When I was a young man I saw many motocross races. I helped a friend race his brand new 1975 Honda Elsinore 125, and even saw motocross legend, Roger DeCoster race at the famous “Unadilla” track in upstate New York. But at 59 years old, this was my first ever automobile race.
It was part of a Labor Day Weekend event at Portland International Raceway in Oregon. There was a swap meet that I covered in part 1. This is a short photo essay of the racing that took place on Sunday.
Races were held all day, with 7 different classes of cars competing. Instead of trying to figure out who all these new racers and cars were, I concentrated on getting some good photos. I watched two different class races and an autocross.
My first car race ever! The Group 3/7 racers take their 1st lap in race 1 of 2. Check out some of the cool cars from this class.
It turned out I had timed things poorly. This was the last race before a two hour lunch break. I killed a little time revisiting the swap meet and getting a bite to eat. Then, I discovered there was an autocross going on.
It was nice to see this beautiful Jaguar XKE getting a workout on the autocross practice course.
This Lotus Europa was fast & loud. It was the first one I’d ever seen and it was pretty cool. I was kind of surprised to see that it was mildly stanced, but that possibly helped it go so fast through course.
Nothing shows how much the new minis have grown more clearly than these 2 mini convertibles.
Doesn’t this look like fun?
My last race of the day was the group 2 (mid bore production). I would have stayed for all the races, but my memory card was full, and it was well over 90 degrees outside. An old guy like me was done for the day.
This race also had a couple of Formula V cars that I really liked. This one sounded amazing, and looked like great fun.
One of the highlights of my day was checking out all of the cool cars in the pits. If you want to know why your boss can’t afford to give you a raise, he is probably a car racer. Besides a race car, many of these people had an RV and a trailer for their car. I must admit I do enjoy watching the wealthy play with their toys, but I still deserve a raise!
I never thought Pintos were ugly, but this one in Gulf livery was beautiful.
_LOVE_ seeing all those colourful cars zizzing ’round the track ! .
Thanx .
-Nate
(still banned, over a month now)
Hmm, a different kind of Midget racing than we are used to on small Midwestern tracks. 🙂
A fun batch of cars to see in pictures. I’ll bet it was a real hoot to see them live and at full holler.
As always, your photography is excellent.
I recognize the Alfa Spider; it belongs to the owner of the Sports Car Club in Eugene, and he takes it up to PIR a couple of times each summer. I think I’ve seen or two of the others at his shop too.
Oh, and that Lotus Europa is not “stanced”; they just sit low like that.
Thanks for sharing, it was great to see such a wide variety of sports cars. A very colorful photo op. I especially loved the Pinto in Gulf livery, gives us normal folks hope we may someday be able to join in the fun. Were there any older Saabs? In the days before wide spread FWD a local mechanic raced a Saab model 99 & cleaned up.
No Hunter GTs,What A Shame!None the less Great Looking Cars.I Have Never Been Big Fan Of Pintos,But I Think I Can Make An Exception Here.
If you mean Hillman Hunter GTs they were an Australian model only, some cool cars there, moderm Minis arent really anything not a real Mini, actual BMC minis can be a lot of fun to fling around an auto course
From ’67 to ’70, we got Hunters as Sunbeam Arrows here. No GTs though, except for the fastback Alpines – known as Rapier in the UK.
I knew a lady that was the original owner of an immaculate, garage-kept ’67 Arrow sedan until the late ’80s. Curiously, her steering-wheel horn-pad said ‘Hunter’!
Today, survivors are extremely rare here.
Happy Motoring, Mark
They Used To Make Hillman Hunter GT Down here Too With Dual Headlights&Two Barrell Carbs.I Think From 1969_1979.Google Paykan Javanan.
Mmmm, TR4 vintage racer…
When I took my son and nephew to the vintage races at Mosport, I pointed out: Look at the trailers boys, they’re business trailers.
The way to do this is to own a business. Then the business buys the trailer, the truck to pull it, the tools…
The late Australian businessman/mogul Kerry Packer is quoted as saying that the government doesn’t do that good a job with tax dollars that he felt the need to give them any more than necessary!
This is car orgy. Wish I was there.
Had a bunch of sports cars, mostly British, but raced and auto crossed the two Austin-Healeys and Austin Mini-Cooper S. Red with British flag roof. The Mini was the closest thing to racing the go-karts I started out in at 12.
Wow, those shots almost look like a ride at Disneyland. Especially the cover shot. I love any gathering of sports cars, especially those of the British persuasion. With a good representation of other European, Asian and American iron to keep things interesting. What fun!
You managed to capture a very rare Costin-Nathan here. It’s probably Greg Heacock’s car. Costin Nathans were designer by British aerodynamics expert Frank Costin and made in very limited numbers during the mid-60s. Like many Costin designs they had a wooden laminate chassis (yes) which was surprisingly rigid and made sense before we had carbon fiber… The cars ran in all the big endurance races back then, here’s one at Le-Mans 67. There were a number of engines offered starting with the Hillman Imp’s all-aluminium as well as Lotus and BMW engines.
I wondered what that was. Thanks for the info.
Thanks from me too. I had ruled out a few different cars that it wasn’t, but hadn’t thought of the Costin Nathan.
It is worth mentioning that timber is a form of carbon fibre, plus the cars have a tubular steel subframe at each end. With an Imp engine, the cars apparently weigh just 700 lb! You can get 120 hp from the Imp engine which is lighter than any alternative engine, but I imagine it is more common for them to have a Ford/Lotus twin cam or similar now.