This morning, I finally put up the blog about my trip to Peoria, IL to purchase a large batch of E-Type parts from Steve Cantrell. As always, as soon as the blog was up, I sent him a link and asked him to look it over and let me know if there was anything he would like changed, etc.
Well, I guess that got Steve thinking, and a few hours later, I received an email back with a link to about 100 photos of him racing his E-type in the late 1970’s and early 80’s…
I figured they would be neat photos, but just like Steve’s cache of parts – they exceeded my wildest expectations – they were GREAT!
But one of them – literally – is worth a thousand words. It really got to me…
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- Steve’s E-Type racer was a VERY early 1961 roadster. For some reason, whoever purchased it new ended up giving it up in less than a year, at which point it was purchased from a used car lot in California and immediately turned into a race car. This photo was taken in 1964 at the very first Champion Spark plugs American Road Race of Champions.
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- This shot was taken in Fort Worth, TX in 1965 – the car is COMPLETELY off the ground!
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- Another shot from 1965 – this one in Ponca City, OK. Nowadays, everyone seems to want the “lightweight” boot lids with the vent in it to let heat out of the rear brakes. Well, THIS is how it was REALLY done back in the 60’s!
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- What a GREAT shot this is! Also from Ponca City, OK in 1965, here, Steve’s E-Type is passing a BRAND NEW Shelby GT350 on the ouside of a turn! But even more fun is the little building in the background with spectators on the roof – complete with haphazardly positioned haybales, AND an LP tank! You couldn’t mock up a better vintage photo if you tried!
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- Fast forward 13 years to 1978, and the car was purchased by Steve from Ladd Motors in Lebanon, PA – where it had been used in local hillclimbs, and still holds many of the records there! This is a photo of Steve in the car, ready to go out in one of his first races – the Detweiler Hillclimb….
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- Early the next year – 1979, the car had a “new look”… On the way home from a race the previous year, Steve had to make a panic stop in the truck, and the E-Type broke free from its straps and rolled forward on the trailer – mangling the nose of the bonnet on the trailer winch. Steve repaired the damage as best he could with a hammer and dolly and some filler, and was back out onto the track! This is still the original welded-louver bonnet – note the change in shade in the first 12 inches covering Steve’s repairs.
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- And so from then on, Steve’s Jag had this somewhat distinctive mouth shape… Hey – it’s a race car!
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- This photo and the one above were taken at Blackhawk Farms in Beloit, WI in July of 1979.
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- Indianapolis Raceway Park – August, 1980. Here, Steve is coming around a turn, with oil smoke just POURING out!
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- Eventually, he was able to figure out that while assembling the engine before the race, he forgot to put in half of the rope seal on the rear main… He was able to unbolt and pull back the gearbox and fish a piece of rope up in there without pulling the engine – with the help of his new friend – Bill Terry! That’s Bill in the red T-shirt – directing Steve as he works on something within the E-Types nose – probably an oil cooler line…
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- This is obviously a professional photo…
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- …probably taken because Steve now had a new sponsor for his racing habit…
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- …Terry’s Jaguar!
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- Back to the Detweiler Hillclimb in 1980, these two photos go together great – and were scanned from the photo album just like this!
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- And back to Indianapolis in May of 1981…
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- By July of 1981, Steve had three seasons of road racing under his belt, and was definitely improving! Here, he is passing a Porsche at Blackhawk Farms.
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- Steve walked me through this sequence on the phone – once I started looking at these photos, I called him up, and he recounted racing stories over the phone while I sat here and stared at the photos for 35 minutes – and the scenes he painted were quite vivid!
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- Like this one, where the slower Datsun would not move out of the racing line, so he passed him on the outside going into the RH turn ahead! Steve has JUSt hitr his brakes for the turn, whereas the Datsun has been slowing for several seconds beforehand and is about to be passed.
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- Next lap, and Steve is now chasing down some big-block American muscle! Take a look at how low that flag stand is above the access road – YIKES!
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- Same weekend, this is the infield paddock at Blackhawk Farms. I love the background – very modest racing trailers versus the enclosed semis used today. And the racers are staying in their vans and tents right there – what a blast! Don’t you just want to jump into this photo and spend the night here partying with these people!?! That is Steve’s younger brother riding back to their spot in the RH side of the E-Type.
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- And here is Steve’s setup – complete with 70’s lawn chairs and wife relaxing with her book!
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- Around 1982, Steve and his wife broke ground on their new home, and racing went onto the back burner. Actually Steve never went back to full-scale road racing, and for the next few years, stuck to local hillclimbs and autocross events. This is the Detweiler Hillclimb again – one of Steve’s favorites I guess – in 1983. Doesn’t this look like a fun day!?! The “Tuffy” license plate is the advertising for the local Tuffy muffler shop, who “sponsored” Steve by forming up custom exhaust pieces for the E-Type – the owner of the shop LOVED the Jag, and was happy to help out!
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- This is an Autocross in Peoria, IL, on Father’s Day Weekend, 1983 – when the town would have a big festival that included steamboat races on the river, amusement park rides, a fair, etc. Just another great vintage shot of the days when E-Types were driven HARD! Steve was the fastest car with fenders this weekend – beaten only by two open-wheeled, Formula V cars.
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- One of the last photos in the set shows the E-Type being Autocrossed in this lonely parking lot… Soon, Steve would set his Jaguar racing aside to raise three sons – but it looks like he gave it one hell of a whirl for the past 5 years!
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- And then there’s this photo… What a great picture! Here, the head is being removed late at night for some reason or another – the same original head from this car, fitted with factory D-Type cams – that is sitting right here in the office with me now! I love seeing the tools piled up on the front bulkhead – which is EXACTLY what I used to do – and what EVERYONE who has REALLY experienced the E-Type adventure first-hand does! This photo shows – perfectly – what vintage racing was like when I used to help out with Terry’s Jaguar in the early 90’s – late nights, flashlights, hand tools, and broken race cars! That’s Steve on the left – we’ve only met once, but I recognized him right away – he just looks ALOT younger – and was 29 when this was taken! But what blew my mind was that I ALSO recognized the person on the right – that’s Bill Terry! – a full 10 years before we met! And, while all of those things make the photo just incredible, what really gets to me (it actually just brought me to tears writing this…) is the kid in the foreground – wearing the Jaguar T-shirt and unable to keep his hands off the loose head nut within his reach… That’s Trent Terry – 9 years old.
