The Nostalgia Forum never fails to amaze me with the endless fountain of motorsport minutae. Forum member cstlhn uploaded these photos from his trip to The Glen for the ’64 USGP. This notion of wandering through the pits, capturing these moments of drivers and techs going over the car; getting close enough to the rear end of that Honda to reach out and grab the car; and going over last minute strategies is just so marvelously compelling—and sorely missed.
Do any publications still use this format for describing the starting grid of Formula 1 races?
I see this format or variations of it frequently in old magazine clippings and books and I find it to be immediately browsable. It gives a great deal of information for as simple as it is—the indication of the direction of turn 1 just makes it all the better.
The ’64 South African GP had a Hell of a grid, eh?
The BBC gets it. They know why people still love Formula 1. They know the importance of the heritage of the sport. They’ve demonstrated it perfectly in this clip that served as the introduction to the 2011 season.
I wonder why Formula 1 doesn’t know it themselves.
Jonny Shears’ video edit of his grandfather’s film in the previous post was excellent, but I think it’s only right to point out that he’s pretty handy with a lens as well. There’s some marvelously moody shots in the automotive series on his portfolio. They evoke a drama that tells a story far beyond what we usually see in shots from the pits of historic races. It’s easy to take a photo that says nothing more than “hey, cool car”, it’s something else entirely to portray a mood; to show the form, yes, but to capture the tension of the calm before the action elevates mere snapshots to a greater level.
Many times you’ve heard me say, virtually each time I show a photo that features a photographer perched perilously close to the track, that I long to see the photos taken by that photographer. It’s usually the result of me imagining what it might be like to see the race through that person’s eyes. It’s easy to forget that on the other side of every great motorsport photo was a photographer standing, waiting for the perfect moment to freeze in time. When I see images of those photographers standing trackside, I’m reminded of that.
Yesterday I got an email that captures something of that desire. Automotive photographer Jonny Shears emailed me to let me know that I’d recently posted a photo of his grandfather hunched over the bonnet of an OSCA competing at the 1960 Sebring. That’s him there in the black shirt peeking into the #63 OSCA of John Gordon & John Bentley. Amazing to think of Jonny sitting down to his computer and unexpectedly coming across a photo of his grandfather. Even better, Jonny had recently edited together some footage that his granddad had shot at that very race and at LeMans of the same year—the year he was managing the OSCA racing team—and wondered if I’d like to see it.
Would I like to see it? Of course!
Thanks for sending this along, Jonny. It’s stories like this that make the vintage sportscar community so endlessly fascinating.
If you were racing here tomorrow you’d wear a Rolex. Sliding through a corner at 170 m.p.h. a Formula One Grand Prix car is travelling roughly 17 yards in a fifth of a second. So to say Grand Prix racing drivers have a highly developed sense of timing is something of an understatement. Their lives depend on it. Many of them wear a chronometer they call the best in the world. Its Oyster case is carved out of a solid block of 18 ct. gold or Swedish stainless steel. So much of the work is done by hand, each Rolex Oyster takes more than a year to make. Jackie Stewart thinks it is time well spent. The Rolex he wears is the Datejust. Rolex of Geneva. Write to Rolex, Geneva, Switzerland for free colour catalogue.
In March of 1960 Zych, Nicholas, Spankey, Kelley, Kelley Sr. and Tierno of the infamous BARC Boys made the trip down from New York to Florida for the Sebring 12 Hours. Good thing they packed their cameras.
The #63 OSCA piloted by John Gordon & John Bentley
Usually I’d take this opportunity to once again extoll the virtues of closeness in photography; remark on the shooters standing this close to the track; and bemoan that racing today’s photography may be more colorful, but is certainly less dramatic. But instead I’ll do the unthinkable and just shut up and let these shots of photographers crowding the track speak for themselves.
Spa start '65
Jacky Ickx (IT), Scuderia Ferrari SpA SEFAC 312B3.. Monaco Grand Prix, Monte Carlo, 03/06/1973.
I would love some sort of web tool that would let me click on these photographers and see their shots of the race.
There’s a precious shortage of Bandini videos online, particularly those shot in period. Thankfully the Bandini family are releasing some of the archives onto YouTube. This video shows a 1959 Bandini 750 “Saponetta” Sport tested at Modena and a Formula Junior on an airport straight in 1960.
