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!

Roy Richter and his J2

Did you know one of the most influential people in motorsports and the automotive aftermarket, owned and briefly raced one of the first J2's in the US? That man was Roy Richter, owner of Bell Auto Parts, Bell Helmets, and was the leading figure behind SEMA for many decades. He also won the first (and only) sports car race he ever entered...beating the likes of Phil Hill and Jack McAfee at Santa Ana. His racing career was tragically cut short when he confessed to his wife who had been away for the weekend.

Our friends over at the Blog, "Getting' a lil psycho on tyres!" have published another Allard related story, this time on Roy's J2, chassis 1513. Click here to read it!