Don Radbruch's Golden Era

 Another, this time from the June 1999 issue of Inside Track.

Don Radbruch's Golden Era

 From the May 1999 issue of Inside Track.

Don Radbruch, Golden Era

 Don Radbruch's Golden Era page from the April 1999 issue of Inside Track.

Don Radbruch, 1940s

 From some negatives given to me by Don Radbruch.

more 1948 California hot rods

 From the October 16 and 18, 1948 Modesto Bee. Don Radbruch wrecks. Interesting to see the Joe Huffaker name. Went on to sports car and Indianapolis fame as a builder.

 

Lazy J Speedway, California

I was looking for some Don Radbruch stuff. Came across this from the September 3 and 4, 1948 Sacramento Bee.

vintage midgets, 1997

 Taken by your humble servant at Stateline Speedway, Idaho, June 7, 1997. Don Radbruch driving a Kurtis V8-60.

the Oakland Mile

A story from the March 1955 issue of Speed Age. The by line says Les Radbruch but I believe Don Radbruch wrote it and then credited his brother Les. That's the way he told it to me.

Harry Miller, third post

I can't remember when this was originally published. Obviously way back. Thanks again to the late Don Radbruch for sending me the Harry Miller info.

Harry Miller, part two

Some more of the stuff Don Radbruch sent me about Harry Miller.

Harry Miller, some info

From some stuff Don Radbruch sent me. He used to think I needed to know things. He was correct, as usual.

Cheers Don.

for my friend

It's just over a year ago that the inspiration for this blog passed away.

Don Radbruch was a fan, a racer, a historian, a writer, and a friend. He is missed by many.

big car time

(The photo above came courtesy of the late Don Radbruch, a continuing source of inspiration for me. It is of the great Jimmy Wilburn who got his racing start in the Pacific northwest, even racing at Victoria's Willows in 1935. The clipping is from an old racing publication of that era, Coast Auto Racing.)

The "big cars" -- that'd be "sprint cars" to the rest of us so-called modern kids -- never raced all that much in the Greater Vancouver area. Our loss. (I suppose the racing at Hastings Park in the 1920s could be called big car racing.)

They did make it to Digney Speedway once in 1949 with most of the cars coming from Vancouver Island. (The winner was Bob Simpson in the second Jack Smith built rear-engined car.) Victoria was the hot bed of big car racing in the 1930s into the 1950s. Langford Speedway, about 8 miles north of Victoria was the track and featured some of the hottest shoes that the Pacific northwest had to offer.

South of the border Everett's Silver Lake Speedway, both of the Aurora tracks (Speed Bowl and Stadium), and further on south to Portland Speedway and Portland Meadows plus many other tracks, mostly half-mile horse tracks, featured the big cars.

Seems like I've been in recent contact with a number of descendants of racers from that early era. And that's great. I hope it continues.

Here's one of the mainstays of that big car era with quite a detailed racing biography up to that point of 1949: Art Scovell. (Scovell even made it to Vancouver with the midgets in 1937 for a series of indoor races at the annual summer fair.)

first post for an old friend

Don Radbruch's passing at the beginning of this year got me to thinking I better get something started on all this racing history I've been accumulating. So as a first post, here is a tribute to Don:

Don Radbruch -- racer and racing historian -- RIP

Don Radbruch passed away January 1, 2008 after a long battle with cancer. Don began as a fan of auto racing, then became a racer himself and finally a writer of auto racing history. A veteran of the Second World War he came back to his boyhood love: auto racing. He drove big cars (now known as sprint cars), midgets, track roadsters and even sports cars from the 1950s to the 1960s. He was 1951 American Speed Association (later known as the Northern Auto Racing Club) points champion.

His writing about motorsport also went back to the 1950s as he wrote various articles for Speed Age magazine. In recent decades Don contributed many historical articles and photos for The Alternate, Vintage Oval Racing, many newsletters and online websites, as well as a regular column for the weekly newspaper National Speed Sport News.

Originally from the San Francisco bay area of California Don lived his final years in Idaho with wife Naida. From that location he made world-wide contacts, first through the old-fashioned snail mail and telephone way and then via the internet. He had friends in Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand and no doubt even further afield than that.

He almost raced once in Canada but the required posting of a bond to get his racer across the border stopped him. In 1950 Don didn't have that sort of cash so he left his track roadster at a garage south of the 49th parallel and went up to Burnaby, BC to watch the races at Digney Speedway.

He would include Digney in his first Roaring Roadsters book and in the subsequent volume on the track roadsters more Canadian information, plus nations all around the world, was included. His international approach carried on to a book on Model T racing and his Dirt Track Auto Racing history of racing between the First and Second World Wars.

One of Don Radbruch's legacies was his unwavering love of auto racing from that early era -- let's just say most things past 1960 didn't grab him all that much. His focus unearthed new information as well as confirming or putting to rest as not being factual old stories. But he loved the good stories auto racing gave us and loved passing them on to others.

His enthusiasm will be missed. Rest in peace Don.
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