S1 Ep302: John Fitch: The Greatest Driver You’ve Never Heard Of
Past Gas
Donut Media
4.9 • 7.2K Ratings
🗓️ 1 September 2025
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
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This week on Past Gas, we uncover the life of John Fitch — a World War II fighter pilot who became one of the most important race car drivers in history… and you’ve probably never heard of him. He raced with legends, helped turn the Corvette into a true performance icon, and stood in the pits during the deadliest crash ever at Le Mans. That moment changed him forever — and his safety inventions have saved millions of lives on the road and track ever since.
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Transcript
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| 1:46.0 | slash pass gas. Hello everybody. Welcome back to Pass Gas. Today we're talking about John |
| 1:52.6 | Fitch, a little known hero of automotive motorsport. This guy flew P-51 Mustangs in World War II. |
| 1:59.8 | Joe got me a P-51. |
| 2:01.6 | I'm very stoked on. |
| 2:02.6 | Thank you, Joe. |
| 2:03.6 | That's Joe over there. |
| 2:05.6 | John Fitch was captured by the Nazis, went to a P.W camp, came back, started racing cars with Juan Manuel |
| 2:11.6 | Fangio, and also bore witness to one of the most horrific accidents in racing history and devoted his life to |
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