Vintage Racing is a different kind of show: part is real racing, part is historic race car exhibition, and part is
time-warp fantasy for a few lucky Walter Mittys. Unlike the high-stressed atmosphere of professional racing,
the paddock area of the Portland Historic Races has the casual ambience of a county fair. Owners groom their
machines while other folks stand around discussing its breeding, its previous victories and its chances in the
race arena that afternoon.
My personal approach to this event varies from year to year. One year I may be in the bleachers all weekend immersed in the sights and sounds. Other years I am one of the duffers in the paddock, spending an entire day talking about race cars. My favorite weekends are like this year's-a weekend when I can do it all. I was there both days: Saturday was spent in the car club corrals and the paddock talking cars, and Sunday was dedicated to photographing the cars in the paddock, and carefully watching the schedule so I could be in the bleachers to watch my favorite race groups.
The Can Am race cars were this year's featured race group. There were about a dozen of the big ground-shakers
at this event. What is a Can Am racer? Imagine an oversized go-cart with an 800+hp engine and you get a
pretty accurate picture. Because of the nature of the old Can Am series, a vintage race of these cars is more
exhibition than race. In their prime, these cars increased horsepower and decreased weight from weekend to
weekend. A car that "the hot item" early in the year could easily be dead last by the end of the year. Examples
at this year's race covered the entire Can Am era, and it showed in the wide spread of lap times. The Porsche
917 from late in the series was five to seven seconds faster per lap than the closest competitor, and so it went on
down the line. The large differences in performance for all of the cars meant that what had been billed as a race
was in reality a twenty-minute parade. Still, it was very cool. Portland International Raceway hasn't heard
unmuffled exhaust of that volume for years. I'm sure the sound meters used by nearby neighborhood
associations must have been well into the "ouch" range. Speaking of "ouch", families with small children were
pouring out of the stands after the Can Am cars made their first pass at speed. Permanent hearing loss was an
obvious hazard.
My favorite race was the Formula-V/Super-V group. The competitors in that group are really there to race. Fellow GTS member Dave Isselhard, was competing in his bright yellow-green Caldwell. Dave experienced fuel pump problems during Saturday's qualifying and ended up last on the grid for the race on Sunday. It was fun to watch Dave pick off car after car as he worked his way through the pack. He finished mid-pack, and his advance made for some fine spectating.
Photography has always been major part of my enjoyment of the Historic Races. This was my twelfth year, and the excitement of seeing these vintage machines and trying to document them has never waned. I try to shoot something new each year. Two years ago I concentrated on "people & cars" and the year before that it was the idea of recording "speed". This year it was race cars as art objects, and I was looking for combinations of color, texture and shape on these rolling sculptures.
It really was a fun weekend. Next year I will make it over to Skyline Burgers for the Saturday morning GTS cruise down to the track, and there is talk of our GTS group having our own corral in the car club area. Just think, discount tickets, gathering at the track as a group, reserved parking area for our cars, and all those vintage race cars! Too cool!