Enjoy

[[email protected]]

@Mike Edwards wrote:

Eric your correct….The hot year was 89. I only remember bits and pieces of the 80’s.
Mikey

How are you guys at remembering the ’70s? I was 15 at Pocono (first Photo Pass!), 16 at Road America…. so go easy.

Alan Jones, four years before the Aussie became World Champion:
[attachment=0:1jiqkiua]7F5-76PO-1-19_cw8.jpg[/attachment:1jiqkiua]

Jackie Oliver in the UOP Shadow, a classically-sideways British driver and Le Mans winner:
[attachment=2:1jiqkiua]7F5-76RA-1-03_cw8.jpg[/attachment:1jiqkiua]

A very patient Brett Lunger, exhausted from jumping ponds in a full year of both Formula One and Formula 5000:
[attachment=1:1jiqkiua]7F5-76RA-2-02_cw8.jpg[/attachment:1jiqkiua]

[Mike Jansen]

Theodore Racing?! Are you serious! That is so classic! Alan got Williams their first Driver’s championship in their FW07 (I think?) and he and Reutemman killed it that year. Oh, and Williams first constructors championship too. Gilles and Scheckter had a turd of a Ferrari after winning the 79 championship.

Keep posting more…. PLEASE…

[[email protected]]

Glad you like these, Mike, and that you know the relevance of these legendary pilots. Or should I say “Gods?”

I think you’re right about the title-winning car being an FW07, and certainly IMO Villeneuve never had a great car following 1979. That said, I don’t think he ever had the best car on the grid.

Here’s more F5000 from my childhood. I’ve finally started scanning my old Black & Whites, lots of work as not in impeccable shape. If you’re enjoying them, I’ll keep posting, and will add newer images from when my work grew up as well. Thank You.

Another of Alan Jones in the Teddy Yip-owned Lola T-332 at Pocono, on the Grid before Qualifying. Tony Brise had driven this car before Jones, but was killed in a plane crash that also took Graham Hill:
[attachment=2:tc3lrlo8]7F5-76PO-64-1_cw8.jpg[/attachment:tc3lrlo8]

One great and mostly-unsung hero, Hawaiian Danny “On the Gas” Ongais at Road America. Danny nearly won the Indy 500 in around 1980 or so, and also had some big injuries there:
[attachment=1:tc3lrlo8]7F5-76RA-3-06_cw8.jpg[/attachment:tc3lrlo8]

This was scanned for the current owner of this Lola T-430, he bought 45 prints recently. F5000 is alive and very well Down Under, they get 35 cars+ for their races — one being an opening race for the Australian GP. The look on that kid’s face tells my life story:
[attachment=0:tc3lrlo8]7F5-76RA-3-1_cw8.jpg[/attachment:tc3lrlo8]

[[email protected]]

And yet a few more of F5000, I can only post 3 at a time.

In early 1976, still 15, I produced a 24-page newsprint magazine about the SCCA Runoffs. So in 1976 we made up some decals and they ended up on many racing cars, including here, behind the front wheel of this F1-based March 76A owned by John Cannon, and driven at Road America by Don Breidenbach:
[attachment=2:noukstao]7F5-76RA-1-19_cw8.jpg[/attachment:noukstao]

One can’t discuss Formula 5000 and leave out Brian Redman from England, winner of the Series’ final three Championships from 1974-76. Only mighty Jody Scheckter, the ’73 Champ and the most-sideways drivers I have ever witnessed, kept the streak from being four:
[attachment=1:noukstao]7F5-76RA-1-09c_cw8.jpg[/attachment:noukstao]

Even four-time Indy 500 winner couldn’t stay away from F5000. On road courses they were much faster than Indy cars, and even a bit quicker than F1 on tracks both Series raced, like Watkins Glen. Al was one qualified road racer, too, and won his only F5000 race this particular weekend at Road America:
[attachment=0:noukstao]7F5-76RA-3-04c_cw8.jpg[/attachment:noukstao]

[edupin]

The Senna Movie can be accessed at this torrent :

http://www.kat.ph/ayrton-senna-beyond-the-speed-of-sound-2010-readnfo-bdrip-xvid-ac3-santi-t5326518.html

Sorry some parts in Portuguese do not have subtitles. Enjoy it, its a fantastic documentary.
However keep it in the DL since its a torrent site.

[David Fedler]

Eric,

I may just be the only other person on this forum who can say he was at those Road America races. I remember the F5000 days very clearly and all of those cars in your pics at Elkhart Lake. I think I was about 8 years old. Awesome…

Dave

[[email protected]]

Dave:

Hey, Thanks! What brought you to RA?

I lived in Milwaukee 1960-’70, Oconomowoc until 1980, Denver since.

Where you a fellow Cheesehead? Or did you wrongfully root for Da Bears?

