Solved NIC #51 - Ferrari 375 Indy with Johnny Parsons at Willow Springs

[nicanary]

What's going on here? Please tell me the car (easy), the driver and the venue.

[nicanary]

Experts?

[richard cuyler]

Pikes Peak?

[nicanary]

Pikes Peak?

Not a hillclimb.

[D-type]

Ferrari 375 driven by Carroll Shelby.  Is it at Laguna Seca?

[Hiawatha]

Is that the 375 sponsored by Grant piston rings and driven by Danny Oakes at Torrey Pines?

[nicanary]

You're both getting very close, but wrong driver and wrong circuit.

[Hiawatha]

Johnny Parsons at Willow Springs?

[mekubb]

Is the circuit in the USA at all ?

[nicanary]

Johnny Parsons at Willow Springs?

Yes! I don't know much about the circumstances, but it seems the Indy 500 car was demonstrated at some circuits either before or after - the "big race". Presumably this was for marketing/advertising purposes. It was 1952 - 4 Ferrari 375 cars were entered but only Alberto Ascari in the works car managed to qualify. This is the Grant Piston Rings Special which Parsons was due to run in the 500 but when he did not manage a good speed in qualifying he switched to a traditional Indy roadster. The car failed to qualify in the hands of Danny Oakes, but possibly Parsons was contractually obligated to demonstrate the car in this instance,

[Hiawatha]

Construction of Willow Springs circuit started in 1952. The first race was held on November 22 1953.However I have no idea whether Johnnie Parsons was racing or demonstrating. Thank you for the point.

[nicanary]

I have tried to find out more, but for the time being there is not much to tell you. Your dates are correct - the photo was taken when the track was still oiled-dirt, so maybe it was a publicity picture in preparation for the completed track opening in 1953. I'm sure that by then the track was asphalt.

Danny Oakes drove the car at Torrey Pines in September 1952, and I'm taking a guess that this photo was also taken around that time, in other words after the Indy debacle.

[Hiawatha]

I read somewhere that asphalt was only laid in 1958!

[nicanary]

I read somewhere that asphalt was only laid in 1958!

Wow. All I can say is that every reference to the photo says it was taken in 1952, which of course makes sense. So what was it doing there? Will we ever know?