You were there...
From smoking Mini at Brands Hatch to smoking and card games at the Daytona 24 Hours. And a Morris Marina…
It’s not every day we hear from readers who perform songs described in the music press as “a breathtaking fusion of blues and reggae”, so well done Tim Hain from Tadworth for allowing us to accomplish that particular rite of passage. Anyway, on to the marvellous photos: they were taken with an old Pentax “when I was about 12 to 14, between 1963 and ’65, and all from the public enclosures. I have never held a press pass.” Tim’s shot of Richard Attwood in Formula Two, he says, won him the BARC’s Motofoto contest for the third time, and he adds that after this achievement they scrapped the contest! He is producing a book featuring his old pics entitled ‘Lap of Honour’, which features a tribute from fellow musician-cum-racing nut Mark Knopfler and a foreword from Sir Stirling Moss, who as far as we know has never shown any skills in blues and reggae…
– Stunning shot of John Rhodes’s Mini at Brands South Bank turn
– Attwood finished sixth in Lola in 1965 Brands F2 race
– Lotus Elan goes wrong way at pre-gravel Paddock
– Denny Hulme concentrates hard in his F2 Brabham at Paddock Bend
– Jim Clark in his Lotus 25 after practice for the 1963 Aintree 200
– Cobra leads the sportscar charge towards Paddock Hill Bend at Brands
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From Nashville comes this intriguing collection, courtesy of George Bullard, which he took at the 1983 Daytona 24 Hours. “I shot the slides because I covered the race for a friend of mine who had a Corvette,” he says. “One of his co-drivers was the NASCAR driver Sterling Marlin.” Mr Bullard has really taken trouble to compose some beautiful, arty shots here, which bring out the atmosphere of the event. No surprise, then, when he tells us that “I was a photography student at the Art Center College of Design” in California in the early 1970s. We particularly like the ‘through-the-window’ spyshot featuring the crumpled dollar bills, the cigarette in the ashtray and the empty whisky glass clear evidence that motor racing wasn’t the only competition offering prize money over the Daytona weekend. In fact, editor Smith will surely be putting on his Gram Parsons LPs tonight after seeing this…
– Night falls over the Daytona infield as the race carries on
– Scoreboard shows John Paul Jnr’s Porsche out front
– The fastest hands were not all on track
– Heat deflecting shroud is removed
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The 1971 RAC Rally provides the subject matter for Wrexham reader Pete Durham, who turned these up while rummaging around in his house recently. “I do not have any interesting tale to tell, except for being navigated in error onto one of the special stages outside Newby Bridge and heartbeats definitely increased on that particular evening.” he says. As we can imagine. But the selection does highlight what an eclectic entry the event had in those days. And our reader bemoans the latter-day decline in stature of what was once a great motorsporting challenge: “I was an avid follower of the traditional RAC Rally, not the new style of so-called rally.” Ah, bacon rolls for breakfast, three hours’ sleep, jumpers for goalposts…
– Brian Culcheth presses on in his Morris Marina. From ridiculous…
…to sublime, as Jean-Pierre Nicolas tames Alpine-Renault