I will always be grateful for Graham Donaldson. I got to know him while working at Trojan as he was a mechanic for the VDS race teambased in Belgium in 1973.Originally Posted by Steve Holmes
Here are the first two pics, which I'll let Ken comment on before I post the next ones.
When Graham called me in 1975 in San Diego and asked if I wanted to help at Long Beach I was out the door and heading north in the VW camper in a heartbeat ! I arrived in time to have a meal and be entertained by the antics of Sid Taylor and Teddy Yip enjoying themselves. After that was a long evening of cleaning the car and all piling into a cheap hotel room and sleeping on the floor. The wicked life style of Long Beach at that time was not on our agenda ! We were excited as Tony had been quick from the start of practice but had suffered an ominous breakdown due to a broken half shaft.
This photo shows us as we were putting the Lola T-332 to the front of the grid. Graham Donaldson is on the left, Teddy Yip, Carey ? Ken Hyndman in the grubby clothing, Sid Taylor and Tony Brise who I think looks the least concerned of all of us !
Al Unser signed this photo many years later as he had been very impressed by what Tony achieved this weekend.
Also note Dan Gurney signed the front of the race programme and the unused tickets were because I showed up at the track and told the guy at the gate I was part of the Theodore Team and was running late ! I came back later and found some poor homeless chaps wanted to sleep in my van. (After they had gone to one of the many porno theatres that lined Ocean Boulevard at that time !)
(Ken Hyndman)
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