GOING LIKE 80.(biography of Denise McCluggage )(Biography)

When this magazine was founded in 1958 under the title Competition Press, one of the first staffers to sign on was a young New York Herald Tribune sports writer named Denise McCluggage. A native Kansan who'd written for the San Francisco Chronicle, she'd taken to the slopes of Vermont and wrote about skiing and motor racing for the New York paper. She was a skilled practitioner of both arts herself who overcame gender bias as both a driver and a writer. Nominated as a driver for Luigi Chinetti's Ferrari team at Le Mans in 1958, her entry was rejected-officials explained it was an invitational event and, "we do not choose to invite women.'' In the same era, she was denied entry to the pits at Indianapolis and did her job by interviewing drivers through the fence.

By 1959, Denise owned Competition Press, buying out the founders for a price that equaled the printer's bill they'd run up. A year later, she made that same deal with John and Elaine Bond of Road & Track-they got her out from under printer debt and got the title in exchange. But Denise never really left the magazine as it passed through a succession of owners (finally joining Crain Communications in 1977), and she still writes regularly, from her home in Santa Fe, for what is now AutoWeek.

The magazine turns 50 next year; Denise turned 80 on Jan. 20, is still a major presence on the automotive scene, and was the first journalist inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame. She's known as a delightful conversationalist on topics including not only cars, driving and skiing but also jazz, movies, photography and the arts. We present here a small selection from her writings for AutoWeek. Call it our tribute to one of the greats. Happy Birthday, Denise.

* I ran into the [Rodriguez] boys in the pits before practice at LeMans [1958]. Pedro told me why Ricardo wasn't in the race: Too young. I told him why I wasn't in the race. "No women or children allowed," I said. He translated that for Ricardo who got a kick out of it. After that, every time I saw Ricardo he would flash his wide smile and pipe, in English: "No ladies or babies." At Rheims, the same thing. "No ladies or babies," Ricardo said, taking his banishment in better spirits than I did mine. (Perhaps because he knew that a year would change it all for him. And I knew nothing would change it for me.)

"Los Hermanos Rodriguez," June 1987

* ...There was trouble with the brakes on either the [Jaguar] 3.4 or 3.8 sedans... The brake pedal on the Jaguar had a quirk of sometimes going straight to the floor-a disconcerting failure to say the least and customers were not pleased. Briggs [Cunningham] kept nipping at Sir William [Lyons] to do something about the brakes. (This was before the days of recalls.) And something of sorts was done: They decided to put a little light on the dash. Then, if the problem occurred, the light would warn you that the next time you put your foot on the pedal it would go straight to the floor.

I remember Briggs' exasperation...and his telling Sir William if the brakes weren't dealt with satisfactorily he was going to resign the distributorship and tell the world why. Well, you can bet some socks were pulled up on the other side of the Atlantic. They dumped the warning light and fixed the ...