| Pebble
Beach: April 22, 1956 -- 1
Bob Norton sent me these
photos from 1956, the last year sports cars raced on the narrow, pine-lined
byways of the misty, gated enclave on the Monterey Peninsula.
Carroll Shelby won the
main event in Dick Hall's 3-liter Ferrari Monza.
I grew up nearby and as
a boy I heard the cars racing. My father
asked me if I thought I was old enough to appreciate the races (I was 8).
Like a young idiot I said "No". I sure regret that childhood decision! |
 |
 |
Ernie McAfee in Bill
Doheny's 6-cylinder 4.4 liter Ferrari 121LM.
McAfee lost his life when
he hit one of the many pine trees lining the narrow course.
That was the end of racing
at Pebble Beach. The next year Laguna Seca opened to con- tinue the
tradition of sports car racing in the Monterey Peninsula area. |
The changing of the guard
in the "Big production" class.
Dr.
Dick Thompson in the first of the racing V8 Corvettes leads Tony Settember
in a Mercedes- Benz 300SL "Gullwing" coupe.
Settember won, but Thompson
established the upgraded Corvette as a solid contender and a major threat
to "Gullwing" dominance. |
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Thanks to Michael T.
Lynch & William Edgar & Ron Parravano's "American
Sports Car Racing in the 1950s"
for reference material!
Next: Pebble
Beach, 1956 -- 2
Back to: Bob
Norton's Photos -- Homepage
All photographs
and text are the property of Bob Norton and Tam McPartland and are protected
under United States and international copyright laws. All rights
are reserved and the images and/or text may not be digitized, reproduced,
stored, manipulated, and/or incorporated into other works without the written
permission of the photographer, Bob Norton, or the writer, Tam McPartland. |