I'm not sure of the exact year but I think it was in the mid to late
'60s that the SCCA mandated that Nomax driving suits be worn during all
sanctioned races. At the time these suits were very expensive (I
suppose they still are) so many drivers tried to come up with ways to
get their cost down. John Nygaard, one of my Cobra owning friends,
decided that one way would be to have his wife make a suit for him. So
John ordered the material (which wasn't all that cheap) and his wife
looked around for an appropriate pattern. After much searching the best
she could come up with was a pattern for a clown costume. And that's
what she used. As far as I know John has the distinction of being the
only driver in the history of the SCCA to have worn a clown suit while
racing. His wife told me that it had the added benefit of making it
easier for her to spot her husband in crowd at the track.
Roland
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