Recently, I had the exciting opportunity to photograph a race car collection at The Collings Foundation in Stow, MA. They are a great organization that collects, restores, and actively flys and drives these amazing, historic aircraft and vehicles. They have the only actively flying B-24 Liberator bomber from WWII in the world.
My grandfather Harold Simmons, who was a B-24 pilot in the big war, loved and frequently visited the foundation and got to know them. Eventually, they flew him and my grandmother from New Hampshire to Worcester, MA in that Liberator, making him one of the happiest men alive. When he recently passed away, they made it a point to repeatedly buzz his neighborhood with that same bomber in his honor during sunset on the eve of his funeral.
Consequently, I contacted The Collings Foundation shortly after to see if I could help them build a photographic collection of their race cars and airplanes. The director of Marketing, Hunter Cheney, was thrilled to embark on the project so here's the result of day one.
The #6 Texaco is Michael Andretti's 1995 Lola Ford XB Indy car. What's cool about some of these cars is that they still have the abbrasion scratches and ping marks from the last race they were in. They're more or less right off the track and into the collection. You can almost feel the 200 mph wind standing next to these.
The next shot is of Mark Donahue's #6 1971 Sunoco Lola T192 Formula A.
Finally, here's Porsche's only ever Indy car submission from 1979. It was so fast, it was disqualifyed and banned by the USAC!
There were a few other cool shots as well. I was like a kid in a candy store. This was a dream job. You know, once in a while you just stop, look around, and really soak up the moment. This is just the tip of the iceburg when it comes to shooting this collection. Stay tuned for more...
Collings Foundation Facebook gallery
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