In October 2015, my friend Mark and I went to Stow Massachusetts on a sunny Saturday to watch the Collings Foundation World War 2 re-enactment and walk the grounds and hanger to view all the neat things on site. There are pictures of the WW2 re-enactment on my flickr page, I wanted to post some of the other pictures of the fantastic car collection in the hanger on this site. There is a large aircraft hanger with multiple levels that houses some airplanes, tanks, heavy vehicles, and race cars.
Collings Foundation Hanger
View into the hanger from the front.
Prime Mover
SdKfz 8 12 Ton Prime Mover, Germany
Here are some of the really neat cars that were stored on the upper levels of the hanger.
MkIII Ford
Riley & Scott Mk III / Ford, 1996. Riley & Scpott’s legacy goes back to the Ford GT MkIV Coyote, so when it came time to produce a new prototype for international sports car racing they were up to the challenge. R&S MkIII’s went on to forge a legacy of winning that is only equaled by the legendary Prosche 962. The Dyson team commissioned R&S to produce 001 in 1994 with a Ford powerplant. The chassis proceeded to win over ten races for the Dyson team including the 1997 Rolex 24 hours of Daytona and runner up in the 12 hours of Sebring and the Prototype championship. The car remained a front runner until 2001 when it retired after leading Daytona. It is believed that 001 led more laps at Daytona than any other car in history. Drivers have included: James Weaver, Andy Wallace, Elliot Forbes-Robinson, Rob Dyson, Hurley Haywood, and Derrick Bell.
Andretti Car
Lola / Ford XB Indy Car 1995. The 1995 Lola Ford was produced for the Championship winning Newman-Haas team for the 1995 season with Michael Andretti. Some of racing’s greatest names have been associated with this car, Paul Newman and Carl Haas as owners and Michael Andretti as the driver. Michael holds more Indycar wins than any other driver in history. At the Toronto Grand Prix he notched up yet another victory in this particular car. Micahel finished 3rd in the Championship in the last season that included the Indy 500 in which he was leading when he dropped out due to a mechanical failure.
Gurney Eagle
Gurney Eagle Turbo Offy 1972. One of America’s most famous drivers, Dan Gurney, winner of the 24-Hours of Le Mans and the only American to win a Grand Prix in a car of his own construction took that experience and started Eagle. The Gurney Eagle Indy Car ranks amongst the most successful in Brickyard history. This particular car was sold to the famous Leader Cards Racing Team of A.J. Watson. The car raced at Indianapolis multiple times and in 1980 became the last ever Offenhauser powerd car qualified for the 500-mile race, heralding the end of an era. Powered by a 168 cu. Inch turbocharged Offenhauser engine producing in excess of 800 horsepower.
Andretti Mears Penske
Penske PC-9 Indy Car 1980. Built by Penske in Poole, England for Mario Andretti who teamed with Rick Mears and Al Unser when his Formula 1 schedule would permit. This was the second season that Mario Andretti a F-1 world champion, Indy 500 winner, Indycar Champion, NASCAR winner, and winner in every racing category that had wheels teamed with the Penske team, which has won more Indy 500’s than any other team. Indy 500: Mario qualified 2nd fot the great race but failed to finish when his Cosworth DFX failed. Michigan 500 – Mario captured the pole and won the other 500 mile race. Copa 125 Rick Mears, a four time Indy 500 winner, captures a win at CART’s first ever international race. This chassis is the only Indycar in history to have race wins with both Mario Andretti and Rick Mears, arguably Indy’s most legendary drivers.
This summer dad and I made our semiannual trip to the races. This year it was to Watkins Glen for the Sahlen 6 Hour race on a sweltering hot July weekend. We had a great time, 3 days of racing and camping. Thanks go to Cal and Bonnie for letting us use their camper. It was much more fun than tent camping. There are loads of photos in my flickr gallery, but here are a few here to capture your interest.
Angelleli / Taylor SunTrust Car
Porsche Accident
Turner Motorsports BMW
Mazda Racing backfire
As with most photos, you can view more for the racing weekend in my flickr gallery.
After being bumped 4 weeks due to unseasonably warm temperatures, the Finger Lakes Snocross event finally happened on February 24th. I was planning on going both days, but Saturday I had plans to go see the RIT hockey game, so I could only go to the snocross Friday. What a day it was! I left work at 4pm in a total downpour. By the time I arrived at the track, the sun was out. Then another downpour, followed by more sun, a rainbow, and finally, rain sleet, snow, and 40-50mph sustained winds topped off the night. It made photographing the event even trickier than last year. It was interesting this year, because the track was made entirely of man made snow, surrounded by grass and dirt. By Saturday though, a blizzard swept through bringing freezing temperatures and significant accumulation. Here’s some photos from the event, and as always, those that couldn’t get enough, there is more in my snocross flickr gallery.
Well, we had a great weekend at the Travers Stakes in Saratoga. We beat Hurricane Irene out of Albany, and even took some money from the track. I had a fantastic time, met some fantastic people, caught up with a few friends from days past, saw some awesome racing, and got some great photos. The first race we saw featured a jockey losing his whip, and using his goggles to whip the horse instead! Friday afternoon we were able to see Kentucky Derby contender To Honor And Serve in a claiming race of all places.
Jose Lezcano, the jockey on the right is whipping his horse with his goggles.
