[cooltouch]

Yes, this is true. Its closing was predicated on the promise of a replacement raceway in the same area. It took several years, but eventually they built the Auto Club Raceway, a 2.5 mile D-shaped oval super speedway with interior road courses. The best road course is 2.88 miles, which uses the entire sweep of the back of the D for the "straight." It's an arc, so not really a straight, but still the cars can get flat out in that section. So it works as a replacement for RIR. But there was just something about the old RIR. It was something of a granddaddy of long road courses. Just had a lot of character.

I also attended a lot of regional SCCA races, many of which were held at RIR. This new track doesn't host nearly as many regional SCCA races as RIR did. But fortunately, the local drivers have Willow Springs, which is a very nice track in its own right.

As for the sounds of the cars, it was interesting. Almost all of the cars in the prototype class (the fastest) were turbocharged. A turbocharger really affects the exhaust note. The turbine chops it up, the result being they all sound like big vacuum cleaners as they go flying past. But there were two prototypes that had normally aspirated engines. The two Group 44 Jaguar XJR7s had NA 12-cylinder engines, and they sounded like proper race cars when they'd go howling by. Of course, the slower classes were populated mostly with V8s -- Camaros and Corvettes and Mustangs and such. And they of course added their characteristic American V8 roar to the overall noise level.

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Last edited by cooltouch; 03-13-2017 at 10:38 AM.

[gofour3]

Here are a couple Tmax 100 shots from around 1990 taken in Vancouver. (Pentax KX)





Phil.

[Racer X 69]

Well, Racer X's posts showing his cool looking Z car got me to thinking about my racing photos, and I'm pretty sure I still have some from the 1986 IMSA race at Riverside International Raceway that I haven't posted here yet. I was shooting Fujichrome 100 for this event. So, here goes.

A March 83G hurtling down RIR's back stretch at over 200 mph. Taken with a Canon F-1 and Tamron SP 60-300mm f/3.8-5.4.


A Group 44 Jaguar XJR7 coming out of Turn 9. Canon A-1, Canon FD 200mm f/2.8.


The same Group 44 Jag passing a GT-1 Camaro


Race fans checking out the action along RIR's back stretch.


I have more shots from this race, but I don't think I have any others digitized yet.

Nice work.

I need to dig through my slides and negatives. I went to Portland every year for 4 or 5 years in a row for the Rose Cup, SCCA Trans AM, Indy Cars (before that silly Indy Racing League crap that ruined open wheel racing in North America), and the IMSA Camel GT. I have photos of the same cars you have here.

[Racer X 69]

As for the sounds of the cars, it was interesting. Almost all of the cars in the prototype class (the fastest) were turbocharged. A turbocharger really affects the exhaust note. The turbine chops it up, the result being they all sound like big vacuum cleaners as they go flying past. But there were two prototypes that had normally aspirated engines. The two Group 44 Jaguar XJR7s had NA 12-cylinder engines, and they sounded like proper race cars when they'd go howling by. Of course, the slower classes were populated mostly with V8s -- Camaros and Corvettes and Mustangs and such. And they of course added their characteristic American V8 roar to the overall noise level.

One of the many neat things about the IMSA prototype class was the diversity, chassis, makes, drivetrain layouts (mostly mid engine, but there were a few with engines in front of the driver), and the engines. Turbocharged Porsche flat 6 cylinders, Ferrari (a couple different configurations), Mazda rotary (the awesome 3 rotor 20B), turbocharged Olds Quad 4, Buick V6 (turbo and non turbo), the n/a Jag V12, and later a turbo Jag V6, Chevy and Ford stock block engines with all manner of exotic induction configurations, Cosworth Fords, the list goes on.

When they ran at Portland they didn't use the chicane like the Indy Cars did, and to stand where you could see the cars come out of the back stretch and then run down that long front straight was a hoot. Each engine singing its own song, the roar of the big V8's, the shriek of the highly strung little 4 bangers getting forced air and fuel, belching fire at every shift with that familiar chirp of the compressor blades stalling for an instant, the howl of the rotary.

