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.

A timetable for the weekend was worked out in advance with Mosport. CRDA were contracted to run the races for a fee. We did have shares in the track but little real say. We would build in time gaps for lunches, potty breaks for marshals and make allowances for guardrail repairs and pick up of damaged cars. Agreement reached all would be fine until we got a program. Invariably the track added in something without our knowledge and there went any gaps. Enough preamble. What follows are examples of problems, one exasperating and one serious.

The exasperating one happened on the Sunday morning of the 76 GP. Cleaning up the track after Sat. nights drunken spectators plus a Mosport add on had us really tight on time. Back then the F1 cars had a morning warm up. Mario Andretti went off at 2A and the question was do we stop warm up to retrieve him. They had to have x minutes of running and there was x time gap that had to be there before the race. The race had to start on time! Our window was disappearing. The Senior at 2A was a very long time experienced marshal and she was also on the phone. So the Clerk of the Course asked, through the CRCA tower operator (protocol of going through the Chief Course Marshal was conviently ignored by all concerned) if he had gone off on his own and was he in a safe place? The reply came in loud and clear ‘I don’t know.’ We all could hear the various stations. The is he in a safe place was repeated. Same response.

Next ‘Well how far from the track is he?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Can you see him?’
Yes, but I can’t judge distance.
‘Any idea how far off he is?’
No.

By now some drivers were going by the tower shaking their fists. Quick questions to turns 2 and 3 brought little help although 3 did say he did spin there.

Red flag.

Now this particular senior was a good general marshal but should never have been a senior. Some drivers complained that we stopped the warm up and others complained we took too long to do so!

The next case was potentially a disaster. We were lucky. It was a Can Am race and Jackie Oliver and George Follmer were on the front row. They had an intense dislike of each other and both were fierce competitors. They started racing before they came onto the starting straight. The rest of the field were strung out far behind and in disorder. Clearly it was a no start and the starter correctly kept the yellow out. They didn’t care. They were racing full bore. That is when things went horribly wrong. The starter threw his flags in the air and the yellow actually landed on the track! The balance of the field didn’t know what to do. A few took off at speed but most just took it easy.

Meanwhile Oliver and Follmer were still flat out ignoring the Yellows everywhere. Here they were running as hard as they could and by now the balance of the field were trundling around. What to do and less than a minute to do something. Instructions were sent to the Starters bridge to throw a Red and the Checker. Hopefully somebody there would do so and the two flying idiots would respond. It worked thankfully and a possible disaster averted. It took a while to get everyone lined up and the riot act read to Jackie and George.

For the next start Paul Cooke was on the stand and although the Starter waved the green flag Paul was running things. CRDA had a new Starter for the next race.
Normally things did not go wrong like that but you never know.

Ed note: The photo above comes from the CMSHG group on Yahoo. It is a great place to waste some time looking at old racing photos! If you look in the background, you will see the old pits, which were torn down a few years ago to make way for modern pit equipment that teams bring with them.

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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!

