The story of Jim Clark’s hero 'the Kansas Flash' – the best American F1 driver you’ve never heard of

Masten who?

You may never have heard of the short, deep-voiced, short-sighted racer they called ‘the Kansas City Flash’, but right from the start I should mention that double world champion Jim Clark hero-worshipped Missourian Masten Gregory long before his own stella career took off.

And F1 racer and 1959 Le Mans winner Carroll Shelby – father of the Shelby Cobra – believed Gregory was better than fellow Americans Dan Gurney or Phil Hill, and on his day could beat Juan Manuel Fangio and Stirling Moss…