This video could have stopped at the handheld footage of the corners from an airplane passing slowly overhead and it still would have been worth sharing. But then the tours of the pits with some of the most beautiful cars ever made, including a whole suite of various Ferrari 250s and their shirtless pilots. Then they prepared for the LeMans start… and I’m hooked—all before the action even starts. Somehow even though I have such a deep love for vintage racing, the atmosphere of the pits and spectators in these old films draws me in just as much.
Tag: 1958
Great shots from the pits of “the Tampa Hotshoe”, Joe Sheppard at the 1958 Dunnellon, Florida race. Wonderful sequence of the LeMans start with a leap into a Porsche 550 and a later (or perhaps an earlier practice session?) stop in the pits. Sheppard was a well known racer in the Southeast and podiumed many late 50’s/early 60’s races in Florida as well as on jaunts into the Caribbean for Nassau Speed Weeks and the Cuban GP.
Many thanks to John Shea for sending these.
Got some old slides or prints gathering dust in your closet? Send ’em in!
Previously: Joe with team Camoradi at the 1960 Sebring in photos and video.
The use of the American national racing colors and stripes really makes this ad for me.
Via 1950s Unlimited.
What better time than International Women’s Day to showcase more footage from the Suzy Dietrich archive? This time, the 1958 Sebring Endurance Race. Lots of great footage here from the pits of the competitors arriving. Can you imagine this year’s competitors showing up for the race weekend pulling their racing car on an open trailer behind their Cadillac. More should.
Again, many thanks to Cliff Reuter for snatching these precious film reels from the Suzy Dietrich auction and releasing them into the wild.
Categories
Ingenuity in Action
I’ll admit it. I was already copying the embed code for this clip before the opening credits were through.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.