MEMBER NEWS – AUG. 29, 2016

HINCH TO DANCE WITH THE STARS

James Hinchcliffe, driver of the No. 5 Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports Honda in the Verizon IndyCar Series has been chosen to participate in the 23^rd season of ABC’s “Dancing with the Stars”. Coming off his sterling performance as a member of the victorious IndyCar team with Helio Castroneves, Toni Kanaan, Will Power and Conor Daly on ABC’s summer hit “Celebrity Family Feud”, Hinch has the added pressure of having to follow in the tippy-toe footsteps of Dancing’s 2007 winner Castroneves.

 

THE ROLEX MONTEREY MOTORSPORTS REUNION

One of the huge annual events for the RRDC’s vintage and historic racers and many of our other members, is the blow-out days in August encompassing the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance.

A number of publications and blogs cover the festivities in eloquent fashion. Lynne Huntting (aka “PressSnoop”) gives a solid running account of the daily activities around the Reunion. As usual, Sports Car Digest gives the most thorough coverage of the Concours at Pebble Beach.

 

PHIL HILL TRIBUTE FILM

For your viewing pleasure, check out Phil Hill “Road America” 1955 – a nostalgic tribute to Phil Hill, Paul O’Shea, car owner George Tilp and Ferrari 0498M 750 Monza Spider. Historian Geoffrey Horton’s Vimeo film chronicles Tilp’s restoration of the Ferrari in his Union, N.J., shop and the trip Elkhart Lake for Road America’s Inaugural race weekend, Sept. 10-11, 1955.

Hill drove the Ferrari while O’Shea was behind the wheel of Tilp’s 300SL Gullwing. Both won, Hill nipping Sherwood Johnson’s Team Cunningham D-Type Jaguar in a photo finish. This delightful trip into yesteryear is sure to bring back memories of a youth well spent or the realization that your car nut parents weren’t exaggerating about the “good old days”.

 

CUBA’S CAR CULTURE BY TOM COTTER AND BILL WARNER

Tom Cotter (aka Mr. Barnfind) and Bill Warner (aka Mr. Amelia Island Concours) have collaborated on the story of Cuba’s encasement in an automotive cocoon for the past five-plus decades. According to Motorbooks, the story begins with “Cuba’s pre-Castro car and racing history and brings us up to today’s lost collector cars, street racing, and the challenges of keeping decades-old cars on the road.” The hardcover edition will be available, Oct 1 through both Motorbooks and Amazon.