Del Mar
(San Diego County Fairground)

P denotes the blue-outlined (very approximate) location of the pits and paddock (turned out to be not far off)

?? means I have only the barest of ideas about the actual course alignment anywhere, and essentially none in this area (The purple line will give you an idea how far off I was in that area: it is kind of like the shape I found in Art Evans' new book The Fabulous Fifties—Sports Car Races in Southern California. I believe the actual size may have been somewhat larger than shown here; the notches at right probably corresponded to the ramps into the lot from the perimeter road. E-mail Art for a chance at getting one of the few remaining copies of his book. I think the first volume—about the drivers—is sold out and out of print.)

T is an area from which some of Tam McPartland's Del Mar photos were made (the *T is where I would relocate my guess after seeing a drawing of the course by someone paying more attention than I was)

F is the location of a flag station I worked in about 1961 (similarly relocated at *F)

You can see the Del Mar horse racetrack at the left. There has been a motorcycle flat-track race there each of the last few years. The building to the east of the "P" is new; all that area was parking lot.

I believe the IMSA course came out of the parking lot and made a long, narrow loop up the esplanade that goes left (West) just above the "F".

Interstate 5 runs diagonally bottom right to top left about a photo-width and a half to the right. The Pacific Ocean is situated similarly to the left.

When I worked that flag station the remarkable event was when a Testa Rossa Ferrari driven by (I think I remember) Dick Morgensen failed to negotiate the right turn where the track was pointed at a chain-link fence. He went right up to it, and since he had managed to get the car headed more-or-less in the proper direction, sort of rode the fence like a banked turn, raising dust and blood pressure throughout the area.

I found a model of Morgensen's TR, and an actual photo of what seems to be an actual person driving the actual car through Turn Six at a Riverside International Raceway vintage racer event.

 
Del Mar Race Report from August, 1962 Sports Car Graphic
Story by W.R.C. Shedenhelm    Photos: William Marsh & Toby Palmieri
Click a page to see the BIG version (no "Standard" here)

See numerous slides from a May, 1964 event at Del Mar

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