Laguna Seca 1970 CanAm

Is this the same Dick Smith that raced Cobras as a privateer?


I would say it is likely. Dick Smith and Carl Harm are listed as the entrants of the car in the 1970 Can Am, with Dick Smith of Fresno the driver. I also read that Dick Smith acquired a a 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 from Carl (right around the time Carl got interested in Can Am) and raced in SAAC events. The Cobra was later sold to Riverside Museum for 2 million dollars.
 
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You can see many of these cars still racing at the Monterey Historic Races each August at Laguna Seca. I have been a few times and racing was great as was the access to the cars. It must have been something to be there for the actual series.
 
I would say it is likely. Dick Smith and Carl Harm are listed as the entrants of the car in the 1970 Can Am, with Dick Smith of Fresno the driver. I also read that Dick Smith acquired a a 1965 Shelby Cobra 427 from Carl (right around the time Carl got interested in Can Am) and raced in SAAC events. The Cobra was later sold to Riverside Museum for 2 million.

That car won more races than any other Cobra.
 
After cleaning the slides with compressed air, I scanned each with an Epson V500 at 6400 dpi, as tiff files for archive. Each scanned slide was about 150 MB so I exported them as small jpeg files and uploaded to AK. It was a bit time consuming, but I had fun researching the cars and drivers.

I plan on going back to the high resolution tiff files and doing some white balance.
 
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I thank my dad for taking me and my brother to the 1969 Riverside Grand Prix Can-Am event, while listening to the Rams game at the same time. Got to meet Bruce and Denny before the pre-race driver parade. Wish I'd been able to go into the pits that day, I might have then pursued my dream of being a race mechanic, or at least a glorified go-fer.

the Number 5 McLaren M8D was Denis Hulme, and he was from New Zealand, like his compatriots Chris Amon (in the STP March) and the late Bruce McLaren. Bruce died earlier in 1970 while testing the M8D when the rear bodywork fasteners failed and the wing pressure caused the rear body to fly off, losing control and hitting practically the only structure in the area, a marshal station. The wings pressure was then changed to directly push down on the chassis structure. I still remember the shock and depression I had in high school hearing about the accident early in the morning.
Peter Gethin in McLaren #7 filled in for McLaren from race 4 till the end of the season. Dan Gurney had filled in for the first 3 races admirably while Hulme was still recovering from burns suffered at Indianapolis that year.

The Number 1 BRM P154 Chevy was driven by Pedro Rodriquez of Porsche endurance racing fame. Sadly, he would also perish not long afterwards in a racing accident. Another car, #98, was driven by George Eaton of the Canadian Eaton stores family and DNF'ed due to accident on lap 11..

Elford took the pole IIRC, but suffered an engine failure in warm up and DNS.

Not seen yet, but probably in the picture files was the very interesting Autocoast Ti-22 mk. II driven by Jackie Oliver, a very quick and well sorted, well engineered car which placed 2nd. The car was later written off and burned in a race accident at the last event in Texas IIRC.

There were over 30 cars that started.

http://www.racingsportscars.com/race/Laguna_Seca-1970-10-18.html
http://www.racingsportscars.com/results/Laguna_Seca-1970-10-18.html

The photo gallery in the above website is missing alot of pics from this race. Your find will certainly fill in a few of those if you share them. Man, I'd sure go back and see if there were more slide boxes to check.
 
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For all of you who followed Bruce McLaren's career and the team he created:

And his contributions to Ford Endurance racing, Formula 1, Can-Am, and engineering excellence, team preparation and management, and the lasting legacy of his personality and goals:

The Bruce and Denny Show:

Gordon Coppuck (who helped design the M23 Formula 1 car) and penned the M8F/M20 Can-Am cars, and Tyler Alexander, McLaren's general manager, discuss Bruce's life:

And WOW, I didn't know this was coming, looks great!!
 
Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon won the 1966 LeMans 24 Hours race after the Ford brass decided they wanted a 3 car dead heat finish to rub it into Ferrari's nose. Problem was, Ken Miles, who had been one of the very important development drivers in the Ford GT-40 program had been leading and had to slow down to let the other cars catch up. But after the race, the French organizers declared that since Miles' car had started farther forward in the grid (standing LeMans start), the McLaren - Amon car had run a longer distance and was then declared the winner. McLaren knew the win belonged to Miles and had said so privately.

Sadly, Miles died in a 1967 Ford J-Car (successor to the GT40 Mk. II) testing accident at Riverside the following spring, but the subsequent investigation led to changes to the final GT40 Mk. IV which won Sebring and LeMans in 1967, the LeMans win with Dan Gurney and A.J. Foyt.
 
Fantastic find!
Thanks for sharing them.
My dad took my brother and I to Riverside for the Times Grand Prix back in '64 or so. Went to that track many times once I could drive myself. My brother actually raced in the last race held there as well.
I've enjoyed the Can-Am cars for many years at the Historic races at Laguna too. Nothing compares to those cars these days.
 
Thanks for the info mech986. I watched all the videos and have been filling in the details about the drivers and cars based on the racingsportscars site. I will look into donating some images to them.

It has been fun trying to ID all the cars and drivers.

Bob Brown in Blue #3, George Eaton in the BRM Chevy, Jim Adam in the Red Ferrari 642 and David Hobbs.
red ferrari.jpg

And a special thanks to the Fresno City College Campus Police Officer for providing traffic control.
Fresno City College.jpg
 
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