Welcome Race Fans!!

Welcome to Turbo's Racing Photos. My name is Pat Smith and I live in the Mother Lode country of California, about 50 miles south east of Sacramento. This is the area where the Gold Rush of the 1840's and 50's took place. It's quiet, it's country, and a great place to live.

My brother Mike and I have been taking racing photo's since the mid sixties. Our dad got us started early by taking us to the old Santa Ana Airstrip to watch the mid 1950's drag races and later got us hooked on stock cars at places like Ascot, 605 Raceway, Riverside and Ontario. We also started attending the sports car races and the Can-Am Series at Riverside.

One of the first drag races I remember attending, when I was old enough to appreciate it, was at Lions Drag Strip. My dad dropped Mike and I off for the day. They were running the altered wheelbase factory experimentals, which later became the first funny cars. Lions also had a lot of gassers and I remember seeing cars like the Stone, Woods & Cook Willys, and Big John Mazmanian's candy red Willys. What a day!

We attended our first sports car race at Riverside Raceway. I was a big Bow Tie fan, my dad drove Chevrolets, and I was hot on Corvettes. We were standing on the back stretch near the Champion Spark Plug bridge at the start of the race. You could hear the cars running down the esses and I remember the anticipation of seeing the cars for the first time. Down the back straight they came, roaring toward me and then I saw Cobra........Cobra........Cobra.......Cobra .............. then a long wait, and finally the Vettes. I couldn't believe it. STUPID COBRAS!! It was so bad that the Cobra drivers were toying with the Vettes. I left that day with my head down, but I couldn't wait to go back. I was blown away by the road racing, slinging the cars through the corners. We used to go to the local elementary school and race our bikes on the slick hallways and slide them through the corners.

I started taking drag racing photos in the late sixties and Mike started in the mid sixties taking the Can-Am Series and Nascar stockers. Mike went into the Navy in 1966, bought a new Pentax camera and gave me his older Pentax and lenses. Was that cool or what!

I used to hang around with some gasser warriors from the Irwindale area. A man by the name of Dick Chase gave me a chance and asked if I wanted to be the photographer for the Modified Eliminator Association in Southern California. Dick had a really nice early Corvette with an injected small block named "The Ballyhoo II." Dick ran in the gas and altered classes and he won class at the Winternationals quite a few times. Dick and his wife Nema kind of "took me under their wing" and got me press credentials. They were really good people. The Association was made up of about 150 modified production cars, gassers and altereds. I loved those door slammers. I wish I could get the credentials again as it is getting more difficult to get nice shots due to the necessary safety catch fences that are installed at most tracks. If anyone could help me out on that one I would really appreciate it. Sears Point is one of the best facilities for taking unobstructed photographs. I've always been a Pro Stock fan and really miss the early years, watching them carry the front wheels with big wheelies and banging the 4 speeds. I recently discovered that I don't have the nerve like I did when I was in my 20's. It never dawned on me back then that standing next to a guard rail with nitro burning cars accelerating past a few feet away was dangerous. When a car gets a little out of shape now, I find myself backing up faster than Michael Jackson doing a moonwalk! I have a lot of respect for the photographers that shoot the NHRA events each week. They must have ice water in their veins.

I have been taking a lot of photos at the Nascar races over the last six years, at tracks like Phoenix, Sears Point and California Speedway. I recently started attending the CART races, American Lemans, Trans-Am, AMA Superbikes and just about anything that rolls.

I'm a MAJOR Dale Earnhardt fan, as was my dad. Rest in Peace Dale. Dale Jr. is my number one pick now. I never miss a race on TV and go to the races whenever I can. We have a really nice motorhome spot in the infield at California Speedway, in the first row by the entry to turn 3. Nothing like eating a sandwich sitting on top of the motorhome with race cars going by. You know you like racing when you can fall asleep on top of a motorhome with 43 Cup cars screaming by! Mike is a CART and F-1 fan. I think Mike has a special place in his heart for Dan Gurney and his Eagles, but he attends many different types of race events. I think we both enjoy watching races of anything that has wheels. Even lawnmower races look good to me! "Hey, wanna race that hand truck!"

In case you're wondering about the "Turbo" name, I have a 87 Buick Regal T-Type with the 3.8 turbo'd & intercooled engine. It is all blacked out like the Grand National and looks about the same except with different wheels, no spoiler and a clean gray interior. I've run a best 13.39 e.t. at 104 mph at Sacramento Raceway a few years ago in 80 degree weather. It had Comp T/A 245-50x15 tires at the time, an Applied Technology Pit Bull chip, ram air, some suspension work and stock exhaust. I recently upgraded the exhaust with the ATR stainless system (sweet), installed boxed rear control arms and adjustable uppers, an ARB certified 7th Injector system, boost and fuel pressure gauges, knock guage and air/fuel meter to keep tabs on everything. Capped it off with some Drag Radials and it feels real good. A WOT launch is something I didn't think I could ever pull off. Those Drag Radials on really sticky. I hope to take it to the track this spring. The G-Tech shows some pretty good numbers. Buick did a great job with the car, building a quick machine that cruises like Grandma's Rambler, gets 26 mpg and really hauls the mail when asked. I truly love the old muscle cars from my younger days, but what can you say about a V-6 that's quicker than most of them.

This site will be under constant construction. I started on this site in October 2000 and, after 2 months of goofing around and having the equivalent of "writers block" due to lack of artistic experience, I finally decided to go with a basic site and get the web site started. I will change it as I go, and add new photos when I have enlargements done.

If there is anything you would like to see, just give me a buzz and I'll see if I can assist.

I want to tell you the best part of this whole deal is corresponding with all of the race fans and just great people from all around the world. They may be from different cultures, live everywhere on the planet, but they all have a love for auto racing. It is interesting how there are little pockets of people with similar interests. 70's Pro Stock racer Jim Hayter and owner Fred Gibb have a huge following out of La Harpe Illinois. Bill "Grumpy" Jenkins has a faithful following in Pennsylvania. Texas fans........... we're talking Jim Hall and A.J Foyt. AMC and Dave Marcis fans are alive and well in Wisconsin. Southern California breathes Funny Cars! There are tons of Nascar fans in the Northeast, especially New York. Australians and New Zealanders love Bruce Mclaren and his dominant machines. Europeans worship their Formula I drivers. All fans of auto racing rushed to the fences to see Miss Hurst Golden Shifter, Linda Vaughn. What more needs to be said! We have a lot of customers who own vintage racing cars and are trying to find photographs of the car when it originally raced so they can restore it correctly. I even heard that Wild Bill Shrewsberry, wheelstander deluxe in the L.A Dart, was driving a tour bus out of Sacramento. I bet that was a wild ride. Everyone to the back of the bus!!!!! My biggest thrill was an email from Jim Hall, Chaparral designer and driver, the father of aerodynamics in racing cars. Jim saw the website and said it brought back a bunch of memories. I guess that's what it's all about.

I want to thank my brother Mike Smith for the great Can-am, Trans-Am, IROC, and early stock car photos. We both wish that we had taken more photos back then, but we were young and on limited budgets. The film back then cost more per roll than it does today. One of my customers said, "Just be glad you took the ones you have!" How true!

Hope you enjoy our photographs. Kick back, have fun and reminisce about the Good Old Days!