Awesome story Dave, thanks!!! Do you think that was considered "war booty"? HA! Have a visual of him trying to sneak it home in his duffel bag!
Bill; Glad you are still getting some mileage out of the DVD's! Awesome!! Like I said...I knew that Ajay would get ya! Stay in touch.
Seeing you guys using mechanical brakes helps me realize I shouldn't take the "why aren't you running disc brakes," crowd too seriously.
Wow Bill.....thanks for posting that video!! Very cool! Don't know where you got it from, but thank you. After watching it a couple of times, it just seems to make the pictures in the thread "come to life"!! Fits perfect here.
Interesting note by Don regarding the no helmet. I find it very ironic that the rules required the driver to wear goggles, but not a helmet!! Obviously different times back then! I will re-post the rules [#18]. I also agree with OJ in the fact that it must have taken a lot of courage, and determination to go that fast. It must have felt like 240 in an open cockpit like that. They did have helmets then, and they were even able to rent them at the "Lakes". I will post an S.C.T.A. Club Duties where it shows the helmet rental. Maybe Don Montgomery can shed some light on this subject!! Going to also post a S.C.T.A. running plan of El Mirage that I think you will all enjoy. Also a few more pictures. As always, thanks for the comments, and enjoy. Keep the ball rolling!!!
Too cool. Thanks for sharing. I like how the clubs had a responsibility to manage the event. I am also impressed with the number of clubs...
Mike, another home run set of pictures!...Thanks for posting, these tell so much about our history.....I may be forgetting something, but seem to remember that the SCTA didn't require helmets until 1948, though pictures from earlier years show drivers wearing them....it is also funny to see Don Blair without a helmet, because in later years he became a real safety advocate. His sprint car was one of the first to get a roll bar back in '56, and I think his earlier track roadsters may also have had roll bars when most cars did not.....
The clubs still do run the events. There's just a lot less clubs and responsibilities have changed somewhat.
Very nice, thanks for posting. Because of this and a few other period threads I recognized a good number of those cars. It looked like there were passengers in some of the time runs or did they have a period of 'warm up' passes? Who was that in the Bugatti?
Wedjim. If you look at the page you'll see the youtube logo in the bottom right hand corner. Click on it.
Going to post an interesting article by Wally Parks regarding the possibility of a new strip/location that the S.C.T.A. was looking into. Apparently with the increased speeds, and the deterioration of the El Mirage lake bed, they were looking into other venues. Maybe Don Montgomery or others out there can elaborate? Also has a picture of the Kurtis Kraft Sports Car driven by Wally Parks, and a picture of the Spalding Bros. car. Also posting a few misc. pictures before I get back to the "END" of the photo album. Thank you to all for the comments. Enjoy.
Hi Mike I really cannot add much to the purposed lakes strip reference in the 1949 SCTA program. I do remember when that was proposed. Since I was in the Russetta Timing Assn, a rival association to the SCTA, we always were a little dubious of the proposed "lakes" facility and the $10 charged to each SCTA member. In the end nothing happened. Naturally we all wondered what happened to the MONEY that was collected for the proposed strip. With hindsight SCTA had about 300 - 400 members then, so assuming all of them paid (questionable) the total could be about $3000 to $4000. That was a goodly amount back then but probably not near enough to put in a racing facility. It is important to remember that dry lakes participation had peaked in 1947 so by 1949 it was already in decline and the interest in developing a racing facility in the high desert was fading away. Perhaps in the end, that fact doomed the project. Regardless, credit should be given for the efforts back then by Wally Parks, Ak Miller and the others. Disclaimer - Many of us Russetta members did not think much of the ability to build this, so this explains my bias. It is good history Don
I've been looking at the lake map. Tickles me that the SCTA could take over virtually the whole lake bed. And the layout is so different to today. And reading about the condition of the lake bed shows how things don't change! With little or no rain these past few winters we have been very lucky to have a lake bed to race on. Plus. This place sucks. This thread is the only thread here worth a damn. Once it disappears down the line the search function isn't doing its job. No way can I get this thread to show up on search. I get all kinds of garbage. "Should my '57 have three spinners on the hubcaps or four?"
What keywords are you using to search? Using "P.R.C." brings it up - top of the heap. "Lakes Pictures" it's the 3rd result listed...
The search function on the app sucks big time!!! Don't use my laptop that much anymore, but in my iPhone I just goes to safari, in to Google: search what I want as a little HAMB at the end. Search, push the link from JJ "more from this site. Remove HAMB, and search again. And all I ever needed comes up, this ain't the only good one, but it's in my personal top five. And it's yo-yo-ing between 1 and 5 all the time. But NEVER want to the non important favorites list!! Ever!!!
Thank you so much for your reply Don. As always, your insight and first hand knowledge are invaluable!! I thought it was an interesting article just from the point of such an ambitious project. I mean, I would think that would have been a very ambitious project for the times. As you have said...give credit where credit is due. At least they were willing to give it a try. Also did not realize that the Associations were "rivals". Hopefully friendly!!
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