Here’s a photo off Facebook of Frank Monise Sr. in his Simca powered by MG in 1955. His son Howard Monise writes, 22 June 2024: “My dad’s hobby was racing various cars over 40+ years. This pic is from a sports car race at Goleta Airport in Santa Barbara, September 1955. I love the old Kodachrome slides.” So do we. Thank you and keep them coming. We would love to see more of this beautiful car, its racing history and its present owner.
Many race results listed at https://www.racingsportscars.com/driver/results/Frank-Monise-USA.html
Here’s a nice piece about Frank: Frank Monise Sr. had no business living long enough to meet Peter Brock, much less being physically capable of winning a championship with the BRE Datsun team in 1969. By the time Frank Sr. climbed into the little Datsun Roadster and claimed that trophy, however, he had already survived racing’s most dangerous era to become one of SCCA’s winningest drivers of his time. He was also a man who refused to give in to any challenge—up to and including death. Case in point: In 1952, Monise, then a 27-year-old auto mechanic and novice racer from Pasadena, California, headed into turn eight at Willow Springs Raceway in his Jaguar XK120 coupe. The car was a luxury out of proportion to everything else in the young man’s life: he was then spending $25 per month on his home mortgage and $50 per month on shop rent. The Jaguar’s slice of his monthly budget: $150. Still, there he was, riding the razor’s edge in the era’s most advanced production car at “the fastest road in the west.” What followed has become known in Monise family lore as “the monumental accident.” The rear axle broke and off came the left rear wheel, sending the Jaguar careening off the track and throwing Monise from the car. In the process, the seat belt sliced him open across the abdomen and dislocated his shoulder for good measure. His cardboard helmet, not surprisingly, was ruined. When Monise arrived at the nearest emergency room the attending doctor promptly announced that there was nothing he could do for this man. Fortunately, for both himself and for the racing world, Monise found his way over the mountain to a hospital closer to Los Angeles, where he survived in the hands of other medical professionals. At least, that’s the scientific explanation. More likely, the Grim Reaper, upon meeting Monise at death’s door, simply decided that this young man was too intense for the afterlife. Better, thought Death, to send him back to the race track, where he could put that intensity to good use. Monise did not completely escape the comeuppance for his youthful hubris, however. He remained on the hook for the Jaguar and continued to make that $150 monthly payment even as the car sat, balled up like tinfoil, next to the shop back in Pasadena.
https://www.hagerty.com/media/motorsports/frank-monise-sr-was-racer-no-one-wanted-to-face/
I am assuming that Monise’s car is different to that at https://www.racingsportscars.com/type/MG/Simca%20Special.html
Most frequent drivers: Stan Peterson (18), R. W. Oswalt (1), Dave Watters (1)
Most frequent tracks: Paramount Ranch (7), Sacramento (3), Stockton (2), Cotati (2), Vaca Valley (1), San Diego (1), Riverside (1), Pomona (1), Laguna Seca (1)