OFFICIAL 1970-1989 RACING PHOTO THREAD

Thanks, wish I knew where all the old slides and negs are located. I've got some great Jackie Stewart, Mark Donohue, Bobby Allison stories.

Somewhere I have a B&W of Stirling Moss in his driving suit exiting a portajohn. I waited, he came out, I shot, I ran.

 

Saturday at the Glen I was shooting on top of the Tyrrell pits when Jackie Stewart came rushing in in 03. He grabbed a woman I later found out was Jean Piere Beltoise's wife, apparently Francois Cevert's sister, and his own wife Helen. They rushed off. You could feel it in the air, something was very wrong. When the word got out in the garage that Francois was decapitated, I felt sick, left the track for my hotel room. I think I heard that Jody Scheckter (?) stopped and got out and ran to Cevert's car, only to put his hands in horror on his helmet. My memory of that day is not good. Debated if I could ever go back to another race. Those damned double guard rails at the Glen claimed another life. Geez, I actually feel strange at this very moment as I write this. The only other race day that came close to being this bad was Indy, Swede Savage.

Stewart retired from F1 that Saturday. He became a major reason why driver safety became important after that. Some years later, on a Friday, a few of us walked the entire MidOhio course with Stewart as he instructed race promoters to remove trees, reposition guard rails, and they did it or there would be no race that weekend. So cool to watch Stewart in action. The race was a CanAm, and I believe Stewart was driving Jim Hall's vacuum cleaner.

Earlier that day back at the Glen, I sat with Cevert in the garage just BSing for about an hour. He was very approachable. I remember feeling like chopped liver as every woman that walked by stopped, and came up to Francois even if they never met him. He had incredible eyes. To these women I did not exist. There is no actor that could ever accurately portray a real life person as "cool" as a Francois Cevert. He was a movie all unto himself.

He would have been a WDC.

 

Two copyrighted photos of Brian Redman. The first is my very first mirror shot. This came about on a trip to Flagstaff, Arizona. I stopped to take a photo of the mountains, when the shot was developed, there was my rear view mirror with the image of an approachig semi. The idea was hatched.

Brian Redman at the F5000 at Road America, and Brian Redman in I believe his only appearance in the Penske PA CanAm car at Mid Ohio. (Both of these shots are being donated to the publisher of the upcoming Brian Redman book)

The third shot is at Mid Ohio at the best road race I have ever witnessed. This is a mirror shot of George Follmer with his UOP Shadow teammate Jackie Oliver passing by in the pits. This was the original Alonso/Hamilton duel. During the race, they dirt tracked these Shadow CanAm cars around Mid Ohio bumping into each other all the way around.
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Two last photos for the evening.

Mid Ohio TransAm with extreme gentleman Irv Hoerr leading in the Cutlass, followed by Han Stuck and Hurley Haywood in the Audis. In the back is PL Newman's Nissan avoiding a spinning car.

The Audis were fun to watch, stuck to the road even in the rain like slot cars. Stuck would yodel as he drove. Years later, we had Irv Hoerr's Cutlass, Baldwin's Camaro Skoal Bandit, and Kendall and Kneifel's ICI Chevy something (what was that thing?) at the grand opening of our hotel bar in St Pete, Florida.

Second shot is at the Miami GP when it was run in downton Miami. Car on left is Emerson Fittipaldi's return debut to racing prior to winning the Indy 500, the Kreepy car was driven by Sarel VM from South Africa.
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Your photo is more than decent, it is incredible. Thank you for posting this.

I am looking for my Mark Donohue photos. I have one from the first IROC race at Daytona in Porsches, he won. There are only two copies, mine and one that went to Penske. When you see it you will understand why. One of my favorite 5 photos I ever took.

I went to university with a Mark DonAhue in Dayton. Somehow my first year, I convinced Sunoco to let us have a retired Javelin displayed on campus. The yearbook that year has my friend Mark Donahue sitting in Mark Donohue's Sunoco Javelin.

 

Some photos from the USGP in Detroit when it was run around the Renaissance Center (vertical photos were shot for cover or lead pages, a real pain in the rear):
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A "taste" of Long Beach:
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No, they are great photos, please leave!

 

You just did.

 

Start of a Canadian GP at Mosport.

I miss that track, and the Flying Dutchman motel. At this race, a friend took me to meet Emerson Fittipaldi. I remember him coming out of his trailer, McLaren Marlboro jacket and all, eating a bannana (appropriate since he used to own a bannana plantation in Brazil). At that moment the Canadian Snowbirds started their pre-race air show. Fixed wing jets with a show that made the Blue Angels look woosy. On one of their passes, two of the Snowbirds flew over the track cockpit to cockpit, like within 10 feet of each other, 100 feet over the ground. In other words, one of them was upside down.

Fittipaldi, removed the bannana from his mouth and simply stated in English, "these guys are crazy".

I forget who died that year or the year before, but I remember looking at him and thinking, that statement from an F1 pilot in this era?
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