Phil Walters
| Phil Walters | |
|---|---|
| Nationality |
 American |
| Born |
20 April 1916 New York City, US |
| Died | 6 February 2000 (aged 83) Homosassa, Florida, US |
Philip F. Walters (born in New York City, 20 April 1916, died 6 February 2000) was an American racing driver, who won both the 12 Hours of Sebring and Watkins Glen Grand Prix twice.
Phil grew up in Manhasset, New York, and in his late teens began racing midgets at tracks on Long Island. He races under a pseudonym - "Ted Tappett" – so that his family did not he was racing. By all accounts, Walters’s style was brute-force, all-arms-and-elbows sort of oval racer.
It was January 1942 when he joined the United States Army Air Corps, as a transport and glider pilot. He flew a Waco CG-4A glider during a disastrous invasion of the Netherlands, which the Germans knew of in advance. He was able to safely land his troops although he was wounded, and taken prisoner. Whilst in a German hospital, ironically, the German surgeon who saved his life by removing a kidney and half a lung had watched Walters win a midget race in Philadelphia five years before. As a result, his strength and stamina was reduced. He finished the World War II with the Air Medal, a Purple Heart, seven Bronze Stars and the rank of Flight officer.
Following those injuries sustained during the war, he adopted a smoother, less forceful driving style and found this faster, and well-suited to sports car road racing.
After the war, Phil went back to racing in Kurtis-Offenhauser midgets. He resumed his winning ways, stringing together 26 feature race wins in row in 1947, and in another 47 events, he would never finish lower than third in the final results. He dominated at the Riverside Park Speedway, becoming their first track champion in 1949. Later he moved in stock cars and posted a record number of victories in USSCRC events, at places like Agawam, Deer Park, Hinchcliff and Cherry Park. In addition to his racing, he formed a business partnership with Bill Frick, called Frick-Tappett Motors, which did race car preparation and they built the well-known ‘Fordillac’ performance cars (Cadillac engines in Ford chassis). Eventually the partnership became a Volkswagen and Porsche dealership.
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