Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix photo by Robert Ristuccia
Is there some way we can pool our money together to hire the committee that created the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix and ship them to cities around the country reviving true road course vintage race weekends? I just don’t know how they did it. Can you imagine the administrative dance required to gain approvals for this kind of thing? If we could only discover their secret for accomplishing this minor miracle in today’s litigious society, just think of what we could do.
I believe these visionaries could make flights of fancy like the Central Park Vintage Grand Prix, a revived Golden Gate Park Road Races, or a return to Bridgehampton’s or Elkhart Lake’s or Pebble Beach’s street circuits a reality. Hell, they even managed to get the state of Pennsylvania to issue a PVGP license plate!
Thankfully, Robert Ristuccia’s beautiful photos from the 2014 running of the PVGP let us tag along on something more immediately real. Just seeing these lovely racing machines from a wide variety of classes running on the closed streets of Schenley Park passing by stop signs and approaching the curbs is a wonderful reminder that real road racing can still exist.
Goodwood has done us one better with their live streams of the Festival of Speed and archived replays of the entire day’s activities. Here is Day 3 of the 2014 Festival of Speed, Day 1 and Day 2 are also available on their YouTube channel.
There are a lot of photographic studies of classic motoring available at the bookstore. Most of these are a collection published by a stock motoring photography house, with a variety of photographers images from the past slapped together under a sometimes tenuous theme. Occasionally we’ll see a singular volume from an individual photographer’s catalog. I tend to be more drawn to these as the work takes on a new perspective than simply the subject of the photographs. The consistency of photographic technique and the photographer’s eye lends the volume a more personal and intimate point of view that holds the book together.
Fred Bonatto’sA Question of Speed is akin to this later type of work, but with a key difference. Rather than a collection of decades old photography, Fred spent the summer of 2013 traveling to the Donnington Historic Festival, the Spa Six Hours race, and Copenhagen Historic GP documenting the cars and—vitally—the community of contemporary vintage racing. I love it.
The past few summers I’ve not been able to attend the number of vintage races that I would like and Fred’s book makes me feel like I’ve just returned from a great race weekend. The reason is simple: he turns his lens at wonderful cars—some in the pits and some on track. Just as importantly he also trains his eye on the real reason race weekends are so wonderful: the people that make them happen. The moments captured of drivers, mechanics, spectators, and corner workers all hard at work/play give you a real sense of being in the paddock on race weekend. We all know that the on-track action is only a fraction of the enjoyment of a solid race weekend.
I also appreciate Fred’s commitment to capturing the atmosphere of a race on black and white film. Film! I’m not necessarily a personal stalwart for chemical photo developing, but I do appreciate the confidence and patience that it takes to limit yourself. When I’m in the paddock, I shoot hundreds and hundreds of images with my digital camera knowing that I’ll be able to find a precious handful of quality shots from the weekend. That is a luxury that the expense of film makes impractical for me, but in the hands of a much more talented photographer, there’s a beauty in the grain of film photography that A Question of Speed captures beautifully.
Fred Bonatto’s A Question of Speed is like a perfect race weekend that I can pluck from the shelf anytime I like—whether it’s because I’m missing whatever vintage event happens to be this weekend, or because it’s mid-February. I’ll always have this wonderful little escape to the paddock right there on the shelf waiting for me. A Question of Speed is limited to 100 precious copies and is available from fredbonatto.com.
Justin Lapriore has returned to Amelia Island for their 2014 concours and, just as in previousyears, has created an absolutely stunning document of the event.
I can think of worse ways to start the day than rising before dawn with a Ferrari 330 P4. I love that the owner has that license plate. Hell, I love that he even has it plated.
You can really see that Justin’s reputation within the Amelia participants has grown alongside his growing video artistry. What used to be beautifully shot scenes of the cars simply passing by has expanded to give him a greater level of access: clipping a camera on the wing of Jochen Mass’ McLaren or going handheld inches off the bumper of Can-Am cars as they roll out of garages and along fairways. Wonderful, close detail shots with equally enthralling exhaust notes. Riding shotgun with Hurley Haywood ain’t bad either.
An aspect of the film that I enjoy is that the pure glory of these machines shares the stage with shots of the people that make these events happen. You start to get an idea of how much work a concours d’elegance truly is.
It’s one thing to gain this level of access, it’s another thing to do something with the opportunity. Justin Lapriore has delivered again on that front and many others. Great stuff, Justin.
These photos from Tour Auto 2014 shot by Remi Dargagen for Classic Driver are absolutely stunning. Sure, he’s got some good subject matter in these exquisite sports and racing cars, but the environments are simply astounding. Really it’s shots like these that make me want to attend these kinds of events. All too often there are shots from staging areas showing a lineup of cars waiting their turn, or bedded down for the night. But seeing these machines in these environments is so tantalizing. Remi definitely focused his attention on the right things here. Marvelous.
In case you thought that Goodwood started and ended with the Revival and Festival of Speed, these photos from the 72nd Member’ Meeting demonstrate that the Goodwood Road Racing Club is a non-stop vintage racing extravaganza. To help make sure none of use ever forget it, this time the Meeting will be televised in two half-hour shows on Channel 4. Sunday’s episode will feature the Gerry Marshall Trophy for Group 1 touring cars; the Surtees and Moss Trophy races; Group B rally; and turbocharged Formula 1 cars. Next weekend it’s the astounding all-Bugatti grid you see above.
It’s times like this (and of course when the actual events are happening) that I wish I lived in the UK.
2014 is the 100th anniversary of Maserati and they’ll be highly visible at several events next year. The announcement came out today that they’ll be the featured marque at the 2014 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. If it guarantees that there’ll be more scenes like this one of a ’57 250F leading a ’39 4CL through the Corkscrew, then 2014 will be a photogenic year indeed.
Stance Works photographers visited the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance and the results are magnificent. Somehow I think that photographers Mike Burroughs and Andrew Ritter made the slightly gloomy weather work to their advantage. Beautiful images. Click on over to Stance Works for the complete gallery.
This past weekend was the CSRG Charity Challenge race and was by all accounts a resounding success. With near record participation and incredible all-time record attendance by spectators, the event increased their charitable donation to Sonoma Chapter of the Speedway Childrens Charities by more than 40% over last year. Congratulations, CSRG!
Unfortunately, the weekend’s successes coincided with the passing of founding CSRG member David Love. His 1957 Ferrari Testa Rossa has been a mainstay of west coast events for decades. The Charity Challenge was no exception. David always believed that the race weekends were about the cars, with the drivers taking a back seat. In a way, it’s beautiful that the car was there. There’s something haunting, though, about this image of the car paddocked for the weekend. It’s as though the car is serving as her own eulogy.
It really says something about David’s commitment to vintage racing that arrangements were made for the car to be a part of the event even though he could not. David’s remarkable spirit that he brought to vintage racing carries on. More photos from the event below. I’m glad that CSRG’s communications of the event remain celebratory for the fantastic race weekend.
Welp, my weekend just filled up. For the first time, Goodwood will be live streaming the Revival all weekend long. Now you’ll be well-placed to take in all the events at a level of breadth that the highlight shows simply can’t cover. I’m particularly looking forward to the Whitsun Trophy race featuring an entire field of GT40s. I am so so, so, so very excited for this.