And the series ran in parallel with the European and Asian endurance series, so there was a distinctly international feel to the events. Like taking an overseas trip, but only a 4 hour drive from home.

Good times.

[Racer X 69]

Paul Newman, entering turn 9 at Portland International Raceway, 1986. Ricoh XR2s, Pentax M 40 - 80 zoom



Cross posted everywhere.

[stevebrot]

One of the many neat things about the IMSA prototype class was the diversity, chassis, makes, drivetrain layouts (mostly mid engine, but there were a few with engines in front of the driver), and the engines. Turbocharged Porsche flat 6 cylinders, Ferrari (a couple different configurations), Mazda rotary (the awesome 3 rotor 20B), turbocharged Olds Quad 4, Buick V6 (turbo and non turbo), the n/a Jag V12, and later a turbo Jag V6, Chevy and Ford stock block engines with all manner of exotic induction configurations, Cosworth Fords, the list goes on.

When they ran at Portland they didn't use the chicane like the Indy Cars did, and to stand where you could see the cars come out of the back stretch and then run down that long front straight was a hoot. Each engine singing its own song, the roar of the big V8's, the shriek of the highly strung little 4 bangers getting forced air and fuel, belching fire at every shift with that familiar chirp of the compressor blades stalling for an instant, the howl of the rotary.

And the series ran in parallel with the European and Asian endurance series, so there was a distinctly international feel to the events. Like taking an overseas trip, but only a 4 hour drive from home.

Good times.

I feel like I have missed out. Even though I have lived less than 20 minutes from PIR for the last 28 years, I have only gone down once for a race...cyclocross If I had known the IMSA prototype class ran...


Steve

[cooltouch]

Cool memories, indeed. I have a couple of pics of Paul Newman from the TransAm race that was run in conjunction with the IMSA race. I thought I had 'em up on my website but I can't find 'em now. They aren't as good as yours, though. I'l look for 'em. I should have 'em backed up around here somewhere.

Interesting points you made about the sounds of all the different engines. I guess I was mostly only peripherally aware of them as I was concentrating on my photography. But I do recall one Porsche 944 turbo that did race in an IMSA class, although I don't think I got any shots of it from the race. I was at Riverside for a club SCCA event and the owner had it out, racing in the events, but mostly just to shake things out for his next IMSA race. I remember two things about that car, one was that it was super fast and two that it was really loud, uncharacteristically so for a turbocharged car. I have pics of it from its practice session around here somewhere.

I gotta agree with you about the IRL. I don't think open-wheel racing in the US has ever really recovered from their stunt. Reminds me, though. I attended the 1984 Long Beach Grand Prix, and cuz I was shooting Canon back then, I got to sit in the Canon Tower, which was located at the sharp turn right before entry onto the long straight. So I got a bunch of shots of racers making that dogleg turn right there. Historical stuff, nowadays. I'll post some of those later.

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Last edited by cooltouch; 03-14-2017 at 05:36 AM.

[YeOldePentaxian]

A different kind of race, but there are some cars. :-)

Going through some old negatives - image from the 1986 Jasper-Banff relay race showing the setting of what made this an interesting event. Race ran through the night starting in Jasper and ending in Banff. Teams could have one runner per leg of the race or use runners more than once.

[cooltouch]

I found some slides from the 1984 Long Beach Grand I attended. Back then, I was shooting with a Canon A-1 and AE-1, and for long lenses, all I owned was a Soligor 80-300/5 and an Albinar 80-200/3.9. I'm guessing I was using the Soligor for this series of slides.

In those days, Canon had two "Canon Towers" it had set up along the road course. I shot from only one of them. It was located right at a dogleg that was just before the long front straight, so the cars were slowed to a crawl at that point, which made for easy shooting. The other tower was just too far away. The good thing about the towers was they elevated you above the fence, so you weren't having to shoot through chain link. Canon also had several super telephotos set up at the top tier of the towers, but they were so jammed up with users and people waiting in line that I didn't bother even trying to use them. Besides, we were so close where I was that those long lenses weren't really necessary.

