July 26th, 1969 — Chris Amon about to get into his Ferrari 612P during practice for the 1969 Edmonton CanAm race. Later in the day while trying for a close up picture of Amon sitting in the car I didn’t realize I was blocking his exit from the pits. Him running me over wouldn’t have killed me but the look he gave me just before I jumped out of harms way almost did.
Drivers
David Hobbs
August 1st, 1971 — Edmonton Speedway — David Hobbs after winning the Lucerne 100 F5000 race in Edmonton, one of the victories that gave him the overall championship in 1971. The trophy to the disappointment Hobbs was filled with milk not Champaign.
Mike Eyerly
May 23rd, 1970 — Edmonton International Speedway — There were people who said that in the late 60’s Mike Eyerly was the fastest American driver on four wheels but some bad car choices and couple of accidents ended his career after winning the SCCA Continental Formula B championships in 1969 and 1970.
Dave Morris
July 25th, 1970 — Dave Morris, driving in a support race to the 1970 CanAm in Edmonton, zooms through the pits on a scooter. His passenger, Brynell Gunderson, is not impressed. Dave is a member of the Canadian Motorsports Hall of Fame and aside from being the 1973 Canadian Formula Ford champion he owned the team that Gilles Villeneuve drove for in Formula Atlantic the year before he signed with Ferrari in Formula 1.
Peter Gethin
July 25th, 1970 — A pensive Peter Gethin in the pits during practice for the 1970 CanAm race in Edmonton. Gethin replaced Bruce McLaren in the Mclaren CanAm team when McLaren was killed the previous month during practice in England.
Jackie Stewart
September 25th, 1971 — Three time world formula one champion Jackie Stewart in the pits during practice for the 1971 Edmonton CanAm race.
John Cordts
September 25th, 1971 — Above, John Cordts sits in his McLaren M8C during practice for the 1971 Edmonton CanAm race. Cordts finished 6th. After the race I met him in the pits just after he got out the car and congratulated him on a good race. He didn’t take it as a complement and said something dismissive. I looked at his mechanic and shrugged my shoulders in an expression of “what’s that all about?”. The mechanic laughed and said Cordts had expected to win which was amusing because he was driving a four year old car and qualified 9 seconds slower than the eventual winner Denny Hulme.
Jim Hall
July 26th, 1969 — Jim Hall next to the innovative Chaparral 2H race car during practice for the 1969 Edmonton CanAm race. Hall was the first person to put a wing on a race car and his designs revolutionized motor racing even though the cars were only moderately successful over an entire season because of reliability problems. The 2H was driven by John Surtees (in car) and finished 4th in this race, its highest finish ever. Surtees hated the car.
Bruce McLaren
September 1969 — Bruce McLaren in his car during a private practice session at Edmonton International Speedway the week before the Edmonton CanAm race.
Bruce and the photographer
September 1969 — Team McLaren rented the Edmonton race track the week before the Edmonton CanAm race to do some testing. Arthur Rickerby was there from Life magazine to take pictures for a feature on driver and team owner Bruce McLaren. Rickerby wanted pictures from inside the car while Bruce was driving. Being from Life he got them, although his girth made it a tight fit. Rickerby took about a thousand pictures that day. None of them appeared with the story. An interesting aside is that Rickerby arrived in Edmonton without a wide angle lens and had to borrow one from Edmonton Journal photographer, Mike Vann.