Local news video of March 1968 Champ Car race

Here's a short local-news video previewing the California 200 race in March 1968. 

The video featuring longtime Fresno newscaster Gus Zernial is short on any real information, but there are two highlights for me:

1) The sound of the No. 15 Gerhardt Offy as Mel Kenyon pulls onto the track. 

2) A quick shot of a full grandstand. Throughout my reporting on Marchbanks' history, good shots of the stands have been hard to come by. 

I don't know whether the video was part of a local newscast (Zernial worked for Channel 30 in Fresno for years) or whether it was part of a network telecast. Can anyone share some insight into that question or anything else about TV coverage from the track in those days? 

More John Isom photos from 1967-68 Champ Car races

Photographer John Isom has done it again. 

We recently shared dozens of Isom's wonderful images from the 1967 and 1968 Champ Car races at Hanford Motor Speedway. Now Isom has dug deeper into his archives and has even more images to share from those races. 

Below is just a sampling of the shots Isom collected from inside the pits and on track. You can see the entire batch in this photo gallery or in the slideshow at the bottom of this article. 

I love this image of Mel Kenyon. He's got a steely gaze and slight smile. His left hand, which was severely damaged in a racing accident several years before, is covered with a specially designed glove designed to grip the steering wheel.

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John Isom photos from 1967-68 Champ Car races

Mario Andretti, Al Unser and Art Pollard in the infield at the 1968 Champ Car race at Hanford Motor Speedway. Note Unser’s heeled dress shoes. (Photo courtesy of John Isom). Drivers’ meeting at the Hanford Speedway Champ Car Race on March 17, 1968.  From left:  Billy Vukovich, Jr., Chuck Hulse, Mario Andretti, Art Pollard, Bobby Unser, &  Unidentified driver.  (Photo courtesy of John Isom). CLICK IMAGE TO VIEW LARGER SIZEPiecing together this history of Marchbanks Speedway and Hanford Motor Speedway has been rewarding thanks to the wonderfully detailed memories so many people have shared of the track and the wildly diverse forms of racing there. 

That includes John Isom, who photographed three races at Hanford: the 1967 and the spring and fall 1968 Champ Car races. What’s special about Isom’s photos is they were shot with a Rolleiflex twin-lens 2.8E2 professional camera, utilizing medium format (2-1/4-inch x 2-1/4-inch 120 film. For those who aren’t shutterbugs, the Rolleiflex is a tidy camera with a unique design. 

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