Lovely Memory : Veteran Driver From Tacoma Turns Clock Back 30 Years With Return to Palm Springs for Vintage Car Races

Thirty years ago, Pete Lovely and his wife loaded their VW Beetle in Tacoma, Wash., with a mechanic and spare parts and towed a 2-liter Ferrari Testa Rossa 1,400 miles to Palm Springs to race.

“We ran on a World War II abandoned air base near here,” Lovely said Saturday as he prepared to relive his old fantasies today at the second Palm Springs Vintage Grand Prix on another airfield course. “We ran the day’s fastest lap and finished third overall behind Carroll Shelby and Max Balchowlsky’s Old Yeller.”

Years later, Lovely would become one of a handful of Americans with Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Bob Bondurant and Richie Ginther who would challenge European drivers on the Formula One circuit.

Today, at age 60, Lovely will be in a lovely old red Lotus 49 that he, Graham Hill and Mario Andretti drove in world championship races in the late 1960s. Hill won the Grand Prix of Monaco in it in 1968.

“I bought it in mid-1969 and drove it in a dozen or so Formula One races,” Lovely said. “It’s as near a perfect replica of the original as we can make. We’re even driving with 1968 Firestones on it.”

The car still has a faded, weather-beaten competition sticker on its window from the 1970 South African GP at Kyalami.

Lovely, along with former world champions Phil Hill and Jack Brabham and Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Unser, practiced for 30 minutes over a new 1.1-mile course in preparation for today’s 20-lap Victory Lane Formula One Invitational at 12:30 p.m.

“I love the music it makes,” Lovely said admiringly as he switched off the engine. “I also like this little course. Some of the guys are complaining that it’s too tight, but that’s what these cars were made for.”

Lovely, a VW dealer in Tacoma, has not raced professionally since 1973 but has been driving in historic car events since 1978. His Lola, which is definitely not for sale, is valued at $100,000. Lovely also has a 1980 Williams in the pits that world champion Alan Jones of Australia drove in the Long Beach Grand Prix. Gary Gove will drive the Williams, complete with its original Saudia TAG decals, in today’s feature race.

“These cars are too valuable to take the chances we took when we were younger, but these races give us a chance to get the feel of the car and the crowd and all that,” he said. “I’d say most of us run at about seven-tenths of what we used to do.”

Seven-tenths can be quite quick when the surface gets oily and the drivers build up their nerve with each lap negotiated successfully. There were several expensive fenders crushed when cars ended up in the barriers instead of negotiating turns.

“I think we had more fun in our day,” Lovely said as he reminisced with friends from an earlier era. “I remember once I drove a Jaguar to Torrey Pines, took my suitcases out, taped up the headlights and raced it. There were no sponsors to answer to then, no super-high expectations. We did everything for the fun of it. Now it’s pretty much a big business racing sports cars.”

Walking down pit row in the compound that promoter Chris Pook created south of the airport is like taking a stroll through a museum of racing tintypes come to life. The Formula A/B race, with its McLarens, Coopers, Brabhams and Eagles, was like a scene from the picture “Grand Prix,” when Bruno Goldberg and Bib Stillwell were dicing their Brabhams. Only James Garner was missing.

There are 263 cars entered in the two-day festival, with close to 300 more in the Concours d’Elegance at nearby Angel Stadium, and each has its own family history. A number of the cars--as well as the drivers--were here when Palm Springs was one of the stops on the Cal Club schedule from 1951 through 1963.

One, the No. 1 tomato-red ’51 Kurtis 500, owned by John R. Queen, one of the Long Beach Grand Prix founders, was a winner here in 1952 with Bill Stroppe driving. Stroppe, who later became better known as the riding partner of Parnelli Jones in a series of desert off-road races, will be back behind the wheel of the Kurtis in today’s modified production race.

Curiously, the Kurtis is the only Mercury-powered car here in an event sponsored by Lincoln Mercury-Merkur.