I was delighted recently to meet former club member Tom Kearsey who was in the Club from 1959 to 1965. Tom is retired and living in Arizona and was back in Cincinnati visiting old friends and acquaintances He found me through the Internet and arranged to drop by my office in his beautiful bright red Miata.

Tom provided some historical perspective on the club, and its older than any of us realized. He left with me a trophy he won in 1959 for being the fastest overall driver at an event in his Bug Eye Sprite (0-60 in about 18 seconds, as I recall).

His description of the early venues for autocrossing was nothing short of astonishing. He stated that they would go to nearby farms which had flat fields and would set up a course in the field itself by stomping down whatever was growing there and setting up a course. It was considered a big improvement when one farmer plowed out a dirt track that could be used for autocrossing. He described it as being much more like rally cross than autocrossing. Tom left a picture of a “Gymkahna”(what autocrossing was originally called) on “Flenner’s Farm” in 1960. The dirt track runs right next to a tall stand of corn. This was off Augspurger Road between Hamilton and Middletown.

Car classification was somewhat simpler than it is today. Instead of the proliferation of 27 or more categories, with an identical number for females, they had two categories, Over 1.6 liters and Under 1.6 liters. When he successfully beat numerous “sports cars” in the Over 1.6 category with his Volvo P544, a third category was established for sedans, to prevent the embarrassment of the hairy chested sports cars being beaten by a little Volvo.

Tom is currently spending a lot of time in retirement donating his services to his local race track in return for which he is entitled use his Miata a couple times a month on the track, thus continuing his lifelong fascination with cars and speed. Sounds like the ideal retirement! Tom left several pictures with me which, if Scott Tengen can manage it, will be posted on our website. The first is of his MGA which his lovely wife, Fay, drove as a CSCC member in 1965. The second is of a car on the Flenner’s Farm Gymkahna course in 1960. Anybody who can successfully identify this car will receive a free member ship in the club for a year. When Tom told me what it was I had never heard of it and, as a kid who was fascinated by cars, I read every sports car magazine at the newsstand during that time period. I doubt many of you will know what it is. The third picture is of Tom’s Bug Eye Sprite with a number of trophies on the hood attesting to his prowess as a driver. Included is a CSCC emblem on the grill.

On behalf of the club I want to thank Tom for his visit and sharing his trophy, pictures, memories and knowledge from the club’s earliest days. Hopefully, we can all enjoy racing and cars as much as Tom has over his lifetime.

Mike Mooney
7/15/02