On the motor racing end of things I thought more about Paul Cooke and the ‘portrait’ he wanted of Roger McCaig in the Can Am McLaren. I went through the images I had of Roger and picked two. One was a headshot with his helmet on. The other was a shot of the car at speed coming directly at me. The windscreen on the McLaren had a clear blue tint. I wondered if the shot of the car at speed would blend into the windscreen. Roger’s eyes were a beautiful Paul Newman blue, amost the same colour as the windscreen. I took my idea to my processor and we both wondered what it would come out like. His name was Goldie Lang. When it came to putting on paper what was on the negative he was an artist. The first print that came out of Goldie’s processor held both he and I speechless. Being Asian he tended to be very reserved. Now his smile was from ear to ear. The print was 16 x 20 inches. I decided right then and there not to do any portraits smaller. We cranked out another of Gordon Dewar. I had met Dewar in a converted grocery store in Hull just across the river from Ottawa. The old store was the home of JNO Racing and a rag-tag gang of hangers-on who loved cars, motorcycles and Dewar’s approach to racing anything! Several times I ventured with Dewar to the races in his motor home, but more on that in a moment. The first time I got a chance to see Paul Cooke, which I believe was the first race at Mosport, I showed Paul the unframed print of Roger.  He just stood there. ‘How much do you want for this?’ I didn’t know. I just stood there. After a restless moment or two I blurted, ‘Seventy-five dollars.’ I waited for him to laugh me off. He didn’t. ‘How much to frame it?’ I told him it would be around $35.00. He told me to frame it and bring it to the next race. I brought the framed portrait of Roger to Tremblant two weeks later. I had double-matted the print and put a gold brushed alluminum frame around that. I located Paul and told him I had the portrait in the car. He didn’t want Roger to see it. We went to their motor home where I unwrapped the finished portrait. He asked what I wanted for it now. I told him $125.00. The frame had only cost me $32.00 so I thought I was skinning him for another eighteen bucks! He told me to sit down. He kept looking at the portrait as he wrote me a cheque. ‘I’ve got a few words of advice for you. If you had asked me for five hundred dollars for this, I would have paid it. It is the most beautiful racing portrait I have ever seen. Never never undersell yourself. Get rid of the jeans. If you are going to be an artist and a professional, look the part. Now I want you to take this and show it to every driver you can and see what the reaction is. Make sure they know it is for Roger and that he does not know about it.’ I promptly put the price for new orders up to $390.00 for a framed portrait and took several orders that same afternoon. Paul had in less than a minute put my photography career on another level and path. My direction was now to serve the drivers and sponsors. Newsprint paid little then and still does unless you get the cover. The multiple image portrait of Roger McCaig became my signature.

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I delivered the portrait to Paul at Mid-Ohio where I had another great adventure. I got a ride at speed in a Can Am car! I traveled from Ottawa to Mid-Ohio in Dewar’s motor home with a guy they called ‘the Rat’. His real name escapes me. We towed the March 707 Can Am car behind us. Dewar drove his Corvette down a day later in time for Friday’s practice. I was helping out with the car as well as shooting images. Dewar had a few problems in practice and wanted to see if the changes made were effective. Of this I did not know or I might not have gotten into the car. Dewar got permission to take the 707 out for several laps to check it out and asked if he was able to take a photographer out with him. Things were mighty loose in those days.  I sat next to Dewar in the very tight cockpit…unbelted! I had my camera with a wide angled lens on iit.  We went for three totally hair-raising laps shooting images of Dewar beside me, me beside him, the two of us together and the view out the front of the car. When I put the camera down to enjoy the ride I realized just how serious the situation was. I put the camera back up into the air and began to shoot again.  The camera by this time was actually out of film! I rolled the film back into the canister. Shooting the camera took my mind off the excitement. I did not need support after I got out of the car, but I knew my knees were weak from all the adrenalin.

After the race I rode home with Dewar now driving the motor home with the 707 in tow on a trailer. For some reason we headed towards Detroit. On the freeway running through Toledo Dewar told me to take over the wheel. He didn’t stop. He just put the thing in cruise-control and stood up! I jumped into the driver’s seat and took over. Dewar walked to the back of the motor home and looked out the window. Right behind us was ‘the Rat’ in the Corvette. Dewar started to fiddle with some wire he had strung out the side window. I heard him start to laugh and looked in the rearview mirror. I could see him half out the window. I looked in the left-side-mirror and saw him yanking on the wire. It was attached to the septic system! Everything that went into that toilet over the weekend went out on the road right in front of the Corvette! I guess ‘the Rat’ tried to slow the car down, but spun it instead. He spun it right down the center of the highway! He never touched a thing and took off after us when he got it straightened out. Dewar just laughed harder as he looked out the back window. I don’t recall much of the outcome other than ‘the Rat’ was some pissed off. He was being cool with the roof down, so I guess he got quite dose from the motor home’s septic tank. Looking back, I am surprised it did not cause some problems with the handling of the trailer with the 707 aboard. There are many crazy stories of the guys and girls that are in racing, but that one almost takes the cake.

