Excellent footage here from the Andrews Air Force Base Sports Car Races. The segment from the (almost) all-MG race—including the LeMans start—at the 8 minutes, 30 seconds mark is particularly great. What a thrill to see such an evenly matched grid competing at full clip.
That looks like Fred Wacker’s Allard at 10:24, two years after his crash at Watkins Glen that killed a 7-year-old spectator, virtually putting an end to American road racing overnight. I thought that Fred gave up the sport after the incident, but this clip and the racing program seem to indicate otherwise.
Once the main event gets underway there are some magnificent shots of the pits, and the gorgeous Scuderia Kimberly transporter even makes an appearance. Perhaps even more than the races themselves, it’s wonderful to see some footage of the environment trackside. While the cars and the race action documentation are rare, the imagery of the press box or the judges and timekeepers booth are even less frequently seen. It looks like we can even see the handoff of the purse at the end of the film. Amazing.
Great to see more film from the East Coast popping up on YouTube. The California road racing scene was so well documented that it’s easy to forget that there were vibrant, passionate communities of road racers from coast to coast.
The latest from our series featuring cards from the 1953—1955 Topps issued bubblegum cards, “World on Wheels”. This time it’s Allard: “British Sports Car: Speed-Lined Beauty”.
From the card’s reverse: Horsepower 160
This British sports car weighs less than 2,500 pounds, and can reach a speed of sixty miles an hour in about seven seconds. This is from a standstill. The top speed is about 130 miles per hour. The Allard’s brakes are right out in the open, and are highly efficient. Allard now makes two kinds of cars… one for normal, everyday use, and the other as a competition car.
These artifacts of boyhood obsession with racing are so very valuable. I can’t help but imagine an 8 or 10 year old laying on his bedroom floor obsessing over every detail in this basic line drawing and imagining himself changing gear through a hairpin.
Check out the rest of the the World on Wheels series.
The title of this post might seem hyperbolic at first, but in many ways it’s fair to say that the Fred Wacker Allard J2 made the American public think twice about opening their streets to road racing. The early 1950s were an amazing time for American racing; a time when both enthusiasts and local governments were having a remarkable love affair with street racing. Small towns could close their streets for a weekend, invite some barnstorming sports car drivers to town to have a bit of a race, and tens of thousands of spectators would flood the town’s restaurants and hotels. There seemed no end to the tourism and local business dollars that could be raised for little more than the cost of some hay bales and few extra police officers on duty.
The Fred Wacker Allard J2 at the 1950 running of the Watkins Glen Road Races
That romance came to a swift and brutal breakup during the 1952 running of the Watkins Glen road races, when this Allard piloted by Chicagoan Fred Wacker (a fascinating sportsman that I’m sure we’ll examine in greater depth in the future) had a brief tussle with a Cunningham. During the second lap of the featured race of the weekend, Wacker was following the Briggs Cunningham and John Fitch Cunninghams up Franklin Street as they approached the state park. Fitch began to prepare for the right hander by heading to the left side of the racing line, crowding Wacker’s Allard. They both swerved a bit when they realized how close they were to one another: Fitch back to the right, Wacker edging more to the left; closer to the throngs of spectators at the side of the street. The Allard’s back end came out slightly, clipping the curb and throwing the car’s rear into a group of people sitting on the curb(!). A 7 year old boy was killed, and 10 others were injured.
Fred Wacker and crew at the 1950 Watkins Glenn
There had been injuries at other runnings of American road races, including the fatal crash of Sam Collier during the 1950 Watkins. While safety efforts ramped up a bit, the bulk of the danger seemed limited to the drivers. If these swashbuckling racing drivers wanted to take their lives in their own hands, communities continued to allow in on their streets. Once spectators were in harm’s way, however, community sponsored road racing all but dried up overnight. The close-call between drivers and an overcorrection to avoid a crash happens dozens of times every race weekend, but the proximity of spectators turned what should have been a minor racing incident into a tragedy for the sport.
It’s easy to mourn the loss of small-town races, and easy to imagine how great they might have grown through the 50’s had this crash not spotted the entire sport in American eyes. But the truth is that spectator safety standards were so lacking that it was only a matter of time before an incident like this would have happened. Even so, it’s a shame that rather than take more gradual steps to increase safety for spectators and drivers, we saw the rapid extinction of the road race. While that extinction created the great American racing palaces that would come (Road America, Lime Rock, The Glen), I would sure like to see (legal) wheel-to-wheel racing on public roads again.
Did you know that you can buy a brand new Allard J2X? A company in Quebec is producing very authentic looking Allards. I’ve always been fond of the styling of the Allard. The rounded, almost hemispherical, grille is a beauty. I’ve always thought it to be the missing link between Hot Rods and Sports Cars.
This modern version, the Allard J2X MKII, is no beetlesque update; but a beautifully faithful tribute. The body has all the lovely lines you’d expect from the Allard nameplate. The chassis looks more modern – though I must admit I’ve never seen under the bodywork of a classic Allard. She’s powered by your choice of the General’s RamJet V8, the Hemi, or the Cadillac Northstar engine. A fitting selection, as Allard pioneered the lightweight English car with high horsepower American Iron when Shelby was still a kid. Carrol Shelby drove an Allard in the ’50s.
It sure looks like a lovely update. I am a bit disappointed that the wire wheels are 5-lugs and not the actual spinner-mount that they appear to be. But it’s a small concession to make for a brand spanking new Allard.
I haven’t seen many Allards in person, but I have a vague memory of seeing one at the Meadowbrook Concourse d’ Elegance in the early 90’s. She was elegant, bright red, and had a big blue ribbon on her windscreen. I haven’t seen another in the flesh until September 2007 at the VSCDA Elkhart Lake Vintage Festival (I’ll be there this year too). I grabbed a shot of this magnificent example on the 3rd day.
Allard at Road America
What do you think of the idea of modern licensed production of classic sportscars? I’m all for the re-creation and reproduction market myself. After all, it’s unlikely I’ll ever be able to afford an authentic Porsche 550, but I sure have a reproduction on my shopping list. For the curious, there’s a brief Allard history to be found here.