To Honor and Serve at Saratoga
Mark made friends with one of the track photographers, Connie Bush, and we ran into her Friday afternoon. She was able to get Mark and I visitor’s passes Saturday morning, which was great, a once in a lifetime experience. It also meant that my day started around 4am as I got up, had a shower and headed to the track to photograph morning workouts. We were able to spend some time at the Oklahoma training track, and the backstretch for breakfast. It also meant for a heck of a long day. Mark and I ran into The Mig, retired Hall of Fame jockey Richard Migliore! He was a really nice guy and even posed for a few photographs. Mark maintains he bares a vague resemblance to myself, and I must say I think he is right!
Oklahoma Training Track
Dave and the Mig
We got to see great racing all day. I found a horse shoe which must have brought Tracy some luck as she did quite well on the day. We saw the return of Uncle Mo, almost a year to the day that we saw him win his maiden race over this same track. Unfortunately he lost by a nose in a photo finish, but it was an awesome race, and he did so good after a long layoff. He lost his back right shoe, and I was able to capture that with my camera from my spot on the rail. He’s an awesome horse.
King’s Bishop Field
Uncle Mo, Dislodged Shoe
It was a great summer at Saratoga, and all in all I was able to take in three race weekends. The Jim Dandy, The Whitney, and The Travers. There won’t be a summer like it for a while. View all my photos from this summer at Saratoga in my flickr gallery.
In the midst of my week in the Adirondacks, I ducked down to Saratoga for a great day of racing on Jim Dandy Day. I saw a lot of great horses, had a great time with Mark and Melody, and even got to see Stay Thirsty win the Jim Dandy on his way to the Travers Stakes 4 weeks later. Here’s a few photos on the day, more photos are available on my flickr gallery page.
Giant Surprise
Sebago Bay
Moonshine Mullin
Stay Thirsty
I already can’t wait to get back to Saratoga. My full 2011 Saratoga gallery is available on my flickr page.
After rekindling our interest in racing, this year Dad and I decided to head out to Limerock Park in Connecticut to take in the American Le Mans Series Racing. It didn’t take us too long to figure out the way the camping worked. We even got some rain, even though I didn’t bring any rain gear. The racing was great, and its a really neat track. We got to see a lot of different types of cars racing, and the access to the track and pit area can’t be beat! Its practically wide open. We camped at the track for 3 days, and had a great time. Here’s a few photos from the weekend (close to 1,000 photos taken). View the rest of them in my flickr gallery.
Dyson LMP1
LMPC Car
RLL BMW
Corvette
Flying Wizard
Vilander Ferrari
Tequilla Ferrari
Jaguar
The full gallery with many more photos is available in my flickr gallery.
My father and I went to Watkins Glen International Racetrack Tuesday to witness the Mobil 1 Seat Swap. The Seat Swap was an event where Lewis Hamilton, world champion Formula 1 driver, and Tony Stewart, a NASCAR driver each took turns driving each other’s cars around the race track. Tuesday’s forecast was for partly cloudy 65 degree skies with a 30% chance of rain. Instead we got 52 degrees overcast, drizzle, and a stiff breeze. Despite this, between 8,000 and 10,000 people showed up to the event. It was really fun, and fantastic to see a Formula 1 car in person.
Here’s a couple photos from the event. Lewis Hamilton turned some fast laps in the stock car, and even treated the fans to a burnout and a donut on his last lap. That really gave the crowd something to cheer.
I made it down to Aqueduct for the Wood Memorial this year to hopefully see Uncle Mo triumph over the competition on his way to the Kentucky Derby. It was not meant to be, as Uncle Mo ended up finishing 3rd and it was later discovered he was too sick to compete in the derby. Despite the disappointment, it was still a fun day with mark and his brothers. We saw some good races, and some beverages were consumed. Here’s some pictures from the day, all of my Aqueduct photos are in one flickr gallery.
This past Saturday we attended the AMSOIL Snocross Eastern Nationals at the Finger Lakes Racetrack in Farmington, NY. Its snow mobile racing and jumping at its finest. A lot of guys from the X-Games from ESPN were there too. I had gone last year, and it was pretty fun, so I decided to go again this year with Craig and Tracy. Last year it was around 15 degrees with 25 mph winds and quite cold. This year, forecast was for 32 degrees and cloudy, but a storm came in the afternoon and dumped at least 2-4 inches on us. It was really neat, but made picture taking quite challenging. I still got some great shots. You can view a few here, and the rest in my flickr galleries: Finger Lakes Snocross 2011, and the Freestyle Show gallery.
After the Air Show in Geneseo I decided to spend the next Saturday morning at the Stuart Horse Trials in Victor. The 4 day event featured the dressage, cross country, and stadium jumping events. I know next to nothing about horse trials, but I knew I wanted to see the cross country portion of it. It was pretty fun. I arrived during a break, so I got to walk the course a little and decide where to shoot from. Learned a little about the event from some course volunteers too. I stayed from the morning into the early afternoon and got a lot of neat shots. The course was wide open, and you can walk anywhere you want, just stay out of the way of the horses. There are a lot of photos I took in my flickr gallery, and a few here too.
Douglas Payne Water Hazard
Blair King Water Hazard
Eliza Farren Water Hazard
Kelly Sult cornering
Many more images of many more horses and riders are available in my flickr gallery.
