Tag: BARC Boys

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Historic Racing Photos

The BARC Boys Visit the '57 Sebring

Corvette at Sebring 1957

I’ve been re-listening to the “Sounds of Sebring 1957” album I posted about last week and all this talk up and down the pit lane about the Corvette entry made me want to see them again. And the Maseratis. And the Lotuses.. And so on.

If you’re familiar with the BARC Boys (Binghamton Automobile Racing Club, that is) at all, you’ll know that if there was a race in the mid-century anywhere on the East coast, there’d be more than a few members there. The group of enthusiasts always had cameras in tow and became chroniclers of the East Coast SCCA scene. Naturally, they were at Sebring in 1957 and had these wonderful photographs to mark the occasion.

Now that I see these photos, I can understand why the racers were abuzz about the new ‘Vette. Sure, the interviewers were asking some questions that were… slightly leading, but you have to remember the context of the arrival of the new Corvettes. After a jittery start, the Corvette program looked like it might actually be ready to take on European road racing stalwarts.

The power and performance of the home-grown sportscar—from the largest carmaker in the world, no less—must have been a thrilling prospect for American racing fans. Perhaps it was even moreso for the American drivers that were scraping together a career on European racing circuits, they must have hoped for a real American racing program that might bring them on. This was always my favorite styling era for the Corvette and it’s marvelous to see her in action at Sebring… and a few more from the more traditional pits for good measure.

More at BARC Boys’ 1957 Sebring page.

Categories
Ferrari Historic Racing Photos

Late Night Prep at ’65 Sebring

BARCboys‘ photo archives never fail to turn up a unique angle on the races they travelled to. Dave Nicholas’ shots from the 1965 Sebring Endurance Race are no exception. The race was a wet one and the sparse accommodations for spectators at the race makes me wonder if a greater percentage of competitors or spectators made it to the end of the race. Thankfully, Dave stuck it out to document the race.

What interests me just as much, though, are these images that Dave managed to capture of the Mecom team making some final preparations on Friday night—and look like they could well have been included in our factories at work series. I always enjoy seeing the pit facilities from years past and while Sebring may be an extreme example owing to its reputation as a “primitive racetrack”, the team garages at LeMans or Monaco were little better.

Seeing the Hansgen/Donohue Ferrari 250LM and Cannon/Saunders Lola T70 wedged in here between the tractor and the steel tubing, though, really illustrates the shocking range of difference in amenities between contemporary racing facilities and those of 40 or 50 years ago. This is exactly the kind of thing I’m talking about when I talk about the kinship that vintage racing teams had with Hot Rod garages. They were damn near the same thing.

Walt Hansgen and Mark Donohue’s Ferrari 250 LM finished 11th overall (4th in class). John Cannon and Jack Saunders qualified in 6th, and were fast runners in the opening laps of the race, but dropped out with a failed oil cooler after 55 laps.
More of Dave Nicholas’ photos on BARC Boys’ 1965 Sebring Gallery. Sports Car Digest did a lovely profile of the race that’s well worth a read.

Categories
Ferrari Historic Racing Photos Porsche

Sebring 1960 With the BARC Boys

Pedro Rodriguez. 2.6 Ferrari Dino.

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
LeMans style start
  • MGA Pits
  • Pit Straight: 1st & 2nd Porsches 1000 OSCA and Sprinzel Sprite
Ed Crawford in the (uncharacteristically red) Cunningham Maserati Tipo 61
Porsche pits before the start. Porsche would 1-2 the event.

See the rest of the set on the BARC Boys site.

Categories
Historic Racing Photos

1959 Lime Rock Photos

The BARC Boys have a wonderful gallery of their members and others in action at the 1959 Nationals from July 4th weekend, 1959. Briggs Cunningham in particular seems to have been a busy man that weekend, gridding his Lister Jaguar and the OSCA in which he took 2nd place for the G & H Modified class.

There’s a lot to love about this series of photos. Many Maseratis, Porsche 550s, an Aston Martin DBR-2, OSCAs were popular that year. But the handful of photos of the motorcycle-powered 500cc Cooper single seaters really do it for me. Just look at this photo of Lex DuPont leaning hard into a turn in his. Sadly they’re terribly uncompetitive in today’s vintage racing monoposto classes, but these little Coopers are pure racing delight to my eyes. I love the backyard ingenuity, wonderful lines, and repurposing of motorcycle engines in these little beauties. I’m definitely going to have to write more about these little cycle-powered racers in the future.