Hagerty Motorsports: Racer, Writer, & Trailblazer Denise McCluggage

March is Women’s History Month, but while that might have been the impetus for the article on imola.motorsportreg.com, the story of Denise McCluggage’s motorsports success is one worthy of being told any time of year. McCluggage was undeniably one of the greats, blazing a trail that led her from writing to racing, opening doors along the way as she crossed paths with icons like Phil Hill, Juan Manuel Fangio, Steve McQueen, and many more. She left such a mark on motorsports that she was inducted into the SCCA Hall of Fame in just the second year of the Hall of Fame’s existence. And now, thanks to Hagerty Motorsports, the official insurance partner of the Sports Car Club of America, you can read more about her incredible accomplishments.

From her birth in Kansas in 1927 to working at the San Francisco Chronicle in the 1940s, McCluggage likely never anticipated the road ahead of her. Just look at the image that accompanies this story. That’s McCluggage alongside Stirling Moss, Pedro Rodriguez, Innes Ireland, Ronnie Bucknum, Rodger Ward, Jack Flaherty, and Dan Gurney.

As Jan Schlain wrote about McCluggage’s astounding journey for Hagerty Motorsports:

began racing as an amateur in the early 1950s and went professional in 1956. Her warmth and her red and white polka-dot helmet shone brightly in the man’s world of post-WWII motorsports. But that’s not why Le Mans racer and Ferrari importer Luigi Chinetti put her behind the wheel of his Ferrari NART Spyder to race at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1967. She was a great driver.

She drove for Briggs Cunningham, the America’s Cup yachtsman and Le Mans competitor, who raced his own cars and fielded many others. McCluggage and Ruth Levy co-drove his Porsche 550 RS at Caracas in 1957. She raced at the Nürburgring three times, though her only finish was in 1958, in an Alfa Romeo Giulietta Veloce. In 1959, she won at Lime Rock in an OSCA. In 1964, she scored another class win at the Monte Carlo Rally, driving a Ford Falcon Sprint. In 1967, her last year as a professional, she and Marianne “Pinkie” Rollo drove Chinetti’s NART Spyder to 17th place. Of the seven Ferraris at Sebring that year, theirs was the only one to finish.

Along with the stories in this Hagerty Motorsports article come incredible photos from McCluggage’s adventurous and amazing life. Grab a drink, get comfy, and click the link below to read about an amazing life lived.

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Photo caption: November 1962 – Denise McCluggage, postrace in Carmel, CA, with (from left) Juan Manuel Fangio, Stirling Moss, McCluggage, Pedro Rodriguez, Innes Ireland, and Ronnie Bucknum. Kneeling, in front: Rodger Ward, Jack Flaherty, and Dan Gurney.

Photo courtesy Hagerty Motorsports (by Bettmann Archive/Getty Images)