April, 2012 Escape Velocity Magazine - Space Coast PCA Home ...

Check One Off The Bucket List
Article and photos by Ralph Fritsche
Few if any places outside of Zuffenhausen,
Weissach, and the famous racetracks of
the world are as steeped in Porsche lore as
Chalome, California. What? “Never heard of
it” you say. Well, while Chalome consists of
little more than a Post Office and a small cafe,
just to the northwest lies the intersection of
State Route 46 and State Route 41. Late in
the afternoon on Friday, September 30, 1955,
that nondescript intersection would forever
go down in history.
James Byron Dean and his mechanic Rolf
Wutherich were on their way to Salinas in
Dean’s newly acquired Porsche 550 Spyder
to take part in the SCCA races that weekend.
However, fate in the form of a 1950 Ford
Custom Tudor coup driven by 23 year old
college student Donald Turnupseed, would
intervene at that Chalome intersection and
Dean and Wutherich would never make it to
Salinas.
The legend of James Dean and the Porsche
550 Spyder were forged in that violent
collision of man and machine, and to this day
Chalome is a place where both fans of Dean
and Porsche come to visit out of a sense of
curiosity and respect.
During our trip to Rennsport this past fall,
Steve Hoffman and I decided to visit the site
of the accident and the memorial to Dean that
was built by a Japanese fan adjacent to the Jack
Ranch Café. After a two hour drive, we finally
arrived late in the afternoon and it was easy to
see how the little silver Spyder could virtually
disappear in the dusty haze of the setting sun.
Aside from the memorial, which is in a state
of disrepair, the only other marker is a road
sign identifying the intersection of Highways
46 and 41 as James Dean Memorial Junction.
The sign was erected to commemorate the
50th anniversary of Dean’s death in 2005.
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After our visit to the site of the accident,
Steve and I stopped by the Jack Ranch Café
for dinner. The café has a friendly staff that
caters to locals, travelers, and the frequent
tourists who visit the site. The food is good
and the café makes the most of its connection
to history with Dean posters hung on the
walls and a small “museum” located in a back
room.
It’s doubtful that I will ever make a return trip
to Chalome, but since it was on my Porsche
“bucket list” of places to visit, I’m glad I went.
I would recommend it for anybody planning
to visit Laguna Seca for the next Rennsport
or ALMS race.
For further information on James Dean and
the events of September 30, 1955, I highly
recommend the book “James Dean at Speed”
by Lee Raskin.
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