|Greenville & Hockessin People|
The flag-to-flag victory Throughout his half-century career as one of America’s m sports car drivers, George Alderman took on the most cha tracks. Now at 90, the thrill of the competition still rema By Richard L. Gaw Staff Writer The visitor was in the wrong place to interview the right person. Throughout the Hockessin home of George Alderman, there are contradictions that are as loud as the racetrack at Daytona moments after the call goes out, “Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines.” Every photograph on the walls that shows Alderman seated in Formula Cooper-Alfas and Lotus 23s and McLaren Chevys should come with sound, and rumble with the reverb as the pictures suggest. Instead, they stand as a silent black-and-white testimony to past achievements. A man of accomplishments should be interviewed in his domain, and in Alderman’s case, it would have been perfect to speak with him in the creature comforts of a former race car driver – among the tools and torn-apart engines of a mechanic shop. Yet George Alderman is now 90, and as it is, he is seated in a comfortable chair, and a temporary cane that came after a minor fall is within arm’s reach. Every wall in the home should suddenly reveal itself to be movie screens, showing films that portray the complete
Courtesy photos
Alderman in a Cooper race car in 1960. 48
Alderman raced competitively from 1956 to 2002.
Greenville & Hockessin Life | Summer 2022 | www.ghlifemagazine.com
life of its owner careening around race tracks. It should be able to show footage of he and his wife Marilyn and their children Lauren and Paul on vacation and traveling to races as a family in a motor home. One cannot expect magic to happen every time, so the visitor concedes. He will tell a tale about a life well lived and lift every layer of it slowly, in direct contrast to the way George Alderman drove those cars around the tracks that led him directly into automotive racing history. The trip to Watkins Glen in 1952 Born on April 29, 1932, Alderman lived in Michigan with his grandparents for four years before moving to West Chester and finally to Newark in 1949. After graduating from Newark High School in 1950, he spent one year at the University of Delaware, but began to take an early interest in race cars. Alderman’s lifelong passion was firmly ingrained in him during a trip he made in 1952. “I was involved with a couple of people who were interested in sports cars, and I ended up buying a brand new MGTD and drove it to see the last street race at the Watkins Glen Raceway in upstate New York,” Alderman said. “At
In addition to owning a successful automotive service, Alderman Alderman is one of only 500-plus operated Alderman Datsun-Nissan members of the exclusive Road from 1966 to 1994. Racing Drivers Club.