By this time I had done a number of portraits of drivers. Several absolute beauties were from Tremblant that year. The extreme rise and fall of the track and the fact that you could get very close produced some exciting portraits of Hiroshi Kazato, Dewar, Bobby Brown, Peter Revson, Oscar Koveleski and Jackie Stewart in the L & M Lola. I showed Jackie his portrait in Watkins Glen. The image was different than all the rest. The other portraits had all been vertical with the car under the driver with his helmet on. With Jackie’s portrait it was horizontal with the car coming over his right shoulder, again with his helmet on. It was the eyes I was after. Jackie has very distinctive eyes.  The car shot I got under the bridge on the run up to the last hair-pin at Tremblant.  It was stunning.  Jackie was impressed enough to want to show it to the L & M people at their motor home. It was here I met Rod Campbell who was L & M’s PR man. Rod seemed impressed and said it would make a great poster. Jackie piped up something about the portrait was for personal viewing only, but that he expected commercial rights could be acquired. Jackie told me to let him do the talking. I learned a valuable lesson about the commercial value of an image and that it exceeds the ‘personal view’ value greatly. Racing photography was now starting to pay off for me. I enjoyed the travel, but being away from home almost every weekend took it’s toll on my family.

On my return from a racing weekend I found my home empty and my wife and son gone. My personal life took on the normal separated-and-soon-divorced route. One very funny incident during this period happened, so at least I got one good laugh out of the situation. When my soon-to-be-ex-Father-in-law appeared at the door with the marina dockboy to pick up our second car he could not find it in the townhouse parking lot.  He came to the door and asked where it was. I told him it was out near the front of the lot. He came back in roaring about not being able to find it. I told him that several notices had been sent about the car saying that it was improperly parked. I guess I forgot to send them on to him. I took him back out and showed him the car.  It was now a nice square block that along with another offender marked the entrance to the parking lot. A small sign was attached to the block-car that simply said, ‘Private Parking! This WILL happen to you!’  I was now getting around on a 450 Ducati Desmo I had gotten through the Dewar gang.

The Formula One Championship was again won by Jackie Stewart with the Canadian Grand Prix at Mosport also his. The F1 race was shortened due to poor light conditions that were brought on by a late start to the race. The cause of this delay was a terrible accident in the first turn during the Formula Ford event. The race got off in fine form as Formula Ford races trend to do with several cars coming together in Turn One just before the tunnel. The leaders, unaware of the incident, took off. An ambulance was dispatched from it’s holding spot at the end of the pit lane. It pulled to the scene of the accident on the left side of the track…the racing line. It was protecting cars that ended up there during the first lap melee. On the second lap the leaders stormed down the pit straight and down the hill into the long right-hander of Turn One. The leading cars saw the ambulance and narrowly got around it. This lead group was all nose-to-tail. Reg Scullion was directly behind Wayne Kelly in this group. Acording to Scullion, Kelly looked in his right-hand mirror checking behind him. This quick check appears to have resulted in Kelly failing to see the ambulance parked on the racing line in time. He ran into the right rear corner of the ambulance at full throttle. He was decapitated in the impact. Scullion slipped by and the race stopped. Gary Magwood at the time was inside Turn One giving an interview to the CBC on the dangers of racing. Magwood would describe Kelly as a delightful character…tough, funny and not good when it came to losing…a true competitor. Formula One would lose Jo Siffert in a non-championship race at Brand Hatch. Siffert had a coming together with Ronnie Peterson in the opening lap, but continued until his suspension failed. Siffert was unable to get out of the BRM before it exploded. He died in the car. Pedro Rodríguez was killed in an Interserie sports car race at the Norisring in Germany at the wheel of a Ferrari 512M. Along with Siffert, Rodriguez was considered to be the bravest driver in motorsport. At the start of the 1970 1000 km of Spa, the sight of the pair in their identical Gulf Porsche 917’s, together, side-by-side in the rain and roaring through the then-very narrow and always dangerous Eau Rouge left everyone breathless and cheering.

Next: Motorcycles, Racing and a New Camera.

