Letters.(Letter to the editor)

Still turns heads at 80

Thanks for the feature on Denise McCluggage (Feb. 5). I've been a fan of hers and always look for her column in your publication. Also thanks for devoting a page or two to the WRC events as they happen. As you've already heard from me, it's the best and only auto speed event worth watching if one can get it. Let's hope someone brings it back to us here in the United States. Glad I sent in my check to renew my subscription for another couple of years.

Stan Smith, Oak Hall, Pa.

"Going Like 80'' was well done, with nice photos of an "icon'' of the sport and an exceptional journalist. One darn good driver also. I go back to the days of Competition Press and early AW.

Ralph Stockman, Wellsville, N.Y.

Like others in our small New England college town in the 1950s, my parents rented our spare bedroom to out-of-town revelers for the annual football homecoming weekend. One year, a young reporter assigned to cover the event for the New York Herald Tribune showed up at our door. Her name was Denise McCluggage, and she drove a shiny new Jag XK120. As a budding sports car enthusiast, I was blown away. I'll never forget the gracious, charming young lady who spent half the evening explaining the intricacies of this automobile as my bother and I endlessly circled it at the curb in front of our house.

I'm sure her patience and enthusiasm contributed to my early passion for sports cars and later a modestly successful stint as an amateur SCCA racer. Thanks, Denise! (Now, about that ride around the block you promised us?)