Up close and personal

A new book of race-paddock photography brings back the era when drivers had time and space to talk to the public. Anthony Carter began taking photos in 1956 at the Nürburgring, and over the next 23 years, purely for his own interest, captured drivers and officials, managers and mechanics going about their work.  Now 300 of these images are being published for the first time, with Carter’s detailed captions and recollections.  We have selected a few of these candid portraits here…

“Motor Racing — Reflections of a Lost Era” published in June by Veloce, £35.99, ISBN 1-904788-10-6

Page 78, top left:  Colin Chapman is interviewed for television in the Rouen paddock at the 1968 French Grand Prix.  He wears the new Gold Leaf Team Lotus colours, showing which way the wind of sponsorship would soon be blowing.

Page 78, middle:  John Surtees gives Cooper designer Derek White a lift down to the pits in his Team Surtees Lola T70 MkII, ready for practice at the 1966 Guards Trophy. Surtees won the two-heat event overall after rain halted one heat early.

Page 78, bottom left:  1963, and Mike Parkes pulls on his string-backed gloves  in the Reims pits. His Ferrari 250P now has a 4-1/2-litre V12 in place of the 3-litre it ran a fortnight earlier at Le Mans, and his best lap will equal Jim Clark’s pole time from the French GP.

Page 78, bottom right: onlooker plugs his ears as Honda’s team manager warms up the RA301 for Mr Surtees in a verdant Rouen paddock before the 1968 French GP. The mechanics are clearly used to the racket of the quad-cam V12.

Page 79: top middle: the casual appearannce of Ronnie Peterson belied an extraordinary talent, and none who saw him would forget his awesome speed. He mastered the Lotus 72 with three wins in 1974, though here at Brands a puncture will hobble him.

Page 79, middle left: Bruce McLaren checks the mirror settings on his Cosworth-powered M7A. After a hesitant start his fledgling team has already won two non-championship races in ’68. Here in France it will try wings for the first time.

Page 79, middle right:  After the death of Lorenzo Bandini and Mike Parkes crash in 1967, Chris Amon carried the weight of the Ferrari team almost single-handedly until Jackie Ickx joined him for ’68. He made a huge contribution at a difficult time.  

Page 79, bottom:  it’s 1965, and talented Lorenzo Bandini looks thoughtfully down at the Ferrari 158 he will soon be piloting in the British GP. He will only manage two laps of the Silverstone track before missing a gear and blowing the V8.