Thursday, December 3, 2009

Fabulous Fifties, Road Racings' Founding Fathers’

The title of this post is in no way meant to disregard the fact that there were many women involved in racing from the beginning… Founding Fathers’ just has a great ring to it. Next week, December 10th, at the Petersen (Automotive) Museum, Fabulous Fifties is hosting its Annual Lindley Bothwell Achievement Award banquet. If you're into any kind of vintage motorsports you should mark your calendar and plan to attend.

John & Robert Dixon, Carroll Shelby, Bob Bondurant, Fab 50s Banquet 2008


Petersen Automotive Museum
6060 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, California
http://www.petersen.org/


Lindley Bothwell Achievement Award Banquet info call (310) 373-5704


About Fabulous Fifties

An informal group of South Bay and Palos Verdes Sports Car racers that started as a lunch bunch has become an internationally known banquet brigade that includes renowned celebrities and has a mailing list of a thousand. It now gets together four times a year with a spring picnic, a summer cocktail party at the Monterey Historics, a fall Concours at the South Coast Botanic Gardens (SCBG), and a year end finale at the Petersen Automotive Museum. Some South Bay-Palos Verdes attendees include Mary Davis, Bill Krause, Parnelli Jones, Carroll Shelby and Vic Edelbrock.

The Palos Verdes event at the Botanic Gardens is a "Concours d'Provenance", an idea dreamed up by Art Evans of the Hollywood Riviera. Instead of white glove perfection, the cars are judged on their race history. Some spectacular cars have been exhibited and auto world stars have attended. The first Concours was held at Carroll Shelby's South Bay facility and the Ferrari in which he won the National Championship and began his international career was brought in from Colorado. Besides Shelby, Dan Gurney and Bob Bondurant, Formula One World Champion Phil Hill was there.

Three years ago the event was moved to the Gardens with the help of Norma Cantafio, Director of the SCBG Foundation. Some friends of Vince Conzi were there. Don't know Vince! He was an unheralded self-taught automotive genius that adapted fuel injection and disc brakes to an underdog race car that won the Indy 500. That was way back in 1951! This year his estate donated over a million dollars to Palos Verdes institutions including the Botanic Gardens, Malaga Cove Library, and the Point Vicente Interpretive Center. This Gardena boy and his pals are deserving of their own story.

The recent Concours honored John Morton of El Segundo. John began his career working for Shelby-American and racing the first Cobras. He was the driver for Nissan's Datsun entry into racing and won the National Championship for them driving Pete Brock's creation.

The upcoming December 10 dinner is at the Petersen Museum and features the presentation of the Annual Lindley Bothwell Achievement Award. Lindley Bothwell was a USC legend and early race car driver who owned a stable of interesting cars. This year Dick Guldstrand ("Mr. Corvette") is the recipient. Dick was Roger Penske's first driver when Penske raced Corvettes. Guldstrand went on to modify Corvettes and was so successful that General Motors produced a name-plated "Guldstrand Corvette". Mary Davis, of Redondo Beach's Portofino Inn and South Bay Bank fame, was a past honoree, along with Carroll Shelby, Bob Bondurant, Rodger Ward and Jim Hall.

The dinner is at 6 PM on December 10 and reservations can be made by phoning (310) 373-5704.


Tony Adamowicz Formula 5000 Champion Concours 2009

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