Topper Chasse

19/2/1928 - 8/9/2005

Record updated 14-Apr-08

Started out in drag racing in the 1940s. Switched to road racing with Porsche in 1955. 5 times Porsche Owners Club president and one of the founding members of its racing team, Topper won championships in GT1, GT2, Super Production and SCCA's "Driver Of The Year" award.

Maurice Raymond 'Topper' Chasse started racing in drag racing at the age of 14 with a Model A dragster raced at Santa Ana, Saugus, San Fernando, and the old Pomona drag strips.

This was followed by dirt track oval racing. He served in the Navy just after WWII. After his discharge he built a 29' on 32' rails and won the L.A. Motor Sports and Hot Rod Show with it.

He turned to road racing with a 356 Porsche, in the CalClub and SCCA events beginning around 1955. He spent the next ten years competing in the Porsche Owner's Club time trials that were held at all of the local road race courses. He held several official posts in these clubs. He drove many types of Porsche racers and crewed for several other race drivers. He eventually spent a couple of years driving in the SCCA TransAm series. He then raced in the Willow Springs Raceway Road Racing Stock Car series. The last few years Topper vintage raced 914 Porsches in VARA and HSR-West events.

He won championships in GT1, GT2, Super Production and SCCA's "Driver Of The Year" award.

He kept his his SCCA, Porsche Owners Club, Porsche Club of America, VARA and HSR-West drivers licenses current right up to the end.

Topper was admitted to Huntington Memorial Hospital August 19th 2005 with chest pains. They found his heart was fine, but he had Acute Leukemia. He passed away on the morning of September 8th.



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