Just Not Enough Walls

I wish I had more walls in our home so I would have enough room to hang all my favorites but there are just too many all of which are my “favorite”.

While enjoying Louis Galanos photo of Mario Andretti and Jacky Ickx during  driver’s meeting it reminded me of one of my favorite photos that Phil Hill gave me and is yet to be framed. Please forgive the poor photo of a photo since I laid it on the floor and all I had handy was some Olympic gold medals to hold it down.

What I would have given to have been in attendence with this bunch of guys even if only a fly on the wall. The name of this photo is simply, “Heroes” and the photographer is Gary Bramstedt. It was taken at the driver’s meeting before the start of the 1964 Belgian Grand Prix at Spa-Francorchamps. In it you can see some well known drivers back in the day. As a matter of fact Phil Hill has his helmet on as if to hide the fact that he’s under age or something.  Starting in the back row second from the left is Phil Hill (wearing helmet) to his right is Chris Amon. To the far right is Dan Gurney and next to him is Graham Hill (mustache). Bottom row far left Jo Bonnier, Innes Ireland, Jimmy Clark, Richie Ginther, Jack Brabham, and Bruce McLaren.

It gives a good look at their goggles and helmet of the day as well as the thin one layer Dunlop racing suit which God only knows if they were Nomex back then. But more importantly what I see in this photo is the same sense of urgency as was caught in the photo of Louis Galanos. Speaking from experience, I can tell you that while they are in fact all listening to what’s being said at the meeting, in reality in their mind they are already in turn three and headed for four.