Jim Caldwell just happened to be looking in the right direction…
He was 14 years old at the time and had come from Atherton with a friend’s family to see the popular Pebble Beach Road Races, along with the great names of the day – Phil Hill, Carroll Shelby – in sleek new Jaguars, Ferraris and other exotic sports cars. He recalls the crowds and the excitement.
It was 1956. Drivers had been tearing through the pines of Del Monte Forest along Pebble Beach’s narrow roads every year since 1950. Some 10,000 fans witnessed the first edition. The next year, around 25,000 people lined the circuit, standing behind hay bales or rickety snow fences – or just crowding along the pavement.
“I saw a giant cloud of dust, then there was a huge commotion,” Caldwell says. “I really didn’t understand what was happening at the time.”
Attempting to make a pass in Turn 6, Ernie McAfee lost control of his Ferrari 121 LM. The car careened into a drainage ditch and shot into the air, smashing into a tree. McAfee died almost instantly.
The incident spelled the end of the Del Monte Forest races. In 1957, the series moved to the newly-constructed course at Laguna Seca, leaving Pebble Beach with just a small event that had been tacked onto the races as a sideshow: Concours d’Elegance.
“I had a wonderful picture of the first Concours,” says Robb Talbott, who grew up in Carmel Valley. “My mom and dad were dressed up; I was dressed up in my shorts.” But, he adds, “There were not a lot of cars.”
The event did not make much of an impression on the youngster. Although researchers report around 30 entries, Talbott remembers no more than 15.
Like other concours of the era, the field included brand new models and custom bodied vehicles. Sterling Edwards earned Best of Show in 1950 for his Edwards R-26 Special Sport Roadster, a car of his own design which he brought to run on the track.
“You’d see few people at the Concours,” observes Bob Devlin, a judge at Concours d’Elegance for the past 40 years and author of Pebble Beach: A Matter of Style, a history of the road races and Concours. “The races were the real attraction.”
These were not the first motorsports events in the area. Drivers piloting brass-era machines competed on the horse racing track at Hotel Del Monte until 1907.
But road racing was relatively new in the U.S., and Pebble Beach was attracting future stars like Ken Miles and Bill Pollack in coveted Ferraris and Porsches, as well as the powerful Allard J2. Hill won the first year in a 1950 Jaguar XK 120, which Sports Illustrated described as “sleek as its namesake.” Given the tight confines, however, the portrayal was fleeting. As the story noted, “By the time Hill finished punishing it at Pebble Beach it was merely another muddy, dented, brakeless and clutchless racing hulk.”
Talbott attended with his parents every year from 1950-56. He recalls the excitement of younger fans as they identified the different makes and models. These were, after all, cars intended for use on the streets.
“I allowed myself one roll of film for a race,” Monterey resident Roger Craig says. “I didn’t have a whole lot of money. I took a picture of the Carrera.” Craig was 18 in 1956 and smitten by the Porsche driven by Don Dickey. “What a nice sound,” he recalls. “I fell in love with the shape.”
Sound made an impression. “I swear the pine trees acted like a megaphone,” Devlin observes. From his family’s home he could hear cars practicing on Saturdays and ride his bike over to watch.
The route wound from the start/finish line on Portola Road to Sombria Lane and onto Drake Road. In 1950 it cut across an unpaved stretch to Forest Lake Road then back toward Portola after a sharp right at the corner of Ondulado Road. The following year they added a left from Drake onto Stevenson, then following a curve to Forest Lake.
“We were right there with my mom and dad, seeing cars hit hay bales, hitting Monterey pines,” Talbott says. “I was hanging onto his hand. The safety was non-existent.”
ROB MANSON HAS A VIVID MEMORY of the hay bales from the 1953 race. Fans filled in the gaps between trees, sometimes standing in front of the pines, right on the edge of the road.
“My father put me on his shoulder for a better view,” he recalls. But that didn’t help the elder Manson’s line of sight, so the father decided to stand on a hay bale.
“They were there for a reason,” Manson says of the straw barriers, laughing about it now. “Cars were going by two feet away. I’m sure my mother knew nothing about it.”
Surprisingly, serious accidents were rare. And despite the cavalier attitude – a 1950 flyer politely requested that people avoid crossing the road during the race, boasting that “every possible safety precaution has been taken to ensure the safety of spectators” – no fans suffered more than minor injuries.
“I never thought it was a hazard when I was there,” Craig recalls. “I was a kid. I liked the road races, I loved the noise. The Concours – I didn’t relate to it at all.”
The races – generally four classes – took place on Sunday, with practice laps the day before. To make Saturday more attractive to crowds, organizers added Concours d’Elegance, asking area auto dealerships and new car owners to provide show vehicles, which were arrayed on a practice tee near the tennis courts. For 1951, the location moved to the 18th hole of Pebble Beach Golf Links.
“In those days, judging was who you know, not what you know,” Devlin says.
That changed in 1955, when organizers decided to emphasize classic cars. Hill, who would go on to win the main race in a miserable downpour on Sunday, took Best of Show honors for his 1931 Pierce-Arrow 41 LeBaron Convertible Town Cabriolet. In the years that followed, blue ribbons went to vintage standouts.
“That was a sea change,” Devlin observes of the 1955 event. “It was quite unusual, and it became a trendsetter.” By showcasing classics, he adds, Concours organizers also had to find meticulous judges.
CRAIG WAS INVITED TO SHOW A CAR at the 2009 edition of Concours d’Elegance – the very Porsche he so carefully photographed in 1956.
One afternoon the following year, he spotted a Carrera on a dealer’s lot in Belmont. It was an impulse buy, one he could barely afford. Sometime in 1958 he discovered that it had been raced by Dickey at Pebble Beach.
Craig drove the car for several years then tucked it away. After a lengthy restoration project that took up much of the 2000s, he brought it out again.
“It ran beautifully. Oh my god it was smooth,” Craig says. “The car had its battle scars. That was part of its history.”
At one show, judges from the Pebble Beach Concours approached, suggesting that the 1956 Porsche make a return trip, this time to the fairway. “They treated us like royalty,” Craig recalls. “I got a trophy.”
By then, Concours d’Elegance had established itself as a destination, now fixed on the calendar in August (the 1950 races took place in November, then were moved to spring). It began to attract other events that grew into Car Week.
For the 75th edition – the 1960 event being canceled by heavy rains – a selection of cars that competed in the Pebble Beach Road Races will be on the 18th fairway. It’s a nod to the cars that first drew crowds intrigued by the novelty of drivers tearing through the forest.
Talbott recently sold a 1956 Jaguar. But before parting with the car, he decided to take it on a run along Portola, Drake and the other remaining roads of the old course.
“It brought back incredible memories,” he says. “I remember hay bales, I remember pine trees. It all started to come back: the noise, Phil Hill with the 120. It was amazing.”
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