Review: Weekend Heroes II
/-Colin Warnes
My wife rolled her eyes as she explained that she almost strained her back picking up a package from the porch. A smile spread across my face as I knew what she had brought inside. A good friend of the Allard Register loaned us the latest publication from Tony Adriaensens, “Weekend Heroes II” (WHII). You may be familiar with the original, “Weekend Heroes” book that covered California sports car racing from 1952 through 1957 with 700 pages. At the time, the book featured a jaw-dropping collection of never before seen photographs. The follow up, WHII raises the bar; it’s a set of three massive books totaling almost 1,600 pages and weighing over 30 pounds. The books continue to focus on California sports car racing, covering 1950 through 1957 along with mini-biographies of several key personalities from the era.
So why the focus on California road racing when sports car racing was just as interesting in the rest of America and in Europe? To Tony Adriaensens, California racing featured a unique environment that featured almost year-round racing and attracted a variety of socio-economic classes that did not (to my knowledge) discriminate based on religion. In other regions, hot rod specials were often frowned upon by the sporty-car types, but in California they were an integral part of the scene with many future famous drivers making a name for themselves. It also didn’t hurt that most of the automotive print media was based in LA. It’s this culture that helped make California the epicenter of sports car racing with its great cars, interesting personalities, media exposure, and year-round racing.
Bob Lytle…
WHII is poignant as it features a number of photos from the late Bob Lytle. Bob was a good friend and long-time historian for the Allard Register before his passing in 2008. If you are a fan of vintage racing, you likely saw him racing his iconic black J2X #65. Before the Allard Register, Bob was a sports car racing enthusiast and very good amateur photographer with a knack at being in the right place at the right time at many notable races back in the 50’s. It was a delight reading Bob’s bio and seeing his many photos scattered throughout the books.
The volumes are organized by year and feature race reports from period publications like Road & Track, Motor Trend, the SCCA magazine, Motor Sports World, Auto Speed and Sport, etc. For Allard enthusiasts, volumes one (1950-53) and two (1954-56) will be of most interest. These two books cover the years that Allards were most active in racing – by 1957 they were tired and largely uncompetitive. The Allard photos are numerous and their captions offer a lot of useful information to amateur historians like me. Honestly all three volumes are fascinating if you appreciate MG’s, Jaguars, Ferrari’s, OSCA’s, Kurtis’s (Kurtii?), specials, and even Singer’s.
My gripes with the books are few, and rather petty. As noted earlier, each book is huge, which makes them difficult to read casually. When reading one of the WHII tome’s, one must settle down in a comfortable seat and be prepared to stay for a while – the books are engrossing, but also very heavy. One other gripe is that the text is fairly small and fine, which could make reading difficult for some. It would be nice (albeit sacrilegious) if a write-protected E-reader version for an Ipad or computer were offered that allowed the reader to zoom in to better read the text and enjoy the amazing detail of the photos.
One might also balk at WHII’s cost of €510 ($560-ish) to Americans and €474 Europeans; however these books should be considered an investment. The quality is top notch and the box they come in must also be saved as it is also part of the WHII experience. The publishing run is limited and they will sell out…and I doubt your local library will pick up a set for you to check out. If you want to read the, you either need to buy them now, or have a good friend that is willing to loan them to you. If you do buy the books and for some reason tire of letting your imagination go back in time to the golden age of motor racing, you can always get your money back on Ebay. If you’d like to buy the set, go to https://corsaresearch.com/weekendheroes2-0/.
So, who is Tony Adriaensens? I don’t really know. I’ve never met him in person, but we’ve corresponded several times. Tony was born in Belgium…still lives there too, which makes his passion for California sports car racing even more unique. From what I know, Tony is equal parts detective, archeologist, historian, and artist. As a detective and archeologist, I’m constantly surprised at the vintage photos he digs up. When researching photos, he’ll regularly send me scans of Allard photos that he’s unearthed…photos nobody has ever seen in public. How does he find them? Who knows…he must have friends in the global intelligence community. As a historian, he seeks out the period publications & race reports, and the people (the racers, spectators, AND their children) who were there firsthand. He also works with others from a newer generation like Joel Driskill who helped with a lot of the research on WHII. Finally, Tony is an artist – or craftsman – or magician; he can transform faded and distorted slides into stunning large-scale images with amazing color & detail. He then presents them in a manner that both honors the original photographer while also transporting the viewer back in time. I’m glad there are people in the world like Tony who like to share their supreme talent and obscure interests with the general public (hopefully he’s making a decent living out of it!).
