Some 38 years ago, there was a vintage event like no other. It was the 1985 Palm Springs Vintage Grand...
America’s premier sports car endurance race started at an abandoned WWII Army Air Corps base in Florida. “The 12-Hours of...
It is with a great deal of sadness that I write about Dan Gurney, who died on January 15. We were close friends and our times together go back to 1955 when he raced at Torrey Pines. A number of those among us stood head and shoulders above all the...
Briggs Cunningham was one of the most important figures in U.S. road racing during the era of the 1950s. He...
What brothers? Most motor racing aficionados know something about Masten Gregory. An American, he won Le Mans in 1965 and...
John Von Neumann was one of those towering figures in the sports car world of the ’50s. He was one of the founders of the California Sports Car Club that eventually became the largest Region of the SCCA. He pioneered Porsche in the Western U.S., not only in racing, but...
Last month I wrote about the road race that took place in Palm Springs in 1950. It was the first...
Sports car road racing started after WWII on the East Coast during the late forties. The first wheel-to-wheel event was...
Parnelli is not his real name. Rufus Jones’ middle name is Parnell. His mother named him after a Judge Parnell whom she admired. Jones’ friend, Billy Calder, added the “i” to his middle name to make a name change when Parnelli wanted to race while underage. I remember drivers in...
The original Trans-Am was part and parcel of one of the things that made the Golden Age golden. Many of...
“Revisited” because this is my second column about Ken. My March 2006 column was the first, but in rereading it...
March 2011 Caribbean Capers By Joel E. Finn Subtitled “The Cuban Grand Prix Races of 1957, 1958 & 1960,” this book documents the trio of sports car races held in Cuba during the years surrounding the country’s conversion to communism as Fidel Castro’s revolution toppled the dictator Fulgencio Battista. Author...
Learning to race on a road course can be daunting. Even though it was almost 50 years ago, I remember...
In 1953, the very first Corvettes hit Chevrolet Dealers’ show rooms. Hailed by some as the long-awaited American sports car,...
By almost anyone’s measure, one of the things that made the Golden Era golden was the Canadian-American Challenge Cup or the Can-Am. It was the pinnacle of American road racing. The cars were the ultimate in racing machines, to the extent that they were faster than Indycars and those running...
After WWII, sports cars became more and more popular. As a consequence, road racing took hold in the U.S. For...
During the years following WWII, road racing in the U.S. initially developed as an amateur sport, mostly run by the...
Jaguar’s XK120 Roadster was introduced at the London Motor Show in the fall of 1948. A year later, cars began to appear on American roads and tracks. They came in three configurations: roadster, convertible and coupe. All three were raced, but most entrants preferred the somewhat lighter roadster version. The...
A number of those among us stood head and shoulder above all others during the Golden Age of Motorsports. Juan...
Leslie Alan Richter was born on October 26, 1930 in Fresno, California. He graduated from Fresno High School where he...
During the sixties, Carroll Shelby tried almost anything having to do with cars and racing. A little-known episode was his effort at Indianapolis. The Shelby Indycar was one of the famous, or infamous if you will, turbine-powered cars. Here’s how it came about. Turbines had been tried at Indy before,...
When Japanese cars first came on the scene, although practical, most were somewhat stodgy. In the mid-’60s, however, Toyota decided...
Soon after motor vehicles were invented they were raced. Initially the contests were held on open roads, often from city...
In the February 2010 edition of Vintage Racecar, editor Casey Annis reported that a concours d’provenance had been held in Palos Verdes, a suburb of Los Angeles. When I read it, I thought many of you might wonder what in the world is a concours d’provenance. We all know what...
The title of my column reads: “The Fabulous Fifties.” The era is one I know something about. During that time,...
In 1953, the Rootes Group in England, which had acquired the Sunbeam Company in 1935, produced a handsome sports car, the...
When I first talked with Vintage Racecar editor Casey Annis in 2005, the conversation revolved around the subject of me writing about the fifties, the fabulous fifties as it were. After all, this was what I was known for. I had written seven books about the decade. One of my...
By 1963, Cobras were doing very well in Sports Car Club of America races. Cars driven by Shelby American drivers...
My column in the October 2006 edition of Vintage Racecar was titled, “Shelby, the Early Years.” For the most part,...
As everyone knows, after the 1960 racing season, Carroll Shelby retired as a driver and became even better known for creating Cobras and Shelby Mustangs. But perhaps fewer know that he ventured into car creation somewhat before. During the fifties, Shelby, Jim Hall, and Jim’s brother, Richard, had a dealership...
