I was scanning in some old slides that I shot with a Kodak Instamatic using 126 film when I was 15 years old. The quality is not great, considering the technology but I thought some of you might like to see these.
Club racing in the desert, the way it used to be 45 years ago.
An old map of PIR showing the infield/outfield course. The track used to go out around a hill behing the main oval. When I worked on the SCCA corner crew, if I was stationed out there I could not even see most of the track.
I do have some from Daytona which are a year or two older including the 1969 Daytona Continental, the bike races, a few from bike week in town and a few SCCA but they were shot from a longer distance considering the venue. If anyone would like to see them I will post them.
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[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 06-19-2015).]
I shot several rolls of pictures at the 1961 Times Grand Prix at Riverside (CA). Unfortunately, all of those pictures were destroyed in the 1990s, but I do have copies of the entry list. It makes for fascinating reading. On the other hand, it is sobering to realize that within a decade almost half of these drivers had died in racing accidents.
FWIW, Roger Penske won the race driving what had started life as a Cooper F1 car, minimally modified to make it a FIA-legal "sports car" ... which mainly consisted of adding body work to enclose the wheels and tires, moving the driver's seat slightly off the center line of the car, and adding room beside the driver for a vestigial-but-required "suitcase."
[This message has been edited by Marvin McInnis (edited 06-19-2015).]
I shot several rolls of pictures at the 1961 Times Grand Prix at Riverside (CA). Unfortunately, all of those pictures were destroyed in the 1990s, but I do have copies of the entry list. It makes for fascinating reading. On the other hand, it is sobering to realize that within a decade almost half of these drivers had died in racing accidents.
FWIW, Roger Penske won the race driving what had started life as a Cooper F1 car, minimally modified to make it a FIA-legal "sports car" ... which mainly consisted of adding body work to enclose the wheels and tires, moving the driver's seat slightly off the center line of the car, and adding room beside the driver for a vestigial-but-required "suitcase."
Wow, a lot of important names in that list, both drivers and cars. I particularly like Jack Brabham, Bruce McLaren and Jim Hall.
Back in the 80's I spent a hell of a lot of time at PIR when I was working for Volkswagen-Audi. Not many people knew that VW-Audi had a lease to the property, and created a few more tracks for Proving Grounds Testing. One Track I helped create was designed to put 10 years service on a car in 3 months, so we could evaluate prototype builds quickly that contained material and part changes in many areas.
I spent a lot of time on the Oval ringing out prototype GTI's. Ah the good old days. Always stayed at a Hotel near South Mountain that had a great Happy Hour with tons of free fresh fruit you could make a meal off of. Also it was great to take the car up and down the South Mountain twisty during the evening. Fun road to do some hot dogging on, but you have to be careful as there's no much room for error, see video:
PIR has been through a lot of changes over the years, from the spartan road course in the pics above to the full fledged racetrack you knew in the eighties and now a fully developed first class venue.
South Mountain Park used to be a popular nighttime destination when we were teenagers.
[This message has been edited by williegoat (edited 06-20-2015).]
I'm sure it's changed quite a bit since I was last there. Back in my day there was only one road in that was prone to flash floods, more than one driver lost a car there. The place was still pretty popular for top Indy Drivers of the time, the Unser Brothers, A.J. Foyt, Rick Mears were regulars that I got a chance to meet with. They would get a lot of seat time trying new things with their cars there without getting much attention.
I can remember one SCCA weekend when the road was flooded, where they got hold of a couple tractor/trailers to ferry race cars, tools and people across and in to the track. There is a bridge across the road now.
Great stuff Williegoat, Thanks for sharing. Reminds me a bit of my own club racing days, but not quite as far back.
I helped my neighbor, Robin Miller, (ESPN, SPEED, RACER Magazine), get started with his first SCCA Formula Ford. It was a McNamara chassis that he bought from Andy Granatelli Racing in 1972. McNamara had given 2 of the Formula Fords to STP / Granatelli after building Andretti's 1970 Indy Car chassis. I think the FFs were based on his F3 design, a huge mass of little chassis tubes almost like a Birdcage Maserati. The 2 cars sat under tarps in Granatelli's garage in Chicago for 2 years until Robin bought 1 of them. I think the other one went to a TV anchorman and club racer in Los Angeles, (I hear *rumor* that he was also one of the participants in one of the original "Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Trophy Dash" races across the United States.) The Burt Reynolds comedy movie "Cannonball Run" is based on those real (illegal) races.......anyway, I digress...