Read the whole Shutter Speed Series.

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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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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.

Over in the Canadian Motorsports History Group on Yahoo, there is some chatter going on regarding the pace that Burke is setting. Bear in mind that some of these fellows have driven these cars, some now & some back in the day. The feeling seems to be that he is only pushing the car at roughly 7 or 8 tenths. The reason I point this out is that I want you to watch the speedo in the lower left. This is telemetry from the car. This monster accelerates from 60 to 120 miles per hour faster than most road cars go from 50-60!

Behold the beast!

The photo above was taken by Bill Hitzel for Just Above Sunset and the in-car video was posted on youtube by John Burke.

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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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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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Some time ago, Gary Faules took us on a tour of Infineon Raceway in Lucky, the GT350R. I just stumbled across this video that puts things into a completely different perspective. Vintage racer Gary Sheehan takes us for a few laps of the legendary Sears Point track in the McLaren M6B Can Am car originally driven by Jo Bonnier. While I get the feeling that Gary S is far from flying in the beast, this video gives a pretty good idea what the view was like from the cockpit of one of the Can Am monsters.

Oh yeah, you might want to crank the speakers for this one!

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When I returned home from Mosport on Sunday afternoon, I sat down in front of the computer to write. I had never met Dino Crescentini, though I had admired his Wolf Dallara and even his Can-Am motorcycle. The events from earlier in the day had upset me as a person, as a driver and as a motorsports enthusiast. I had to respectfully inform my fellow enthusiasts of the tragedy of the day. Little did I know that The Garage would become the hub where so many would convey their messages of sympathy and memories to Dino’s family. I am honored that I have been able to help connect all of you.

As I sat down to write, it occurred to me to have a look at the post I had published to promote the VARAC Festival early the day before. It was a detail shot of Dino’s car taken at last year’s VARAC Festival.

We have heard stories of Dino’s love of his friends and family, and we’ve heard how he loved to share his love of motorsports. Some of that love has obviously rubbed off, as so many people have sent in photos to share. After the break, you’ll find a quantity of memories. As there are children in many of these photos, I think it is best to let the images do the talking and leave out the credits. Thanks to everyone who has shared their photos.

Funeral and visitation arrangements:

1. Visitations at Wujek-Calcaterra Funeral Home – 54800 Van Dyke Rd. and 25 Mile Rd., Shelby Twp. MI 48316, Tel: 586-677-4000

a. Thursday from 4:00 to 9:00 pm

b. Friday from 1:00 to 9:00 pm (prayer service at 7:00 pm)

2. Funeral Mass at St. Andrew Catholic Church, 1400 Inglewood, Rochester, MI 48307, Tel 248-651-7486

a. Saturday at 10:00 am (In-state beginning at 9:30 am)

b. St. Andrew is within a neighborhood north of downtown Rochester and just east of Rochester Rd. between University Rd. and Timken Rd. Going northbound on Rochester Rd., make a right turn on Romeo Rd north of University. Turn left shortly thereafter on Inglewood Rd.

3. Instead of flowers, Dino’s family has asked that any donations be sent to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, For Dino Crescentini, 1421 East 12 Mile Rd. Bldg. 4, Madison Heights, MI 48071.

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Part way though the Group 6 race for Wings & Slicks this morning, the hills around Mosport went silent. It was the kind of eerie silence where you know that something very bad has happened.

At the top of the hill, in the slight bend the Ex Gilles Villeneuve Wolf Dallara Can Am car of Dino Crescentini got sideways at very high speed. The wind got under the car, which barrel rolled several times before impacting the wall and then rolling again. The successful endurance and sprint racer died at the scene. Organizers canceled the rest of the day’s races out of respect.

Our thoughts go out to Crescentini’s family and crew. The vintage racing community is a small, tight knit one and this afternoon was pretty sombre, with much reflection and friends supporting each other. Even though vintage racing is a fun pastime that doesn’t often cause injury or death, all must remember that some classes are high strung racing machines capable of close to 200 mph. It doesn’t take more than the tiniest of errors to bring on catastrophe.

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