| (10-18-08) From website contributor
and historic racer Bob Engberg:
"This photo was published in black &
white some years ago in Graham Capel's book "Lotus Eleven." I think
he identified the locale as Hourglass Field, but Santa Barbara makes better
sense if the photographer was from Northern California.
The first Eleven #63 is Ignacio Lozano
in chassis #212. Lozano was
the publisher of a Spanish language
newspaper in LA. This car raced at LeMans in 1956 with a 1460cc FWB Climax
but was a DNF. Stan Anderes found it in a Fresno junkyard 30 years ago
and restored it and has raced it at Monterey and elsewhere for years.
The second gray Eleven may be an ex-Jim
Lowe car. I see a fuel filler on the the right side of the cowling and
Lowe had a gray Eleven S2 with a twin tank and fillers on either side.
The driver may be Reddish from LA.
The third car is indeed Frank Monise
in his Eleven. It is thought to
have been the first one imported to
Southern California.
The four car is a Lotus MK 9 and could
be Bob Challman, who later became the Lotus Distributor for California
after Jay Chamberlain quit Lotus. I think Chamberlain drove this car until
he began racing Elevens and later a Fifteen.
The fifth car is John Timanus in his
Lotus MK 8/10. This is the car
ordered by James Dean, who intended
to put an Offy in it. After
Dean's death the car went to Timanus
who put in a variety of motors including a Climax, a supercharged Climax,
and an MG. The
last car is a Lotus Mk.6 and is probably Ed Freutel's car. He was
an LA lawyer and a friend of Monise, who drove the car before getting
his Eleven.It will be interesting to see what other
postings you get on this
photo to correct or add to these comments."
(10-23-08) From Michael Jacobsen:
"Lotus #91 is Harvey Mayer, seated
in the car. He first raced it for some doctor from Costa Mesa, where
Harvey had a foreign car garage, then bought it. His son Mike Mayer
and I once drove it to the grocery store for Collins mixer. Harvey
was fastest of the cars pictured."
(10-23-08) More from Bob Engberg:
"I did a little more research on the
photo. Here is what I now think:
The venue is not Santa Barbara, but rather
"Hourglass Field". That was a small airport about 15 miles east of
San Diego. The date is May 5, 1957.
#63. Ignazio Lozano (chassis 212)
#53. Bill Knowe (chassis 215)
#44. Frank Monise
#91. Harvey Mayer
#23. John Timanus (Lotus X MG. Timanus
identified his car a "X" most of the time.)
#90. Jean Oddous (MK 6)
It's the same date and place as this
b&w photo of Bill Knowe
in Lotus Eleven chassis 215 (The background shows the mountain north of
Hourglass Field). Knowe had raced at Pomona on January 20, 1957 and
crashed his car where he "hit a post head on". Apparently he'd fixed
it before the race at Hourglass.
BTW, my brother tells me that his first
Eleven (chassis 216) had long-distance gas tank over the cowling as well
as the usual one on the left, but had only one filler."
(10-24-08) More from Bob Engberg:
"I spoke with Stan Anderes whom I thought
now owns the Lozano car, and he told me he spoke with Lozano years ago
and is convinced he does not have it." |
