I know I romanticize the past more that it deserves, but is there anyone who would rather hang out in a contemporary racing pit that in this slice of heaven? Anyone know the venue?
Category: Historic Racing Photos
This series of eBay auctions of LeMans, Milwaukee and other venues in the 1950s are marvelous. How can you not love that Kodachrome oversaturation? Some of these items are only available for the next 20 hours, so you’d better act fast. See them all at the eBay listings.
Thanks for sending these in, Erik.
I have this image in my head of Jim Clark easily and effortlessly winning race after race. Nearly every photo I’ve seen of the man after a race is of his smiling face as he celebrates with his crew or the other drivers—not of him slumped and tired and broken down after the strain of a race.
The look of concentration in his face in this photo confirms that it wasn’t just a leisurely drive the led to his victories. It reminds me that just because someone is good at something, it doesn’t mean it’s easy for them.
As an aside: While we can all agree that full-face helmets are safer, what a shame that we’ll never see a photo like this of Vettel or Alonso or Hamilton. Not visibly seeing their struggle just plays into this fantasy of the robotic, efficient driving machine that never breaks a sweat. That’s just Räikkönen.
Photo by Patrick Lichfield. Prints of this shot are available at Chris Beetle’s Fine Photographs. Found via Le Container.
Categories
Raised in the Pits
When you think about it, Damon Hill accompanied his father to the track so often that he really only had one choice: Become a racing driver or never go to the track again.
Color photography dates back to the 1890s but the cost associated with it, even after “modern” color film was available to the masses, was typically several times more expensive to buy and process. Even as late as the early 60’s, it was much more common to see black and white snapshots from race tracks. It’s just one more reason why these color shots of the 1958 GP de Cuba uploaded to Cuba Green Screen by The Real Cuba are so precious. Those ultramarine waters and blue skies would lose some luster as medium greys—not to mention the Ferraris and Jags.
The 1958 Gran Premio de Cuba will always be remembered as the time when Castro’s rebels kidnapped Juan Manuel Fangio on the eve of the race. Whenever I read of it, I always try and imagine how that must have affected his team and the rest of the field. I struggle to put myself in their position. Or Fangio’s; locked in a bedroom listening on the radio to the race he should be winning, a guard over his shoulder. I wonder what would happen in similar circumstances today. If Vettel got nabbed before the Bahrain GP, how would the teams; the sport; or the media react? Would the show—as it did in Havana 60 years ago—simply go on?
Fangio was returned unharmed after the race, and even befriended his captors in the years afterwards. The events have cemented the ’58 Cuban GP in the history of Caribbean politics as well as the history of sport. Looking at these marvelous photos though, I may start to remember the event for Carroll “Chicken Farmer” Shelby lounging in his Ferrari in a pair of hickory striped overalls getting gassed up.
Click on over for more shots and thanks to Bring a Trailer for pointing the way.
Whether you love him as the heroic WWII fighter pilot, the American pioneer in European road racing, or as an advocate for motorsport safety—it’s a tremendous loss. Not a lot of drivers of his era made it to 95. RIP, John.
More at AutoWeek.
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Moss and McQueen
Not much information available on these photographic lots from the upcoming Heritage Auctions Vintage Movie Poster and Signature Auction in Dallas next month.
Whether McQueen was taking in (what looks to me like) the 1965 Monaco Grand Prix as research for his potential role in Frankenheimer’s Grand Prix, or—more likely—just because he was a fan, I don’t know. But since this workshop photo is from ’63, and they were photographed together at Brands Hatch in ’62, it seems to me more like a couple of pals taking in the races.
Categories
Beauty in Imperfection
If this photo were perfectly focused, if it were perfectly exposed, if the print was perfectly executed; it wouldn’t look half as good as it does.
Much of what I love about old race reports is that the imperfection of the printing technologies often helps communicate the speed and daring-do of the drivers. When a photo is a perfect still of the action it takes on a certain calm. When the details can’t be seen or the photo is blurred, it looks like barely controlled chaos. It looks like all Hell is about to break loose. It looks like the engine could blow at any second. It looks like the car is about to careen off the track.
It looks like racing.
More of the 1933 Muroc dry lake races on Belly Tanks.
Back in May, The San Francisco Chronicle assembled a lovely remembrance of the Golden Gate Road Races held 60 years earlier. Looking at these photos, I’m not sure why the Golden Gate races don’t seem to hold the same fond mystique that other California round-the-house circuits have achieved. Perhaps it was because the event was only run between ’52 and ’54 that it just didn’t have time to build the legend that Pebble Beach or Palm Springs did.
While it may have largely faded from memory, there’s something so appealing about the idea of sports cars thundering through Golden Gate Park that feels so romantic. Walking or cycling the route today must conjure thoughts of Phil Hill’s Cad-Allard Jaguar C-Type or Bill Pollack’s Cad-Allard Jaguar C-Type (thanks for the correction, Colin) whipping around Elk Glen Lake. It’s marvelous, if bittersweet, to see these images of the Golden Gate Races running while knowing that they’d be almost impossible today.
But if the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix has taught us anything, it’s that a vintage race in the park can indeed be run in the modern era. What’s more, it can be done in relative safety even while paying tribute to a more dangerous time. Certainly a city park is easier to close down for an event than several blocks of city streets are: They get closed off for foot races or bicycle races or charitable walks all the time. Why not showcase some of the park’s history as a racing venue with a mid-summer weekend revival of the Golden Gate Road Races?
Like our previous support for a Central Park Vintage Grand Prix, I can imagine an entire series of city park or county airport road races—perhaps limited to smaller displacement racers and run with a strict “vintage spirit” rule set. Heck, look to the Detroit Grand Prix as a model for making a marvelous racing course within a city park. If Belle Isle can do it, why not Golden Gate? Why not Central Park? Why not?
Let these images be your guide. Imagine yourself for a moment on 2.7 miles of this wonderful circuit behind the wheel of a mid-fifties racer—or even spectating along JFK Drive—and tell me you don’t want this to happen?
More photos in the Chronicle article.
Recap of the 1952 race on Etceterini.
Previously: Lost Track: Golden Gate Road Racing Circuit
Alberto Ascari’s favorite accessory reminds us all: Bring back the laurels.
Photo by Bernard Cahier. Thanks, PHC.