I was 16, you were 8, hope I never cussed and corrupted you. 😆

[David Fedler]

Ah Eric… the tip of the iceberg there. I was born in Chicago but grew up in Sheboygan and Kohler Wisconsin which are about 10 minutes away from Road America. My grandfather and father were involved in racing there, the Milwaukee Mile, and Blackhawk Farms. I’ve got old photos of me at RA in a playpen and I think I took my first drink (Apple Wine…) there when I was about 5 (anyone from Wisconsin will not find that odd…). I grew up there, learned to race there, kissed a few girls there, got my first job as an Indy car mechanic there, and view it as one of my favorite places on earth. I moved to Colorado about 20 years ago and this is definitely home… but Elkhart Lake is home away from home.

Probably the biggest reason I got my kids into karting was so they could connect with their grandfather and great-grandfather on that level since we no longer live close to RA (though they’ve been there and seen me race there).

And yes, I am a Green Bay Packers shareholder and throughly enjoyed the last Super Bowl.

I’ll look forward to meeting you one of these days and seeing more of your photos… they are really cool. Racing in the ’60’s and ’70s was really, probably the coolest time on earth.

[[email protected]]

David:

It’s late, another long day, checked in here, have far more questions and comments than energy…. really awesome letter, Ya Know! Boone’s Farm Apple?

One ques…, okay, second question…. “Family raced at RA, Mile, and Blackhawk?” Please elaborate, much time spent at all (every RA race 1963-’81)!

“Indy mechanic?” Know Jim Stepan? Did you race at Dousman? Remember Miller’s campground? Carl Liebich? Ginger or Mary Ann? (okay, eight questions)

Sorry if I’m boring any other of Yous Guys here.

Gary Hackbarth and Tony Kester lead the field in the Formula Ford race, June Sprints, 1976 (too young?) (9):
[attachment=2:29etwwya]7SJ-FF76-100-1_cw8.jpg[/attachment:29etwwya]

Pizza anyone? AJ Foyt in pit lane, Milwaukee Mile 1978, styling it up Supertex style, team uniforms by Pizza Hut (old enough?) (10):
[attachment=0:29etwwya]7IN-78ML-2-07_cw8.jpg[/attachment:29etwwya]

A driver talks shop with a Crew Chief, Pit Lane, Milwaukee Mile, 1978 (look closely at both….):
[attachment=1:29etwwya]7IN-78ML-3-12_cw8.jpg[/attachment:29etwwya]

[[email protected]]

Three more….

Jim Hall confers with Al Unser on the grid at the Rex Mays 150 USAC round at the Mile, in the “comeback” Lola T500’s first race after winning Indy, 1978
(Jim thinking, “They give Photo Passes to 17 year-olds in Milwaukee?”):
[attachment=2:qv2u8pj0]7IN-78ML-1-11_cw8.jpg[/attachment:qv2u8pj0]

The Original Intimidator, on the Pace Lap of the Tony Bettenhausen 200, AJ bursts by and makes sure Johnny Parsons knows what’s next, Milwaukee Mile USAC, 1978:
[attachment=1:qv2u8pj0]7IN-78ML-3-15_cw8.jpg[/attachment:qv2u8pj0]

The Italian Intimidator, Alex Zanardi doing the very same to first-time polesitter Bryan Herta, Mid-Ohio CART grid, 1997:
[attachment=0:qv2u8pj0]7IN-97MO-7-11_cw8.jpg[/attachment:qv2u8pj0]

[[email protected]]

Three more…. what the Heck, the 500 is in three days.

Al Unser, Jr. leads Bobby Rahal, Arie Luyendyk, and Scott Goodyear on Lap 1 of the first Denver Grand Prix…. me leaning out, full arm extension (not looking through the viewfinder), traumatizing the corner marshals, Lincoln Street, Denver, 1990:
[attachment=2:3seol8tu]7IN-90DN-11-08_cw8.jpg[/attachment:3seol8tu]

America’s Grand Master, Mario Andretti holding a pose on the grid for the 1992 Nazareth Indy Car event (Thank You):
[attachment=1:3seol8tu]7IN-92NZ-25-03_cw8.jpg[/attachment:3seol8tu]

I’d be remiss to not show our friend Buddy Lazier, Indianapolis 500 winner in 1996, a Coloradan and American Hero, Mid-Ohio CART, 1992 (Ted Pappas in tow):
[attachment=0:3seol8tu]7IN-92MO-7-02_cw8.jpg[/attachment:3seol8tu]

[richardhensley]

Eric,

That formula ford b&w picture is one of the coolest shots I’ve seen in a very long time. Thanks for sharing.

[[email protected]]

Richard:

I appreciate that, glad you liked. I’d have to pull the grid sheets, but I think 99 cars started either that year or in 1975. Formula Ford is always great, in those days it was unreal.

A good time then was around 2:27, or 147 seconds, so even on that 4-mile track still a car every 1.5 seconds! It was amazing, as are many things I’ve seen there.

Thank You.

[Author]

Posts