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The guy with Dean was Rolf Wutherich, a Porsche factory mechanic dispatched to the US for a while to tend to 550s sold to customers. Competition Motors received a shipment of 8 550s, one of which (#550-055) was sold to Dean. Part of the sales agreement was that Wutherich would serve as Dean's mechanic at races.
Salinas was to be the first race for the car. Dean and Wutherich drove the car instead of trailering it because the car was still so new it only had a few hundred miles on it, and Wutherich wanted at least 1,500 miles before it was raced.
Photographer Miles Collier (I think that was his name) followed along in Dean's Ford station wagon towing a trailer. That's why there are photos of Dean on that "last ride". Of course Dean outpaced the wagon through the hills east of Cholame, so Collier didn't actually witness the crash.
Wutherich recovered from his injuries and stayed in the US for a few years mothering other cars, but ultimately returned to Germany, where he died in a road crash in 1981.
Salinas was, I believe, at the time (1955) an airport circuit, not the Laguna Seca track we have today.
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