Top Photo: LVC Fan
Second Third and Fourth Photos: Gerry Anderson
Top Photo: Irv Condron
Second Third and Fourth Photos: Unknown
Doug has some explaining to do when he gets
home and tells his wife he not only crashed his race car, but has to pay
Uncle Lou fifty bucks to replace the wood boards he splintered exiting the
speedway.
Actually, this is typical late
50s action. The car was more than likely a
non Ford usually raced at asphalt tracks in the area, such as Empire,
Pine Bowl, Rhinebeck, and Riverside, as a secondary class.
Also, how can you not appreciate the quality of this photo? If you ever take the time to look back in old magazines and programs, the photographers back then were always on top of the action, with superb in depth quality, sharpness and timing with inferior photography equipment back then by today’s standards. What ever happened to the intense shots like these? You can actually see the wood splintering and the drama of being involved in an accident back in the days when every accident brought an unknown level of harm to the driver because of such poor safety equipment.
We had no knowledge of
who the fella busting up the old Valley outside boards was, but we recently
had his identity uncovered.
Doug’s son,
Gerry, wrote
in to inform us that that was indeed his father behind the wheel of the #42,
and this to say about the man behind the wheel.
Doug Anderson was a classic racing aficionado who
scraped together enough money to do what he loved…put a race car on the track
at Lebanon Valley until with 4 kids he just could not afford his own car
anymore.
I have provided you with some additional pictures of
#42, as well as the last car he built and owned, #80 (one of the earlier cars
he raced at the Valley).
Some additional trivia for you, my Dad and Bob Brennen (who himself owned a #34 that Dad worked on and drove) brought another young boy along to the track with them, someone whom they later helped get started in his racing career. His name was Harry Peek. In fact, in your one picture of Harry Peek at the Valley, my Dad is the man standing at the back of the car talking to a couple other gents at the fence. One last bit of trivia for you, when Bob Brennan stopped racing he sold his house and racing garage in Rotterdam to another aspiring young racer by the name of Jack Johnson…in my humble opinion, the greatest racer the Capital District area has thus far produced.
Gerry Anderson
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