Video: 1950 Santa Ana Sports Car Races

The 1950 sports car races at the Santa Ana Blimp Base, was one of the first major west coast sports car races. The race featured many future stars of international racing. For the winner Roy Richter, this would be his first and last sports car race. Roy owned Bell Auto Parts and had a license to sell Allard J2's on the west coast, much to the frustration who had the license to sell all other Allards in the west. Anyway, Roy's wife was out of town, so he decided the best way to get the word out on his new business venture was to do some racing. Roy won the race and gave the J2 one of its first race wins. Unfortunately Roy had to give up racing once his wife returned home. Incidentally, this video features what is probably some of the first in car (color) footage. Enjoy!

Red Wheels and White Sidewalls - Reviewed

In honor of the reprinting of Bill Pollacks racing memoirs, Red Wheels and White Sidewalls, we are reprinting our review of the book from issue #40 (Spring 2004). To buy a copy of the book, you can go to Amazon or to Bill's publisher, Brown Fox Books. Enjoy!

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Many Allard enthusiasts got their initial inspiration from Tom Carsten’s immaculate white-walled, Cad-powered J2. Bill Pollack had the honor of piloting that imposing mass of adrenalin, testosterone, and charisma to outright victories in each of its five outings in 1951 and 1952. Bill continued his amateur racing activities for another 5 years after that car was destroyed in a post-race accident at Pebble Beach in 1953. During those years, he earned 18 more “podium” (in F1 parlance) finishes in 44 races.

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Monterey Reflections – 2010

 

Some changes have taken place with the “Monterey Historics” since General Racing turned the reins over to SCRAMP (Sports Car Racing Ass’n of the Monterey Peninsula). They include:

• The official name is now the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
• Official practice sessions started on Thursday – making this more of a four-day event.
• The field of entrants has increased by half. More than 700 cars were entered in 19 separate classes – compared with 450 in previous years.
• Some classes have been re-configured – the two classes of pre-WWII cars have been combined into one.
• Attendance at the Monterey “Pre-Historic Races” that take place the previous weekend are now open to the public (for a price), and have been re-named the Pre-Reunion.

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Video - Practice, 1990 Monterey Historics

Video - Racing Allards, 1990 Allard Reunion

That's Real Racing - Video from Torrey Pines, 1955

Our friends from The Chicane (www.thechicaneblog.com) just posted this great color video footage from the Torrey Pines Road Races in 1955.

Torrey Pines Road Races - October 1955 from Harlo on Vimeo.

Question 1: What happened to all the great paint jobs like the blue & white C-type Jag?

Question 2: Can you name all the cars?

A Weekend Away, Racing at Spa

 

By Tom Walker

Spa was terrific as usual. The sun shone and we had a great time. The Spa Historic 6 Hours meeting is reckoned to be one of the best in Europe for old car racers. There is a great spread of entries , from pre-war sports cars to my favorites…the big bangers, Lola T70, Porsche 917, Matra, Ferrari…and the circuit is acknowledged to be the best fun to drive on. The 6 hours is on the Saturday night, from 5pm till 11. I have never taken part, preferring to chill out on one of the excellent viewing banks with a crate of cold amber nectar, the light slowly fading and the headlights coming on in the dusk. 

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