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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McLearn, Blocker, Babes, Go Go Dancing and a Ford Mustang pace car what more could any mortal man ask for?
Dan Blocker of Bonanza fame was the owner of a 1965 Huffaker Genie MK10 race car, nicknamed the “Vinegaroon.” The car was run by Nickey Chevrolet in the 1965 and 1966 U.S. Road Racing Championship series, as well as the 1966 Can-Am championship.
http://www.imca-slotracing.com/AUTOSPORT%20-%20CANAM%201966%20HISTORY.htm
Yes, and one of the drivers was Canadian John Cannon. That link has some great info about the 66 Can Am. I got a few shots of Vinegaroon in the paddock at Mosport last summer for the Can Am reunion. Unfortunately I didn’t get to see it on track as the day was cut short.
Great piece of film! I noticed at the end where Bruce gets the trophy, it is presented by the sponsor and Amy Cooke who was at one time Miss Players. She married Paul Cooke, Roger McCaig’s chief mechanic.
Allan, great stuff. You are finally making yourself useful. I remember the ‘66 Players 200. I was there watching it in the heat. Something this video doesn’t mention is the loss of a Marshal when hit hit by a car at speed. FYI, I still have my gate ticket stub and program from this race. Just near the end of the tape I spotted Dave Greenblatt’s Ferrari 250 LM being eaten alive by these soon to be Can Am cars.