The Garage Blog

The Garage: Your daily dose of automotive news, reviews and motorsports coverage

Racing loses another one: RIP John Gunn

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Racing back in the Sixties and Seventies was very different from today and so were the racers. A couple of years ago, pro racer Charles Espenlaub, was chastised by The Man for accepting a beer from fans after his car broke at Mosport. Back in the day, accepting a cold beer from a fan’s cooler was a given while waiting for the tow vehicle at the end of the race.

With series like the Can Am and Formula 5000, many consider it the golden age of racing. Certainly the drivers were more akin to gladiators than modern pro drivers. Monstrous horsepower, sometimes rudimentary aero and rather primitive safety equipment meant that these guys were tough as nails and beyond brave. Perhaps the toughest of all were the independents, guys who didn’t have the resources of Penske and the like. John Gunn was one of those guys.
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Shutter Speed: The continuing brush with greatness

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Over the 1974 season I made many new friends in racing among the drivers, the crews, the marshals and the other journalists. There was one other prize I had spotted several years ago and this I wanted. It was the red armband of either the European Racing Press Association(ERPA) or the American Racing Press Association (ARPA). I applied to both. I got a reply from ARPA and was accepted into this exclusive organization. I didn’t get a reply from ERPA. The ARPA application I found out later nearly did not make the cut. I catered mostly to the drivers and the sponsors. I did not work for any particular magazine or newspaper. I did a number of covers and the odd story, but it was the sponsors who paid the big bucks and it was them I geared up for. The letter of acceptance from ARPA was a big day for me. The package arrived with a red leather armband with gold embossed letters and my photograph neatly tucked inside a small window for all to see. I stood in front of the mirror just looking at it on my left arm. At the track I wore it off my belt as it was tight on my arm. I had arrived!
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Part of Canadian motorsport history could be yours

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Canadian auto racing legend Horst Kroll has decided the time has come to sell part of his collection, a genuine part of Can-Am history. The #38 Frisbee has a rather impressive history, having been raced by Bill Adam, Jacques Villeneuve Sr. and a young guy named Paul Tracy. In fact, in his first outing in the car Tracy won the Can-Am race at Mosport. That drive led to a test with Team Penske and a full career in IndyCar.

The car is a Lola T400 Formula 5000 car, serial number HU9, that was originally built in 1974. It was raced in Formula 5000 by another Canadian legend, Eppie Wietzes. In 1983, the car was converted to Can-Am specs and received the Frisbee body.

This is a rare opportunity to own a car that is not only uniquely Canadian, but also has a complete history with only 2 owners. #38 was appraised at an estimated $135,000 in 2008.

Interested parties should contact Horst Kroll directly by phone at 416.292.7909 Be sure to tell him you read about it in The Garage!

Above, PT gets reacquainted with #38 at a recent show. More photos and full details after the break.
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Classic cars aren’t always what they seem: The case of the McLaren M8F-2 clone

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Over the past few years here in The Garage we’ve discussed the legitimacy of clone replicas and continuation builds. All of us agree there is a place for these cars, just so long as the owners don’t attempt to deceive anyone as to the actual provenance of said car. Thanks to Paul Chenard, we have just one such example today.

Paul’s friend Jennifer Revson is the late Peter Revson’s sister. She remains active in the enthusiast sister and continues to manage her brother’s affairs since his death during practice for the 1974 South African Grand Prix. At the 2009 Monterey Historics, Jennifer saw the McLaren M8F above and was informed by the owner that it was indeed a McLaren team car. A few inquiries around the paddock brought to light that the car is actually a replica that was built by the Commander Motorhomes racing team from spare parts.

A few weeks ago, Ms. Revson saw the same car at the Amelia Island Concours D’Elegance, again being passed off at the original Revson car. I’ll let her take up the story:
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Tales from race control

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Now the spectators rarely think of Race Control except when there were unexpected delays. Drivers and crews usually curse at Race Control and figure everyone there sits in climate controlled comfort in easy chairs drinking fancy coffee and eating caviar. Maybe somewhere but certainly not at Mosport in the 70’s. Race Control was in a wooden box like structure on top of the old pits on the infield with the Starter’s Stand across the track. Non opening windows and no heat. Metal chairs and not enough of them. Crowded conditions and terrible Mosport coffee, usually cold by the time you had a chance to drink it. At least we stayed dry! In the room would be the Clerk of the Course, his Assistant, the Chief Course Marshal and usually two Phone operators plus two or three other senior race officials and sometimes a Steward. The Head of Timing and Scoring often popped in and out. The Chief Course Marshal and the 2 Phone Operators were normally very good. The club running the pro races was the Canadian Race Drivers Club and we did request certain people from the Marshaling group, CRCA. They normally concurred.
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Shutter Speed: Dewar, Cooke, and Jackie

