Carroll Shelby in 2009, before grand marshaling the Woodrow Wilson High School anniversary parade.
The timelessly cool Carroll Shelby — 1956 and ’57 Sports Illustrated race car driver of the year who fashioned, in later years, some of the world’s fastest high performance rides, including the Cobra, Viper, Shelby Mustangs and Ford GT — died Thursday, reportedly from pneumonia.
Shelby was a Woodrow Wilson High School graduate. He told us in a 2009 interview that he “spent a lot of time in the principal’s office” and even had a run-in or two with the law during his high school years.
“I got in trouble for driving too fast on a couple of occasions. There was this railroad track I liked to speed over — see how much air I could catch,” the then 86-year-old recalled.
The year I interviewed him, he served as the grand marshall of our neighborhood high school’s 80th anniversary parade. Even then, he had just returned to his Texas Ranch following a five-day stint at the Las Vegas Motor Speedway where his Shelby Automobiles sponsored the NASCAR Spring Cup series.
Carroll Shelby after winning the 1959 24 Hours of Le Mans. Courtesy of his publicist
Motor Trend magazine named Shelby one of the top 50 most important people in the auto industry. He’s been inducted into the International MotorSports Hall of Fame and the Automotive Hall of Fame, and more recently, the Woodrow Wilson High School Hall of Fame.
Mr. Shelby, you were one of a kind and the world will be a smidgen less exciting without you!
