Another series of gems from Dad’s collection of old racing stuff. In this sequence of newspaper clippings, Bud and his MKII Sprite get caught up with Wilf Becker in a Bugeye at Harewood Acres. During the melee, Bud’s hood took flight. I’m not sure what the outcome of this was, whether either car continued on.
These photos were shot by Bob White, who seems to have been the prominent racing photographer in Ontario back in the Sixties.
The rest of the shots are after the break
{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
Love it. Imagine what a hood to the head would feel like, Great photography for the day considering there was no sequential shooting cameras back then.
I hadn’t even thought of that – must have had a super fast thumb!
Bob and Hans Gulde were the main photographers of the day.
Hans used to hide behind the haybales coming into the chicane at Harewood and pop up to take a picture.
I don’t know who was more scared, Hans or myself, as I tried a slightly different line and picked the bale he was behind as my clipping point on the slight curve approaching the main chicane. He popped up and discovered me about 6 inches out from the bale still at well over 100mph and on the binders. He didn’t get the shot!
Some of those bales had been on the corners for years and were as solid as a rock.
A wood bodied Marcos was turned into toothpicks after hitting one.
Bud was no angel but Wilf was a real hard nosed racer.
Sorry about the delay in commenting, but Google decided to shut me down and wanted me to re-identify myself and if the rest of you are like me, if you change your password from time to time as we are all warned to do…guess what happens… right… you forget what password you gave them.
Anyway, All I’ll say about that incident is exactly what every driver says about every accident…. It was Wilf’s fault…Guess what Wilf said…You Got it…It was Bud’s fault.
However I can tell you this Wilf Becker’s car was so lightened he had so little meat left as body work that that car never ever returned to racing again. TEE HEE!!!
Did I really say TEE HEE. Must have been some kind of computer glitch.
Bud.
So called improved production in those days was to say the least pretty wild. I often drove a MGB that was the second fastest B in Ont. at the time. It was gutted, except for the lights as we drove it to and from the track. A single 40 DCOE Weber carb. A wood rim wheel (yippee). A standard B had 14 inch wheels. There were no 14 inch race tires made. We had Corvair rear rims and Buick Special fronts to run 13 inch wheels and Dunlop racing tires. The calipers had to be ground down to make them fit. There was one oops.
The fastest B was at least 10 seconds faster! Probably an acid dipped body but a close ratio box from a twin cam A, Cross flow head with twin 40 DCOE Webers, Mag wheels and last but not least a ruddy supercharger! Also a super driver in Al Pease!
A factory Healy 3000 with a supercharged GMC.
A Triumph Spitfire with an almost space frame.
Shall we say well and truly improved production!
It still was fun!
I am writing a story on Harewood for our VARAC newsletter. Would appreciate any GOOD b/w photos.
Thanks,
Jeremy Sale.
Jeremy, I have a bunch of large format (ie poster size) photos. Some I will give you originals, others I would prefer to scan or take photos and give them to you.
Was Bob White the husband of Eve White? She & her husband were lost in a small plane crash during a night flight headed back to Toronto.
No. Eve’s husband was Ron. Turn 10 at Mosport is named after them.
The pilot was Doug Mattison (sp) a race driver.