Apparently San Diego’s racing community didn’t completely fizzle out after Torrey Pines was converted to the golf course. I’ve stumbled across this poster, but can find almost no information about the race. Does anyone know something about this October, ’67 event? The poster itself is spectacularly beautiful. So beautiful, in fact, that I’m starting to consider the possibility that the race itself is fictional and this poster is simply a work of art and not an advertising handbill. Part of me likes that idea that a piece of artwork takes on a life beyond it’s canvas and—like War of the Worlds—creates a mythology of an event that never happened. As time passes and memories fade, who is to say that the race did or didn’t take place.
I’m sure though, that the reality is far more simple: that I’m just terrible at Google.
Also: the SCCA’s “Sportsmanship Demands Safe Driving” slogan should have never gone away, but it seems the trademark on the phrase has lapsed.
Brian sent in these unbelievable photos that his father took at the Brookfield Ohio Davis Field Trial in the mid-late 1950s. The event was apparently put on by Davis Volkswagen, but the photos here are even more shocking than seeing a Beetle giving its all on what looks to be virtually untouched field.
If you’ll remember, I was stunned, and pleased, to see a Jaguar XK120 being put through her paces on the dirt hill road of Agoura Hills. Well that’s nothing compared to the scene you see here—this time in what looks to be a Morgan.
The owner of this Triumph TR2 is no less courageous and pushes her for all she’s worth on less than pristine racing surfaces. I adore that these sportscar owners realized that their cars were for sporting purposes—and put them to that end with little mercy. I don’t think we’ll soon see any Lamborghini or Koenigsegg drivers reviving the Field Trial.
Well, I guess we’ll have to get by with the WRC.
Thanks for these, Brian. They’re an amazing artifact, not only of days gone by, but of a spirit gone by as well.
Dan from Karting Archives sent over this marvelous photo of Pedro Rodriguez leading a Mexican kart race. Just look at the spectators! Something tells me that the karting dress code has (unfortunately) relaxed in the years since this amazing shot was captured. Their attire makes this looks very much like a country club event. Who votes we start replacing the back 9 with a kart track?
Update: Over on The Chicane’s Facebook page, Luc Ghys pointed out this marvelous pair of articles from a Mexican Magazine from 1960 chronicling the karting championship and Pedro’s participation. Thanks, Luc!
Part of what made the 1955 LeMans disaster so confusing and difficult to understand (beyond the enormity of the tragedy itself) is that it happened so quickly that it was nearly impossible to determine exactly what happened. If it were today, there would be several camera angles in high resolution to capture the event: a shot from at least one ground-based camera, a aerial view, on-board cameras in many of the cars. That doesn’t even account for the fact that virtually every spectator would be carrying a camera with them at all times—a camera phone at least. Investigations would commence and close in comparative short order.
In 1955, however, there were only a few grainy photographs and a single film camera (that I know of) running that caught the tangle between Mike Hawthorne, Pierre Leveigh, and Lance Macklin (with Fangio in the middle of it all as well). Leveigh would ultimately be thrown from his Mercedes which tumbled over the hay bales and into the crowd killing 83 spectators and injuring a further 120. It remains the single worst crash in the history of motorsport—and likely the worst accident in all of sport.
This is why it was so important to determine what happened. To assign blame, perhaps, but more importantly to find a way to keep it from happening again. Some were quick to blame Hawthorne, some rightly faulted the facility’s lack of safety measures, some governments decided that motor racing itself was to blame. France, Spain, Switzerland, and Germany banned motor racing entirely until tracks could be brought up to a higher level of safety. The Swiss ban remained in effect until 2007.
LeMans 55 Illustration
The lack of a visual archive—of a detailed record—made communicating exactly what happened challenging. So we had to leave it up to artists to show the public the details of the LeMans disaster. I find these artifacts fascinating. This type of record has become almost completely obsolete today, and the simple line drawings somehow both communicate what (they thought) happened and at the same time filters it. Looking at these diagrams, the LeMans crash becomes a cold, matter of fact, sequence of events; not a horrific and bloody nightmare.
These renderings omit the human tragedy; the emotion; the panic. They simply communicate the clinical facts of the crash—which car went which way, and when. In that way, you can argue that it’s more effective than the horror of looping the video feed back and forth.
Let’s take a look at another marvelous group of photos from Dick Lees archives. This time it’s a non-championship Formula 1 race at Silverstone: the Daily Express/GKN 22nd International Trophy Meeting. Lots of great views from the pits here. Watching this year’s Monaco Grand Prix over the weekend, it’s still hard for me to believe the accessibility that was once so common at F1 races.
Jackie Stewart Drove a March701 and finished second to Chris Amon also in a March 701
Denny Hulme’s McLaren and Mike Walker’s McLaren F-5000