Danny Sullivan


Rick Mears:


Al Unser Jr. passing a spun out Randy Lanier:


A yellow flag waving in front of Danny Sullivan:


I have more, but these are the only ones digitized.

[cooltouch]

Paul Newman, entering turn 9 at Portland International Raceway, 1986. Ricoh XR2s, Pentax M 40 - 80 zoom



Cross posted everywhere.

It took me long enough, but I finally found the only two shots I have of Paul Newman behind the wheel of his 300Z. They aren't very good photos, from a technical standpoint, but they have some historical value, regardless. The contrast is very hard. I should dig out the originals and reshoot them. I just found these in an archive and I don't know what sort of PP I may have done to them.

As I mentioned above, these were taken on the same race day as the IMSA race back in 1986 at Riverside International Raceway. Most probably shot with a Canon A-1 and a Canon FD 200mm f/2.8 lens on Fujichrome 100.






---------- Post added 03-14-17 at 06:01 PM ----------

vroom VROOM! . . . or should I say zing ZING!

[cooltouch]

I lived in Bakersfield, California from 1975 to 1985, during much of Rick Mears' career, That's where he was from. So Mears was a good ol' local boy who made good. From what I understand, he came from rather humble beginnings in Bakersfield, and it was his character in general not to make a big fuss of things. He was a pretty low-key sort of guy -- until he got behind the wheel of a racer. Then, watch out.

[YeOldePentaxian]

A few Ektachrome slide scans from May of 1979, Sunshine Village, Banff.

First shot shows the area in front of the Inn and the Lodge with the fleet of school buses from the days before the gondola.

Next ones are the classic "Welcome to Beautiful British Columbia" sign on the Divide Chair, and a view shot from the chair lift.

[cooltouch]

I was going through the set of slides I took when I went to Japan way back in 1983 and I realized there are lots that I haven't posted here before. Back in January, 2015, I posted several of my best shots in the thread 'Lets see those "film" shots'. Here are links to a two-part message in that thread. My posts are 10701 and 10710 on page 714.

:cool: Lets see those ''film'' shots - Page 714 - PentaxForums.com

I found Japan's street scenes to be interesting, perhaps just because of their rather claustrophobic nature. Here are a few:






More of a sidewalk than a street, really


A cute little van. So why this van? Because it was so tiny. It might not look so in the photo, but check out how big the license plate is compared to the vehicle it's mounted on.


The cameras I used were a Canon A-1 and AE-1. I had three lenses back then: a nFD 50/1.8 and two Albinars -- a crappy 28mm f/2.8 and a surprisingly good 80-200mm f/3.9.

The slides are all Fujichrome 400, which I had developed in Japan. These images are duplicates I shot using my Sony NEX 7 @ ISO 100 and a dupe rig which includes a 55mm f/2.8 Micro Nikkor as the taking lens. I shot the dupes in RAW mode and used Photoshop's excellent raw converter to convert to jpg. Photoshop's raw converter is so full-featured that very little post processing is left to do by the time the file is converted.

I'll post more soon.

[RobG]

I found Japan's street scenes to be interesting, perhaps just because of their rather claustrophobic nature. Here are a few

Interesting! There's not much of that Japan left today. Maybe in country towns.

More of a sidewalk than a street, really

There's plenty of streets which are so narrow that to us they look like footpaths.

A cute little van. So why this van? Because it was so tiny. It might not look so in the photo, but check out how big the license plate is compared to the vehicle it's mounted on.

The model is a 550 and that's probably the number of CCs in the engine. There's a whole class of cars and trucks in Japan with sub 1000 CC engines. Thanks for posting! I'd post some of my pictures of Japan but the first time I went there was 2002, so not suitable for this thread. I have a few which my parents took in the 70's though.

[Arjay Bee]

I have many from Japan from the late 80s early 90s yet to be scanned. Will get to it 'soon'...