The Racemaker Archives

Mr. Russell Hughes was the pre-eminent racing photographer for Southern California in the early days of racing (circa 1910 to 1923). He took thousands of still, action and driver portrait photographs of many of the great races on road courses, dirt tracks and board ovals.

Following in Hughes’ tradition Ted Wilson became the primary photographer & collector of California racing in the 1920’s and early 1930’s, again producing & distributing thousands of images of the races at Legion Ascot, Oakland and other major tracks operating at the time.

Over his entire career as a commercial and automotive artist, Peter Helck amassed a very large collection of European, South American and American racing photographs, from the very earliest events through the 1960’s. It is comprised of a very wide range of action, still and portrait images covering great events, drivers and teams is particularly in images of the early era.

Phil Mays was a New England racing enthusiast, car owner and promoter who collected a large number of photographs of dirt track “big car” and midget racing in the Northeast during the 1920’s and 1930’s. Images are from tracks such as Brockton, Readville, Keene, Weymouth, Woodbridge, Hohokus and numerous others.

From the time he was a young man, Walt Chernokal was an enthusiastic race fan and photographer taking thousands of shots at eastern tracks such as Langhorne, Reading, Trenton, Williams Grove, Allentown, and others as well as photos from Indianapolis and Milwaukee. His archive contains a very sizeable number of early sprint car, midget and stock car images from these locations.

Racing fan and owner of a well-known Trenton welding company, Jack Kennedy amassed a large personal collection of photographs of championship, sprint car and midget racing from tracks all over the Northeast. They include pre and post-war images from a number of small fair and midget tracks as well as from Milwaukee and Indianapolis.

Perhaps the premier American racing photographer of the 1950’s, 1960’s and 1970’s, Dave was a major contributor to Illustrated Speedway News and numerous other racing publications. His great action shots, as well as personal images from Indianapolis and many of the Midwest and Eastern Speedways are legendary and number into the thousands, many in color.

Bob Russo and Russ Catlin were two of the best known racing writers and historians both before and after WW II, contributing articles and information to Speed Age, Automobile Quarterly, Open Wheel and numerous other publications. Their combined collection contains a large number of racing photographs, American racing statistics, correspondence, race programs and other materials.

Racing historian and vintage driver Joe Freeman has been collecting historic images for a number of years. They include many shots of board speedways (Laurel and Rockingham), early racing (Lowell and Old Orchard Beach) and New England sports car events.