General Info | Crew | New Location

CHARLIE GIBSON 1935-2004

Charlie Gibson, one of the partners of Sasco Sports, spent most of his adult life involved in car racing, and particularly in vintage racing for over 25 years.

Charlie, who was born in New York, attended Williams College and Harvard University and earned his MS in Engineering and ultimately an MBA from Harvard. While attending college, he was a very active as a competitive alpine skier and later served as the President of the U.S. Ski Association.

In 1962, he began working for IBM in marketing and held a number of different assignments in marketing, engineering and business before his retirement in 1988.

Charlie started racing a Sprite in '59 and then acquired a two-year old Lotus 23. In 1967, Charlie was the SCCA GM National Champion in the Lotus. From 1972 to 1976 Charlie ran a Formula Atlantic March in the Canadian Players Atlantic Series against such luminaries as Bobby Rahal and Gilles Villeneuve. In 1977, he started Sasco Sports with Dave Handy in a shop which was part of his house, preparing his own and customers' cars. Today SascoSports has seven employees in a new 10,000 sq.ft. building at VIR. Also in '77, Charlie acquired a McLaren M6B Can Am car which he started racing in vintage, and which Dave still campaigns today with Charlie as his "co-pilot".

Charlie was always present at the track, and attended more than 35 events each season, both as a competitor, as the supplier of racing tires representing Dunlop, Goodyear and Avon, and as a supporter of a number of customer racing cars. You would always find Charlie "working his tail off", mounting tires, dealing with customers' tire problems, customers' vehicle problems and then hopping into a car and being totally competitive on the track. The amazing thing is that he performed all these things very well and continued to maintain a happy and friendly outlook.

Charlie, was a two-time winner of the Gilles Villeneuve Memorial Trophy, which is the top trophy for the series. He was one of the most approachable, interesting and knowledgeable people in vintage racing. He was a tremendous asset to our sport.