Both Formula Fords were painted in the famous bright STP fluorescent red with the huge STP stickers on the nose. Quite nice actually. I recall we left them like that and only added the car number roundels and few other small sponsor stickers. The car also had a new Ford Cortina engine mated to a nice new Hewland gearbox when he got it.
I "campaigned" my own IMSA Monza clone, a clapped out Formula V, and an even sadder Datsun 510 sedan in SCCA club racing for a brief time.
Thanks again for the photos!
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 06-20-2015).]
Thanks for the video of the new PIR, sure has changed a whole bunch !!! Back in my day no one wanted to put money into the track because there was a really big hill near it, and people would just sit on the hill, and watch races for free (bugged the hell out of the owner as he couldn't do anything about that hill).
Which reminds me, we were developing a 16 valve Turbo GTI back then, what a kick to drive. It never made it to Production in turbo form back then because it was just too damn quick (10 second quarter), and the damn thing would severely torque steer between shifts. Meaning it would jump a full lane if you weren't on top of it. Volkswagen deemed it was too UN-safe for the street, because UN-educated drivers would cause some nasty head on crashes. Years later now, it's in Production with new computer electronics with hydraulics to control differential.
They are a homely little car, but damn fun, and durable for a 4 banger. I'm surprised they aren't more popular here:
Much respect for anything that fast, but it's just not how I'd want to make my power. A perfect example of the numbers not telling the whole story. Other than the tires and rollcage, that's a wicked little Q-ship. "Q-SHIP" would have to be my personalized plate on something like that.
Great stuff Williegoat, Thanks for sharing. Reminds me a bit of my own club racing days, but not quite as far back.
I helped my neighbor, Robin Miller, (ESPN, SPEED, RACER Magazine), get started with his first SCCA Formula Ford. It was a McNamara chassis that he bought from Andy Granatelli Racing in 1972. McNamara had given 2 of the Formula Fords to STP / Granatelli after building Andretti's 1970 Indy Car chassis. I think the FFs were based on his F3 design, a huge mass of little chassis tubes almost like a Birdcage Maserati. The 2 cars sat under tarps in Granatelli's garage in Chicago for 2 years until Robin bought 1 of them. I think the other one went to a TV anchorman and club racer in Los Angeles, (I hear *rumor* that he was also one of the participants in one of the original "Cannonball Baker Sea to Shining Sea Trophy Dash" races across the United States.) The Burt Reynolds comedy movie "Cannonball Run" is based on those real (illegal) races.......anyway, I digress...
Both Formula Fords were painted in the famous bright STP fluorescent red with the huge STP stickers on the nose. Quite nice actually. I recall we left them like that and only added the car number roundels and few other small sponsor stickers. The car also had a new Ford Cortina engine mated to a nice new Hewland gearbox when he got it.
I "campaigned" my own IMSA Monza clone, a clapped out Formula V, and an even sadder Datsun 510 sedan in SCCA club racing for a brief time.
Thanks again for the photos!
How amazing! Shortly after me talking about this here, Robin Miller posts an old photo of the car at IRP !
The guy on the left, kneeling is Paul Page, who later became famous as the International broadcast "Voice of the Indianapolis 500" The guy on crutches on the right is Indy Car driver Art Pollard, who was killed in an accident at the Indy 500 the year after this photo was taken. The fellow in front on the right, (wearing hat) is Rick Schaffer, a young sports writer for the Indianapolis Star newspaper and mutual friend of mine and Robin.
That old McNamara STILL looks cool to me all these years later.
Dig those street tires!!....(I think this was Robin trying out the car for the very first time.)
[This message has been edited by randye (edited 07-04-2015).]
It would never fly in Montana though. These rubes insist on using a diesel crew cab long bed dually to tow an 14' aluminum boat and scoff at using a sedan to tow a tiny utility trailer.
