Archive for the ‘Historic Racing Photos’ Category
February 16th, 2012 | Published by Harlo in Historic Racing Photos
It’s easy to forget that before karting became the dominant proving ground for Formula 1 drivers that World Champions once came from a variety of motorsport traditions. Rindt, Lauda, Fitipaldi, and Rosberg all spent their formative years in a Formula Vee.
I thought I knew my Vee makers reasonably well, but this one I’m not so sure of. Can anyone Identify what FV Jochen is driving here? Is it a Beach?
Ed wrote in to identify Rindt’s Vee as an Astro. Thanks, Ed! (Editor’s Note: Well, in the comments below, Chris also thinks it looks like a Beach. That makes two of us, what do you think?)
More Formula Vee history at The Vee Centre.
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February 6th, 2012 | Published by Harlo in Historic Racing Photos
Friend of the blog and VSCDA racer Ted Sodergren sent in this marvelous set of photos he shot as a young reporter covering the Indianapolis 500. I’m always so excited to see candid shots of Formula 1 drivers hanging out in the pits and marvel at the access racing fans had to these iconic competitors in the early days that I forget that the same also holds true for the Indy drivers.
Ted, of course, had a press pass to help in capture these marvelous images of the competitors and their rides. And what a time to capture these machines it was. The rear-engine revolution came a bit slower to Indianapolis than it did to Formula 1, but you can see here the effects that were taking hold at The Brickyard with only one or two holdout front-engined competitors.
It was a milestone 500. It was the first nationally televised Indy 500, and was the first of Ford’s dominance as an engine manufacturer at Indy for the next 6 or 7 years. This coincided with Ford’s dominance in Formula 1—a tremendous period of motorsport supremacy.
Thanks for these, Ted. And look for his ’66 shots here soon.
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January 16th, 2012 | Published by Harlo in Historic Racing Photos
These photos shot by Jim Miner at the 1960 running of the Nuburgring 1000km caused quite a sensation when his daughter, Kat Miner, uploaded them to her Flickr. There was a tremendous outpouring of interest from the vintage racing community, and it’s easy to see why.
Even in today’s Hipstamatic and Instagram faux-vintage photo effects, there’s something noticeably otherworldly and atmospheric about these shots captured by the young serviceman stationed in Frankfurt. The colors are somehow both vivid and lush, but also cold and chillingly dramatic. The blue tones are amplified, making the greens so vibrant, but also giving everything a foreboding mood. They are haunting.
Even though there’s only these few photos from the day, they hint at a wonderful story. Partly, I think that the fact that there’s so few is what captures my imagination about the event. There’s no shortage of photos from any modern event. Everyone has a camera in their pocket and many spectators spend the bulk of the race looking at the action through their phone’s screen while they snap away hundreds or thousands of images.
These photos though—and I readily acknowledge I’m reading more into this than I should—seem considered and carefully shot. After all, film and processing was never cheap enough to click away with the fury of a digital photographer.
Whatever the case, let’s at least sit back and appreciate how marvelous these photos are… And keep scanning those old slides and negatives, people!
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December 28th, 2011 | Published by Harlo in Grand Prix, Historic Racing Photos
This is what a lot of 1963 must have looked like for Jim Clark. His confident expression at the Spa drivers’ meeting before the 1963 Belgian Grand Prix says it all: He was about to own the rest of the year.
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December 13th, 2011 | Published by Harlo in Historic Racing Photos, Porsche
The late 60′s were a fascinating time for racing. I think I’m most drawn to the era because—for better or for worse—it was such a transformative period. Perhaps nowhere was this more true than in Porsche’s Le Mans pits. We were, after all, on the verge of a ridiculous procession of Porsche Le Mans wins throughout the 70′s and 80′s.
But look at this photo from the Porsche garages in 1969. The boys from Stuttgart had their hands full with the early 917s and the holdout 908s. These were state-of-the-art machines from a racing workshop that was starting to share more with the aviation industry of the time than the auto industry.
But look at these tools! My grandfather’s mower repair shop was better equipped than this. No pneumatics. No carefully sorted trays of perfectly polished stainless. There’s no apparent sorting of the wrenches by size. Hell, the sockets are just laying out! It’s just a pile of mismatched tools on an old plank of wood.
It’s part of why I love this transitional time so much. In many ways, it was old dogs with new tricks. Fresh technology and traditional skills. New engineering by old shop-hands. I’m sure, like always, I’m romanticizing things too much but this image strikes such a chord with me about the era. And it doesn’t even have a car in it.
Also, what I wouldn’t do for one of these jackets.
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December 12th, 2011 | Published by Harlo in Grand Prix, Historic Racing Photos
I’ve seen countless images of the Grand Prix legends of the 1960s with a bit of gaffers tape obscuring part of their goggles. I never really thought about it until I saw this rather extreme example of Graham Hill’s. Does anyone know why they did this? Was covering the top half of the goggles done to block out the sun? Was it to isolate the extreme motion of items in their peripheral vision? Was it simply to strengthen the goggles themselves?
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December 8th, 2011 | Published by Harlo in Historic Racing Photos
Head over to SportsIllustrated.com today and run a search for “SCCA”, you’ll find that there isn’t a single article about this year’s racing season. The only article that even mentions the term is about a retired basketball player that owns a Sprint Cup team. It’s almost difficult to imagine an era when back-yard engineers and amateur racers would be featured in a multi-page spread in America’s premier sporting magazine.
Reading the article though, it starts to fall victim to the same pitfalls that today’s mainstream press does when it bothers to cover motorsports: A focus on the personalities and the celebrities attending events. “The meet that doesn’t produce a bosomy Hollywood starlet to top off the black oil grime on the faces of the winners with a scarlet smear of lipstick is impoverished indeed.”
It’s an admittedly short piece, but this photograph of Chuck Daigh’s Troutman-Barnes special trailing Pete Woods’ D-Type Jag more than makes up for any puffery in the text. Also funny now to see Richie Ginther identified as “Ferrari Salesman” and not as the racing legend he would become.
FScheff has the article scanned over on his Riverside page.
Previously: Sports Illustrated’s Racing Covers.
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December 6th, 2011 | Published by Harlo in Grand Prix, Historic Racing Photos
You can almost see Senna’s passion and drive through his helmet—and his years.
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November 29th, 2011 | Published by Harlo in Chicane News, Historic Racing Photos, Porsche
When I started The Chicane, it was mainly as an outlet for all of the vintage racing research I was doing. A way to do something productive with all the hours I’d spend Googling obscure racing drivers or collecting images of favorite racing machines. What I didn’t count on, though, was how much I would enjoy the commentary and conversations that arise in the comments section of many of the posts. I’m consistently delighted when a post will prompt someone who raced in the discussed event; or owned the discussed car; or had photos from a discussed race meeting; will comment on a post and takes the conversation in a new, thrilling direction.
A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about a set of photos that reader Brian Goldman sent in of the Put-in-Bay races. The comments, though, are why I love the post. Several of the racers checked in or enquired about particular cars. One of whom, Edward Eichenlaub, was looking for any photos that might include his own winning run at that event. Only a short time later, Manley Ford delivered—emailing me the photo you see above of Ed’s victory.
When I see Chicane readers connecting and fueling each other’s love for vintage racing, I… I don’t know how to describe it… It just makes it all seem so much more worth doing. Thank you all for that.
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