Nobody could foresee the significance of the race they were about to watch when the starter’s flag dropped at the...
Photo: Hal Crocker It is with a great deal of sadness that I write about Dan Gurney, who died on...
As a racecar driver, Jack McAfee needs no introduction. He was one of the greats of early sports car racing in America, with a career spanning from the late 1940s well into the 1960s, but Jack the man was a relatively shy and soft-spoken person. Known fondly as “Jack the...
A number of those among us stood head and shoulder above all others during the Golden Age of Motorsports. Juan...
Pete Lyons The little Speedster stared out the dealership’s window like a puppy, its big eyes pleading mournfully: Won’t you...
During the early fifties, one of the biggest sports stars in the United States was Sam Hanks. Notice I said “sports,” not motor sports. He was one of the best-loved sports figures to come out of Southern California. For many of us enthralled with racing, he was our hero. Sam...
There were a number of outstanding road-race weekends during the fifties. Phil Hill’s win at the first Pebble Beach comes...
David McKay Keijo Eric “Keke” Rosberg 1 Scuderia Ferrari is formed (1929). 2 Peter Gethin drives a Chevron B26 to...
I have included a few remembrances about Lance in some previous Vintage Racecar columns, but because he was such a fascinating character, I thought a column explicitly about him would be appropriate in order to wrap up the theme. I wrote what was hopefully an amusing story about a party...
During the early fifties, road racing in the United States took place, for the most part, at airports. While airports...
December 2007 Vasek Polak Dear Editor, Great article on Vasek, but by now you’ve probably been deluged with messages correcting the picture on page 58, as that most emphatically is NOT Jack, but Pete Lovely. I believe John Edgar entered two 550s in that race. The one pictured looks like...
When Porsche introduced the 4-cam racing engine, it was a sensation. Porsche Spyders with this engine soon dominated their class....
John Von Neumann is an important name in the history of the second half of the twentieth century. A Princeton...
One of the most enjoyable—at least for me—of fifties events was the Pebble Beach Sports Car Road Races. The last...
Art Evans Fifty years ago, the world-famous Laguna Seca race course was created by a tree. It’s interesting as well...
On Saturday March 10th, Southern California sports car legend Jack Ernest McAfee died at the age of 84 from liver cancer. He was diagnosed with the disease just two weeks previously and spent his remaining days at a hospice in Long Beach, CA. Long before he was old enough to...
I had just been discharged from the Army and was pursuing my education with the help of the GI Bill....
