11 replies to this topic

[Mark McCallister]

Heavy stuff.

Grand Prix racing during the killer years:
http://www.youtube.c...?v=grlkYMTi7hg'>
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=grlkYMTi7hg

[Juan Pineda]

I watched this a few weeks ago. Fascinating. Well worth the time for all racers. -Juan

[TEAM MEDICARE]

Wow - brings back a lot of memories from the Glen. Cervert submarining the rail at the top of the hill - the absolute silence as they towed the car to the pits; Hill's massive crash - car parts everywhere. I remember the course workers unsuccessful attempts to extinguish a burning mag wheel. Seems like it burned for an hour just sitting there melting the track. McDuffie's destroyed car in the woods at the end of the straight. Koinigg going under the rail and the rumors of someone putting his helmet back in the car. The parties at Seneca Lodge. The bog.

Walking through the pits in the early 60's I remember how crude the F1 cars seemed and I wondered how a sane person could be brave enough to climb into that thing and trust that it was'nt going to just fall apart. This from a guy who was dumb enough to jump into a 52 Dodge (or was it a DeSoto) for the figure 8 race at the local dirt track. No seatbelts but the minimum requirement was a 6-pack of the local brew.

These guys had an amazing love of the sport.

[Qik Nip]

If I ever get in the old Wayback Machine, remind me not to be an 1960's F1 pilot!
Rick

[ToddW]

No HANS Device?

 crash.jpg   64.5KB   42 downloads

[Josh Chaney]

That was a lot more graphic than I thought it would be. It's amazing to see what stuff was like back then. It' even more amazing that people were brave (or dumb?) enough to pilot those things. I know there's danger in any kind of motorsport, but that was borderline insanity. It's a shame that it took so much loss to make things as safe as they are now.

[racinglawyer]

I was just 11 years old ( 1951) when my dad took me to the Giants Despair hill climb...in Wilkes Barre Pa...but what I remember most was the sports car race at Brynfan Tyddyn around Harveys Lake Pennsylvania....I remember the drivers with no helmets, in white Button down dress shirts and a scarf tied around their neck...Ditches along the road were unprotected and they used hay bails around the telephone poles...Those were the days.... Mike Cefalo

[Krooser]

My brother raced Alfa's in the 50's at tracks like Road America, Lynndale Farms and other now forgotten venues... he introduced me to racing.

His local club hung out at an aptly-named Milwaukee bar called the Gran Prix. I was at Elkhart Lake in '58 and '59 watching guys like Augie Pabst and Jim Jeffords (driving the Purple People Eater Corvette)... the pits and parking lots were filled with cars with names like MG, Triumph, Mercedes, Fiat, Renault, Corvette etc... we came back from the '58 June Sprints running over 140 mph in my brothers '55 XK-140M down a narrow two lane WI Hwy 57.

They were the best of times...

[DES4]

That was a lot more graphic than I thought it would be. It's amazing to see what stuff was like back then. It' even more amazing that people were brave (or dumb?) enough to pilot those things. I know there's danger in any kind of motorsport, but that was borderline insanity. It's a shame that it took so much loss to make things as safe as they are now.

No, not dumb; nor was it insanity. It took a true love of the sport to screw up enough courage to climb into a race car in that era. It sure wasn't the money; they weren't the over-paid princesses that climb into race cars these days. They were heroic, and partly out of necessity, they were also gentlemen drivers.

Stirling Moss stated that the increased safety in modern racing encourages recklessness on the track; with concerns of one's own mortality being hardly a consideration anymore, race drivers tend to drive far more aggressively... they expect that their safety equipment will pull them through when they've exceeded their own limits.

It's tough on sheetmetal, too.

[svvs]

Was anyone able to find the third part of the series? I could not.

-Vick

[Tom Hampton]

Nope I never did. I looked pretty hard.

[Zauskycop]

Part 3 of 4