More Unseen 50′s SCCA Footage: Paramount Ranch 1956
More footage from the John McClure archives, this time from the August 56 running of the Paramount Ranch road races. The footage here is nice and close, it seems John staked out the perfect spot for the featured Sunday races.
The under-1500cc consolation and feature races in the first half of the video has some great shots of Richie Ginther absolutely walking away with the feature race in his #211 Porsche 550 Spyder; the aftermath of Rex Huddleston’s crash in his #75 Maserati-powered Lotus; William Binney’s beautiful #359 Doretti; an interesting shot in the pits of someone’s front-engined(!) Porsche 4-cam powered racer (is it a Lotus 11?). Nice to see some Cooper Formula IIIs mixing it up with the road cars and specials in the low displacement race.
In the larger displacement race, there’s some nice shots of the lovely little battle between Eric Hauser, Bill Krause, and Harrison Evans. Each of them took 1st in their classes piloting their #70 Morgensen Special, #27 Jaguar D-Type, and #130 Ferrari Monza 750.
Seeing the track in use really highlights was an absolutely beautiful location Paramount Ranch was, even moreso than when we featured it in our Lost Tracks series.
February 16th, 2010 at 3:20 pm
Fantastic stuff! Bill Binney’s Doretti has an Allied fiberglass body that was a direct copy of the Cisitalia 202. Mickey Thompson was involved in making the body. They “borrowed” Pete Petersen’s (Hot Rod Mag) Cisitalia to make the mold. The Binney Doretti still exists and is owned by a friend.
February 16th, 2010 at 8:32 pm
Love it and still can’t believe this footage has never been seen! Congrats Harlo again!!!!!!!!
February 16th, 2010 at 8:40 pm
I grew up in Agoura and have walked every inch of that track several times.. but I’ve never seen it come to life. Thank you for this.
Are there any plans to compile these onto a DVD? I’d love to watch it in my living room.
February 17th, 2010 at 7:25 pm
More Classic footage and to think this is a year after the infamous ’55 Le Mans. Check out all the trees so close to the track and the 2 idiots running across the track in the middle of the race. A different time…
February 17th, 2010 at 10:31 pm
Fantastic footage. In addition to the trees Greg noted, the dust clouds and standing dirt on the outer curves would have to give you pause if you went wide. I was surprised to see the Triumph TR3 and a couple of others navigate that mess unscathed.
February 18th, 2010 at 7:20 pm
[...] recent Paramount Ranch video was discussed on the Pelican Parts forum, where one member brought up their recent tour of the [...]
February 19th, 2010 at 2:24 pm
My Dad, Chuck Porter, is driving the silver Mercedes roadster SLS number 181. The car is still around having been fully restored, and is currently owned by a man in Germany.
February 22nd, 2010 at 8:42 pm
The is a white and red Moretti 750 twin cam coupe at 3:42. The entry list shows 2 Morettis, but this is the only one I have found..
April 24th, 2010 at 7:32 am
thanks for this – after a bit of research I think I have spotted my girlfriends Dad, Jack Wilder – car number 65…. a Nichols Panhard. Its amazing what you can find out on the internet….absolutely amazing
July 6th, 2010 at 4:24 pm
I was acquainted with this lost racetrack due to my 25 yrs acting in the Agoura Renaissance Faire event site next to the racetrack(used as the event’s parking lot). I was curious and wanted to see the track in it’s heyday. Until seeing this wonderful footage, I saw a B/W Mickey Ronnery racing film on the Late TV Show that was shot on this track in the 40′s. The film, The BIG Wheel LINK: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041179/
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