Photos: The Dean Lester Collection - Part 1

[Steve Holmes]

Neat shot here from Riverside. I would guess probably 1965, judging by the Chaparral darting through the esses. This would likely be a USRRC event.

The damaged car in the foreground is a bit of a head-scratcher. There were a large number of Specials built during the 1950s and early '60s for sports car racing. Some of them were successful, others weren't.

It was the arrival of very good turn-key customer cars such as the McLarens and Lolas that changed all that. There were 34 cars on the grid for the very first Can-Am race in 1966; 15 were McLarens, 9 were Lolas. The highest non Lola or McLaren in qualifying was Bill Eve's Genie Mk10, down in 20th. It was clear from the outset if you wanted to have any chance in the Can-Am you needed a Lola or McLaren. These companies had the experience and resources to build very good cars, and it was hard to top that with something built in your own shed, unless you were someone like Jim Hall. Therefore, one-off and very low volume cars like the one in the foreground here were already dieing out.

I think this car is a Hamill SR3. How many were built? Whose is this one? Ed Hamill raced one. Did he build others? Its really a very pretty car though, despite the damage. I hope it survived.