Often times when we talk about “the way things were” it is with knowledge gained by reading things or seeing photos from a bygone era. Looking back at race cars and hot rods from the pre WWII era, you can see all the creativity and ideas being chased in every one of those cars. This awesome video from 1941 proves it. What you are about to see is a British Pathe film that shows ice racing action on New Hampshire’s Lake Winnipesaukee. The lake is still a very popular tourist destination and while they don’t do anything this awesome on it anymore, it is cool to have some historical record.
Today’s version of ice racing is more like road racing with all kinds of corners and stuff. Back when this was filmed these dudes raced on an oval and frankly that makes a lot of sense. Auto racing in this country, other than a select few road races (which were taking place on literal blocked off municipal roads) was done in circles or in this case ovals. The fairgrounds of every city and town typically had a grandstand and a horse track. Those become racing venues and from the early 1900s right up until this point it was the dominant form of motorsports in the country. The Indy 500 was still the most important race in the world, and we all know the shape of that, right?
You’ll see guys who clearly stripped the body off of an old jalopy and put the tire chains on competing here and you will also see guys with legit race cars getting it done as well. There is a ton of sideways action here, passing, spins, and general fun that is all being had just before the country went into a racing freeze due to WWII. If we were guessing this film was made not too far past Pearl Harbor and before the US war effort really kicked into high gear.
Enjoy this moment in time. Who’s to say what happened to the young men out there horsing around on the ice after this was made?
