Once upon a time, when classic racing cars were younger and cheaper than they are now, somebody thought up the idea of attracting summer visitors to a ski town by closing off a few streets and letting car clubs run races on them for a weekend. This worked for awhile in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and the heyday of the event was in the decade of the 1980s.
Racing continued well into the 1990s, but towards the end of that decade, after vintage racers had attained more value as collectible art objects than as weekend warriors, development and complaints by neighbors ended a freewheeling era of summertime fun. Back during that golden era, you could see a wide variety of historic racers, from open-wheel single-seaters to SCCA production sports cars to Group 4 and Group 6 racers. These included the Lotus 30 (or perhaps 40; differences were mostly hidden) and early McLaren shown below...
And this Cooper Monaco, which originally came from the factory with a mid-mounted 2.5 liter Coventry Climax twin cam four.
Participants from several states managed to show a sense of humor on their personalized plates. Here's a Frazer Nash Le Mans Replica* from the early 1950s. No, it's not a replicar, it's a replica of the car the factory raced at Le Mans...
The race crew on this E-Type roadster, however, were more circumspect...
The owners of this 3.8 liter Series I E-Type Jaguar coupe wanted to share their joy...
And some cars eligible for the races provided entertaining rides home for racegoers. This 2-cam, short nose Ferrari 275 GTB provided elegant transport for two…
According to Kyle Popejoy at Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing, the group first presented the vintage races at Steamboat Springs in 1984, and continued them as an annual summer event through 1998. Eventually, complaints from some condominium residents about being trapped within the perimeter of the track, as well as about the high noise levels, spelled the end of the Steamboat Car Weekend. The photo below shows how close to the action those ski condos were...
The spirit of road racing has not quite left town, however. Though developers have built a hotel in the middle of the original race course, today Steamboat Springs hosts bicycle stage road races and footraces. They're a lot quieter than those old cars, and the residents probably appreciate that. Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing has gone on to host other events, including the past two years of racing at Snowmass. Information on RMVR membership and scheduled events can be found at the website, rmvr.com, or by calling Rocky Mountain Vintage Racing, Ltd. at 303-319-3062.
*Footnote: The Bristol-engined postwar Frazer Nash is featured in the Archives for Feb. 3, 2017, in "Frazer Nash Part 2: When a Replica Is Not a Replica."
*Footnote: The Bristol-engined postwar Frazer Nash is featured in the Archives for Feb. 3, 2017, in "Frazer Nash Part 2: When a Replica Is Not a Replica."
Photo credits: All photos are by the author.
These races in Steamboat were a blast. We went the last 10 years they were held in Steamboat. Had a condo at "The West" inside the track every year. One year we were talking to the off duty cop that was guarding the race cars in the Sheraton parking ramp. He told us that with the races it was the biggest weekend that Steamboat had. We came from SLC and met many folks from all over the western US. I often wonder how much money was lost by the races being stopped for Steamboat and the local businesses.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got to enjoy the races, the crowd and the cars before the whole scene went away. It's a different atmosphere at most vintage race events now, more upscale and less amateur. Of course, the mechanics always seemed like pros to me...
ReplyDeleteI was just going through some old photos and came across a set of slides from what I believe was the last year of the races in Steamboat. Including a shot of a gold Ford GT40. Those days were awesome. Too bad they're gone. I also have a poster from the last year that is still in its cardboard tube.
ReplyDeleteWell, there's still the Steamboat Ski Resort for excitement, except it closed for the year on March 15. "Flattening the curve" takes priority over carving turns...
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteGlad you enjoyed this. Have almost sorted all the old photos, and now need to tackle the slides...
ReplyDeleteAloha.... I just joined this group today and this article about Vintage Races at Steamboat was the first one I read. I live in The’Boat from 1978 to 1984 and knew a couple of the guys(names long ago forgotten) that organized the first event. Eddie and a guy who owned the Bottleneck liquor store. For a guy who grew up going to road races at Laguna Seca seeing these cars run around “Million Dollar Hill”. Was a great relief from all the pickup trucks in town.
ReplyDeleteMahalo (now live in Hawaii so back to pickups) for the add
Hi 1islandguy: Glad this post brought back some good memories for you. You may enjoy our visit to the Shelby American Museum, covered in 2 parts on Dec. 28 & 31, 2017, and the Etceterini Files, which began with Part 1 on 12-7-15 and continues with Part 22 (!) posted on 2-8-20. Welcome to my humble blog...
ReplyDeleteI use to race with Harry Warren / The Buckingham Service out of Dallas, we raced there in the late 90's with our Jaguars. Do you have any videos or pictures . We were there with Brock and Barbara McPherson. What a great venue it was to race at Steamboat!
ReplyDeleteDon't have any videos, and we have only a couple more photos from the related Steamboat car show on the courthouse lawn, including a Series 2 GTO and early, front-engined Lola. We posted Bob Sutherland's Ferrari GTO here on Nov. 30, 2020 and in our May 21, 2021 post added a bunch of RMVR cars from a Second Creek, Colorado event in the early Eighties. We'll try to gather some shots from an SCCA friend who attended these Steamboat events so long ago, and get them posted too.
ReplyDeleteMy wife and I used to go every year with the same group of friends. We were living in Boulder at the time, so it was an easy drive up. We'd stay in a rented condo inside the course, and just soak in the atmosphere. It was my favorite weekend of the year, we'd plan for it a year in advance. We moved out of Colorado in '90, and went back once more, but kids and jobs made it more difficult. I remember being shocked to hear that they stopped holding it. Steamboat is a fantastic setting.
ReplyDeleteGlad this piece brought back some good memories. I was in Steamboat this past spring, and the downtown still has a nice, friendly feel to it. No vintage car races, but bike racing resumed this year, with events staged in Steamboat Sept. 4-6.
ReplyDelete