Dennis Firestone I began racing at age 18 in 1962, on TT motorcycles with my brother-in-law, Don Kratofil, and a friend, Tim Shaw, both of whom were truck drivers working with me at my first trucking company, Safeway Delivery. The delivery service had a six-day-a-week schedule so there were some...
Lloyd Ruby was best known as an excellent Indy car driver who nearly won two Indianapolis 500s, but in truth,...
Although it has nearly been forgotten now, in the late 1950s and early 1960s there was a professional road racing...
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...
Formula 5000 was a racing series for open-wheel, single-seater racing cars built to a specific set of rules. The engine...
Nanni Galli Jo BonnierPhoto: Porsche 1 Jean-Pierre Wimille drives a Simca-Gordini to victory in the Coupe Robert Benoist on a...
People have often expressed surprise that the Indianapolis 500 was included in the World Championship, between 1950 and 1960. For the first two years of the series it made sense, because both formulae allowed engines of 4,500-cc. After 1951, it made no sense at all, but the 500 was included...
I first drove what was to become Graham Hill’s 1966 American Red Ball Special Indy winner at the Brickyard, in...
Formula 5000 was a racing series for open-wheel, single-seater racing cars built to a specific set of rules. The engine of choice was the venerable small block Chevrolet V8 of 5-liter displacement. It started as a bright idea in 1967 and ran successfully until politics between the governing body, race...
Indy Dear Editor, Just read this months Vintage Racecar while lying in my bed (NASCAR on in the background) at...
Formula 5000 was a racing series for open-wheel, single-seat racing cars built to a specific set of rules and powered...
Jack Brabham Francois Cevert 2 Frank Griswold drives an Alfa Romeo 8C 2900 to victory in the Junior Prix, the first road race through the streets of Watkins Glen, New York (1948). 3 Brian Redman drives a BRM-Chevrolet to victory in the Interserie race at Hockenheim, West Germany (1971). Become...
Legendary chief mechanic and engineer Louis “Sonny” Meyer Jr. and 1968 Indianapolis 500 pole winner Joe Leonard are the latest...
A couple of years and a bit ago I suggested in this spot that, during these times of economic stress,...
With the recent passings of Carroll Shelby, Roy Salvadori and Ted Cutting, all key players for Aston Martin’s World Sportscar Championship-winning team of 1959, it seemed reasonable to speak with another racer who worked in that fabled John Wyer-run team, Rex Woodgate. Woodgate is a notoriously detail-oriented mechanic who became...
Formula 5000 was a racing series for open-wheel, single-seater racing cars built to a specific set of rules. The engine...
Formula 5000 was a racing series for open-wheel, single-seater racing cars built to a specific set of rules. The engine...
I’ll confess, upfront, that I’m really not a NASCAR fan. But that fact didn’t deaden the shock, when I learned that veteran NASCAR driver Richard “Dick” Trickle died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound the other day. Other than being familiar with his name, I didn’t really know much about him...
News emerged last week that former Super Vee champion and Indycar racer Bill Alsup (above, David Hutson photo) had died...
Al Holbert Clay Regazzoni 3 Brian Redman wins the F5000 race at Pocono, Pennsylvania, in a Lola T330. Jody Scheckter...
Rodger Ward Vincenzo Florio 1 Colin Chapman and Michael Allen form the Lotus Engineering Company (1952). 2 The First South Africa Grand Prix to be held on the Kyalami track near Johannesburg is won by Pedro Rodriguez at the wheel of a Cooper-Maserati. First F1 win for Rodriguez and last...
The resume is impressive—college graduate in physics, aeronautical research engineer, licensed pilot and instructor, NASA Astronaut candidate, but there is...
In this guide we are going to cover the popular single-seater series of Formula B, Formula Atlantic and Formula Two....
Augie Pabst is one of the practitioners of the skillful art of road racing from the early days of North American road racing. He began as did so many others of his contemporaries in the 1950s, went on to race with Briggs Cunningham’s team, and from there went to the...
Formula 5000 was a racing series for open-wheel, single-seat racing cars built to a specific set of rules. The engine...
Nino Vaccarella Ronnie Peterson 1 Ronnie Peterson wins the French Grand Prix at Paul Ricard in a John Player Special...
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...