It is with great sadness that I have to report that Harry Heuer Jr. has passed away.
Those of us who have closely followed American sports car racing will recall that Harry founded the Meister Brauser Racing Team in 1959 and that it was one of the very top US sports car racing teams for several years. Drivers Augie Pabst and Harry Heuer Jr. won National championships for five consecutive years, driving Bocar, Scarab and Chaparral I race cars.
Heuer campaigned a Bocar XP-5 powered by Chevrolet during 1959 in the USAC road racing championship with mixed results and some sponsorship from Peter Hand Brewery. The team stepped up their efforts for the following year and purchased a pair of Mk II Scarabs from Woolworth heir Lance Reventlow in mid-1959, hired Augie Pabst, Jr., and Heuer to drive them, with Heuer as team manager that first season. The new outfit was dubbed Team Meister Brauser. This was near the end of the era where a gentleman racer with some funding could mix it up with the factory and pseudo factory teams.
Harry Heuer became one of the dominant big modified racers of the early 1960s in SCCA and USRRC. Heuer won the SCCA B Modified National Championship in ’61. In ’62, the brewery purchased one of Jim Hall’s first Chaparrals for Heuer to campaign, and he won the SCCA C Modified National title with the car in both ’62 and ’63 after which Team Meister Brauser was dissolved.
Harry ran the Chaparral I only a few times in 1964 resulting in a best finish of 4th at the USRRC held at Augusta, GA. International Speedway. Dave Mac Donald in the King Cobra entered by Shelby American was the overall winner of the event, followed by Jim Hall (Chaparral 2A) and Bob Holbert (King Cobra) rounding out the over 2 litre podium.
Harry also drove for Ray Nichels at the Daytona Continental in 1962 and the North American Racing Team (NART) at Sebring 1963.
Harry was a fine fellow, a three time national champion race driver, and a fountain of stories, both printable and not! Harry was sometimes seen at MiRPA's Cars and Coffee held monthly in Cary, IL, the annual Meadowdale Reunion held at Raceway Woods forest preserve, as well as Road America's midsummer vintage racing event (whatever it is currently being called).
I will miss him.
Meister Brau was a brewery established by Peter Hand in 1891 located in the Lincoln Park neighborhood of Chicago. It was one of 53 breweries in Chicago at that time. Harry Heuer Jr., was the great grandson of Peter Hand. Harry's father, Harry P. Heuer was president of the Peter Hand Brewing Company and largely bankrolled the Meister Brauser Racing Team.
Nearly a century later (1972) Meister Brau "Lite" was transformed into the light beer known today as Miller Lite.
Chaparral I Chassis 002 at Meadowdale Reunion
Bocar XP-5 Chevrolet Chassis 003
