We are very pleased to have heard from David Pozzi, present day 1965 Lola T-70 race driver, after the August 2026 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. He has sent us 11 vital and interesting photos taken by his uncle John Ritchey Sr., at the Pebble Beach Road Races, many of them in 1953. John Ritchey worked for the US Forestry service after serving in Korea while in the Army. The Forest Service sent men & equipment to help with the Pebble Beach Road Races. He witnessed the Edwards C Type Jaguar crash and took a photo of the car. Note the tree laying in the background. Mr Ritchey later ran the US Forest service Tree Nursery in Santa Cruz for the remainder of his employment.
We were interested by the mention of “Guiar” and Pete Lovely. In 1953 at the Pebble Beach road races, American racing driver Pete Lovely drove a Giaur powered by a Crosley engine (race car #12), competing in the SCCA national sports car events. Car: Giaur-Crosley, Engine: Crosley small-displacement engine, Event: 1953 SCCA Pebble Beach Nationals (under 1500cc class). The 1953 Giaur-Crosley is a rare, lightweight Italian racing car born from a partnership between builder Berardo Taraschi and the Giannini brothers. While original Giaurs typically used Giannini or Fiat engines in Europe, select models exported to the United States were fitted with high-revving Crosley powerplants for SCCA racing. Name Meaning: “Giaur” is a portmanteau blending Giannini and Urania (Taraschi’s prior car brand). Roughly 48 total Giaur cars were manufactured, featuring small-displacement layouts designed to mimic the aesthetic and dynamic proportions of larger Italian sports cars like Ferrari.
Photo Credits: John Ritchey, Sr, Santa Cruz CA.
Click on an image to enlarge then scroll left and right. Captions for each photo appear at the bottom…
