These images from a wonderful thread on Pasion a la Velocidad reminds me that road racing in the Americas was so much larger than we typically remember today. For every Sebring or Paramount Ranch or Bahamas Speed Week or Argentine GP, there were countless communities that closed off a few blocks and made a weekend of it.
Stanguellini Formula Jr.
Ferrari at Premio Trinidad
Panhard at La Trinidad 1959
Again, I’m struck by the beauty of these tropical racing venues. These vistas from the Circuito Cuidad Satelite la Trinidad prove that the views from the countryside surrounding Caracas, Venezuela were every bit as majestic as those from Sicily or Brescia.
See the full thread for even more photos and remembrances from the Venezuelan road racing community.
Not only did Del point out his #85FP MGA that ran in the F-Production race in the photos that William Goldman shot of the 1958 Put In Bay Road Races (that’s him with the front-row view of the crash into someone’s front tree), he sweetened the deal by sending along his photos from the event. Thanks, Del!
Another in a long—and hopefully growing—list of examples of digging some slides (or photos, or film cans) out of the attic and getting them online. Rockhouse66 has added some slides that his father shot at the 1965 Sebring Endurance race to the Shelby American Automobile Club forums.
From their box seats over the pits they had an excellent vantage point to capture the details of some of the racers as they entered the pits. SAAC members have already pointed out the unconventional battery location and the brake duct wings. It’s little details like these that can often only be captured from these unconventional angles, which often means that these spectator shots can be “better” than the professional on-track images that were published at the time. Love it.
Grande Prémio de Angola Grid 1964Grande Prémio de Angola 1964: António Peixinho’s Ferrari 250 GTO
Over on the Angola Off Road forums, commenter Kadypress has been uploading his collection of photos and news clippings from several of the Grande Prémios de Angola of the early-mid 60s. It’s fantastic to see the Ferrari LMs and Porsche 904s and the occasional older machine on the streets of Luanda with the palm fronds whipping in a stiff coastal wind. These tropical settings make these amazing machines seem all the more exotic.
Crash at the 1964 Grande Prémio de Angola
Grande Prémio de Angola 1964 Grid
Willy Mairesse’s winning Ferrari 250 LM
David Piper in the #11 LM before he crashed out of the race.Willy Mairesse’s winning 250 LM. Fantastic street circuitHermann Müller’s Porsche 718 RSK
Willy Mairesse won the day completing 100 laps of the Circuito da Fortaleza street circuit in the Equipe National Belge Ferrari 250LM in 2 hours 31 minutes. Gerhard Koch took the GT class in his own privateer Porsche 904.
Anyone familiar with the recent versions of the glass and concrete control towers at Indianapolis Motor Speedway might wonder why they call it “The Pagoda”. After all, they really only has a passing resemblance to the Japanese* architectural style—particularly between ’56 and ’98.
Not so with the pre-1956 versions.
1913 Pagoda Construction
1913
1954
1938
* A few emails have pointed out that the pagoda isn’t strictly a Japanese design. What we think of as the pagoda has its origins in Nepal before migrating through Tibet to China and the rest of Asia. Thanks for the clarification everyone.
Brian Goldman wrote in with this outstanding collection of slides that his father, William Goldman, shot at Ohio’s Put In Bay Races. From the racing numbers and drivers, it looks to me like the 1958 running of the races. While, William’s photos may have been of different subjects if there were larger classes on the island (Put In Bay didn’t offer a class of races above 2 liters), I’m going to just assume that he shared my taste in the small-bore production and modified classes between 500-1000 cc’s that dominate these photos. I know the big boys usually get all the interest and glory, but these small light racers are, for me, the very essence of sports car engineering and design.
Al Weaver’s #47 MG battles in an all-MG field
Those small racers must have also been ideal for cramming onto the ferry that would take racers each June between 1952 & 1959 (and again in ’63) to Put In Bay, the small island in Lake Erie not far from Toledo. I can only imagine the fun that must have been had on that small island each summer, with drivers arriving from all over the Midwest, and some from as far as Mississippi. Gathering each summer on Erie for a weekend of racing must have been like the little brother of Bahamas Speed Week. Perhaps I’m overstating things a bit in my comparison of Lake Erie to the Caribbean, but I’m sure it was an absolute blast.
Herman Emmert’s Crosley
Arthur Brow’s Turner
Another interesting aspect of the races—perhaps because it was for smaller classes—was pointed out in Sports Car Illustrated’s coverage of the ’58 event: It attracted a large number of young drivers. Of the hundred or so entries in the 1958 event, over half were first-time racers. I can only imagine the terror that a pack of novice racers would inspire in any event insurance adjuster. This casual spirit of the event was even noteworthy at the time, prompting comparisons to the ‘good old days’ of round-the-house racing of the early 1950’s. Good to know that vintage racing nostalgia is nothing new.
John Petrone’s Triumph
Perhaps my favorite expression of the informality of the old community-hosted city street event is this line, again from Sports Car Illustrated’s coverage. “The crowd had complete freedom to watch the race from any vantage point they wished, and though none of the cars were running on alcohol many of the spectators were.” Quality writing there from SCI’s Len Griffing, who was part of an SCI team running a Porsche at the event.
Clark Turner’s Berkeley has seen better days
More information—including race results and scans of period articles on the races—at PIB Road Race, which serves as a hub for the enthusiastic community that both remembers the past races and organizes reunions and competitions on the island today.
The I,G,H-Mod paddockGetting too friendly with a tree
More photos from the William Goldman archive here. Thanks again for these, Brian! Keep digging photos out of the basement, everyone. And let us know about them, we’d love to share them with the rest of the community.
When you see Sebastian Vettel and Jensen battling, you just see the car. You don’t see any emotion on the track. Sometimes an angry arm will come up, but for the most part it’s a car and a helmet. It could almost be remote controlled (some would say it is too remote controlled—zing!).
This image of José Froilán González ahead of Ascari in their Ferraris though, smacked me upside the head with what we’ve lost by hiding the drivers. José and Alberto here could be a couple of kids in their go karts or BMX bikes. They look determined; but they also look like they’re having a hell of a good time. Even though their faces are obscured by shadow and photographic noise, their body language: leaning, elbows out, face poking around the windscreen. They really look like their minds, their hearts, their souls are out there on the race track. They look like they’re having an absolute blast.
The fact that Silverstone of 1951, in this photo anyway, looks like you could have assembled this course in a parking lot with some cones. It just accentuates the fact that this marvelous sport was once just a bunch of guys wanting to find out how fast she’ll go and got together to put on a race.
When you’re born in Brescia it only makes sense that you’ll become a racing driver. I’d say that this pipe may have been Felice Bonetto’s lucky charm, but it’s worth noting that he was disqualified from the 1952 German GP at the Nurburgring—where the above photo was snapped. Maybe he already knew he was disqualified and thought, “The Hell with it, I may as well enjoy a lovely drive around the Eifel Mountains. Now where is my pipe?”.
It would be only a year later that Felice’s drive would be anything but leisurely while leading the 1953 Carrera Panamericana for Lancia. It sounds a bit apocryphal, but Benetto reportedly marked dangerous corners along the route with blue signs. It was at one of these locations—despite this care in marking these corners—that Felice would take a 60mph corner at 125. Bonetto swerved his Lancia D24 into a building and was killed at the scene.
