, the Camoradi U.S.A. Corvette was a street car. While on the road in Sweden driving to the Goodwood Tourist Trophy event, with Camoradi team mechanic Bob Wallace at the wheel, the car crashed into a ditch and rolled several times.
Gamble and Wallace deemed the car “totaled”. They removed the engine and transmission to be sent back to Chevrolet. Engineers would regularly perform autopsies on racing parts to see what was broken or about to break. And that was the end of the line for the Camoradi U.S.A. 1960 Corvette.
“Lucky” Casner’s luck runs out
The Camoradi U.S.A. The team continued racing exotic European purpose-built race cars. During the days of the Camoradi U.S.A. Team, many of the top drivers of the day were hired, including Sterling Moss, Jim Rathman, Carroll Shelby, Roger Ward, Dan Gurney, Chuck Daigh, Jo Bonnier, Ninio Vaccarella, and others.
The entire Camoradi U.S.A. The team came to a screeching halt in mid-1965 during a testing session for the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans. Driving a modified Maserati Tipo 151/3, Casner lost control of his car at over 170 mph at the end 3.7-mile Mulsanne Straight and was killed. The Maserati team determined that the crash was due to brake failure.
The Maserati was a 5-liter, high-powered, lightweight beast. While at a race, two years before Casner’s fatal Le Mans crash with the same car, his co-driver overheard Casner say, “…This car is lethal, it will kill me…” Casner decided not to race the car in 1964, but unfortunately, changed his mind for the 1965 season.
What happened to the hulk of the Camoradi U.S.A. Corvette?
It’s a very long story, but here’s the short version. After the crash what was left of the broken totaled Corvette was given to the attending Swedish policeman. Gamble and Wallace told the cop he could do whatever he liked with the hulk; sell bits and pieces for souvenirs, sell off small parts, or whatever he wanted. Giving away what was left was easier than sending back the completely wrecked Corvette. But it turned out that the cop kept the car into the early 1990s!
Around 1990, early Corvette race car buff, Loren Lundberg saw Mike Pillsbury’s restored Cunningham Corvette #2 at a Corvette show. Because of the connection of the three Cunningham Corvettes and the Camoradi U.S.A. Corvette at Le Mans in 1960, Lundberg got turned on to the story of the demise of the Camoradi U.S.A. Corvette. Lundberg initiated a letter-writing campaign to Swedish authorities to discover what happened to the discarded hulk of a race car Corvette.
The letter-writing effort was just before “email” when everything was “snail mail”. After many back-and-forth letters, five years later, on June 29, 1995, Lundberg traveled to Stockholm, Sweden, and bought what was left of the Camoradi U.S.A. Corvette. The hulk arrived in the Port of Long Beach, California on October 30, 1995. This was the first time the car had been in America since 1960!
The car was given a full rebuild and restoration. Although the car never won a race or set any records, it is a beautiful time capsule example of typical first-generation Corvette race cars that started the passion for Corvettes that lives on today. – Scott