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My new position as the chief and only photographer for the Canadian Baby Photographers in the Ottawa area was going well, but it had some serious challenges. Since I worked on a commission basis of my work sold, I needed to have good images and a great salesman to sell my work. The problem was the company would send up a salesman from Toronto to get orders. Then I would get paid. In between I was on my own. It was all very confusing and put a serious strain on my family life. I soldiered on trying to make ends meet. Over Christmas we decided to make a break out on our own with my wife now selling my work. The company supplying the leads for our now ‘Ottawa Baby Photographers’ came with us. There was now a lot more to consider with film processing and the final orders to be processed, but we dug right in and it turned the corner and began to make money. One of my neighbours was a very excitable man named Rick Conrick. Rick was a printing salesman for a Montreal printer. When he saw my work he began to envision a customer for a calendar of motor racing pictures. He came up with Imperial Tobbacco whose head office was in Montreal. He called them and got an appointment with the head of promotions. I soon found myself walking off a top floor elevator at the Imperial Tobbacco head office. The building had a strange smell.  It processed the cigarettes at this location.  We were met at the elevator by Tony Kallock, the VP of PR. All Rick said was, ‘Tony, I’ve got something thats going to blow your fucking mind!’  Not quite my approach, but we walked out of there with an order for prints for the Imperial Tobbacco calendar to the tune of over four thousand dollars!
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Robert Barg at Mosport

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As I’ve mentioned, a bunch of these great old racing photos we’ve been sharing have come through Robert Barg. As you might have guessed, Barg was a rather successful sedan racer back in the day.

In this photo, Robert is sitting on the pre-grid at Mosport. The sedan race is a support event for the Can Am race in June 1969. Leaning in having a chat is mechanic Brian Robertson. Barg finished 3rd overall behind Mo Carter and Al Mason.

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Why they called them Ground Pounders

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john burke mclaren

Those of you who have never seen the Can Am cars of the late Sixties and early Seventies missed out on what may be considered the most visceral motorsport of all time. Fortunately, many of these cars are still being raced and have lost none of their ferocity.

The car in the photo above is the 1972 McLaren M8F belonging to John Burke. The car is powered by a 598 cubic inch V8 that creates a whopping 1,019 horsepower. It is naturally aspirated, not turbos or supercharger needed. Yes, you read that right!

Just to give you an idea of the violence involved in motivating this monster, listen to the beast come to life:

Check out the beast in action after the break.
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Welcome to The Garage: Allan De La Plante

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allan de la plante

Some years ago at some regional race, the Grant family spent a weekend camping up on the hill in the Mosport infield. We shared our favorite spot in the woods with a delightful, long haired gent and his dog. Two year old Shelby, now almost sixteen, had a wonderful time playing with the dog. Over the weekend, I came to learn that this gentleman had spent years as a pro motorsports photographer. He had been away from Mosport for a few years and had come back to see how things had changed. Oh yes, he had also just completed a biography of Canadian racing legend Gilles Villeneuve. His name was Allan De La Plante.

Allan’s book Villeneuve – A Racing Legend has gone on to become one of the most cherished editions in most serious Grand prix enthusiasts’ library.

De La Plante has been shooting hard core sports since the early Seventies, following the Grand Prix circus and the Canadian downhill ski racers known around the world as the Crazy Canucks. He has published books on topics ranging from Pope John Paul II to firefighters and cooking over fire. Perhaps his crown jewel though is the masterfully written, brutally honest book about his good friend from rural Quebec who set the world on fire behind the wheel of a Ferrari.

As one might imagine, a young guy from northern Ontario might have taken part in some pretty incredible scenes on his way to the glitz and glamour that was on offer at the pinnacle of motorsports in the Seventies. We are very excited that Allan has agreed to share some of those stories with our readers here in The Garage! Hold on to your hats, as I suspect we are about to take a wild ride through the wild world of racing’s glory days!

You can read part one of Shutter Speed:from rural Ontario to on your knees in Monaco here

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Vintage Sports Cars: 1966 Players 200 at Mosport

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1966 players 200

I dug deep through the archives to find a program to go with this, but nothing from ’66. ’67 yes, but no ’66, so we’ll have to do with a screen shot.

1966, the year before the summer of love. We still had gogo dancing, fast cars and race tracks with next to no thoughts towards safety. This great old broadcast of the 1966 Player’s 200 for sports cars shows all of it. Bruce McLaren was the winner of both 100 mile heat races in a McLaren M1B-Oldsmobile. The most interesting stuff to watch is the differences between now and then. No walls, ditches beside the track and certainly no catch fences. Pit lane is completely open and crew members walked to the side of the track to display the pit board. That’s right, pit boards were used to communicate with the driver, as there was no such thing as on track radio in those days. Keep an eye out for one young lady crossing pit lane to display the board…in her bare feet!

Great video after the break courtesy of Youtube user MGBAdams. He has some other cool old footage that we may just have to post another day.
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