DENISE
MCCLUGGAGE
LADY LEADFOOT
JAGUAR XK140
MCCLUGGAGE
A LASTING LEGACY &
1
INCREDIBLE CAR
NICKNAMED
“LADY LEADFOOT”
BY MOTORSPORTS FRIENDS AND AFFECTIONATE RIVALS ALIKE.
They called her
“LADY LEADFOOT”
Denise McCluggage was an American auto racing driver, journalist, author and photographer.
She pioneered gender equality in motorsports and journalism in the U.S. Her first racecar, a radiant red Jaguar XK140, had been missing for more than three decades. It was rescued unaltered in a garage after nearly being sent overseas to become an anonymous sportscar in a prosaic car collection. This is her story.
1956 JAGUAR XK140
31
he car, a Jaguar XK140, was a gift from
BRIGGS CUNNINGHAM,
the wealthy American sportsman she met in the early 1950s while covering a yacht race as a reporter for the New York Herald Tribune.
American sportsman
BRIGGS CUNNINGHAM
was indisputably one of the most pivotal figures in postwar sports car racing, making a profound impact as a driver, team owner, and constructor. His contributions to both motor racing and competitive sailing eventually led to his induction in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, the International Motorsports Hall of Fame, and the America’s Cup Hall of Fame.
The famed Alfred Momo managed the Cunningham racing team (at various times fielding such accomplished drivers as Jack Brabham, Luigi Chinetti, Bob Grossman, Dan Gurney, Duncan Hamilton, Walt Hansgen, Mike Hawthorn, Phil Hill, Ed Hugus, Bruce McLaren, Stirling Moss, Augie Pabst, Roger Penske, Roy Salvadori and Denise McCluggage).
Briggs chose to close his sports car company in 1955, thereafter racing almost exclusively in foreign makes. This decision coincided with an agreement with Coventry to become the director of Jaguar Cars, New York, the marque’s East Coast distributorship, which facilitated Cunningham’s purchase of a D-Type and several racing XKs over the next few years, including this one.
THIS IS THE CAR THAT INSPIRED ALL OF THAT FOR DENISE. THIS IS THE CAR THAT MADE HER WANT TO RACE.
GEORGE LEVY
PRESIDENT OF THE MOTORSPORTS HALL OF FAME OF AMERICA
Thought to be lost forever…
this incredible piece of motorsports history was found lying dormant in a storage garage at a Chicago estate.
Denise went to cover the Indy 500 in 1956 but women reporters weren’t allowed in the garage area, so for a while she interviewed drivers and engineers through the fence.
1956
It wasn’t until a colleague at the New York Times threatened to pull his paper’s coverage of the race that, suddenly, she was granted access.
At an SCCA National event on the old airport race track in Cumberland, Maryland, she was offered a job writing for a new magazine that would be called COMPETITION PRESS
Denise was just as competitive on the circuit, as she was off of it.
DENISE MCCLUGGAGE LEADING THE TOUR IN THE 1967 FERRARI 275 GTB/4 N.A.R.T. SPYDER THAT SHE AND PINKIE ROLLO DROVE TO 17TH OVERALL AND 2ND IN CLASS AT THE 1967 12 HOURS OF SEBRING.
Her career as both a leading automotive racing journalist, and accomplished race car driver herself, inspired generations of women in motorsports to come.
