The Race Of Gentlemen: Vintage Hot Rod Beach Storming At Its Finest

Guitar Slinger, you may be a native, but you are mistaken. Wildwood has an Auto Racing history dating back to the earliest days of the automobile. They held Beach racing (admittedly in an oval format, around barrels, rather than 1/8th mile drag races like TROG) back in 1910-1911. And again in 1926. They also had a race course on the street in North Wildwood in 1911. You can find vintage postcards with images from this early racing.

Fantastic photos . No doubt a great book . But as a Wildwood NJ native ..the RoG in my opinion is a squirrelly and completely irrelevant event in light of the fact that Wildwood NJ is ALL about the 50’s kitsch [ 50’s kitsch is what finally put Wildwood on the map just as it was on the brink of extinction ] … not the 20’s and 30’s . Not to mention the fact that Wildwood in its entire history never had any form of motor racing on its beaches and in fact banned all motor vehicles from its sands for decades [ any racing to be had in the area was done just up north at the old Fort Dix dirt oval ]

Having said that though … again .. great photos … regardless of the events relevance or lack thereof .

A case of Art trumping Reality methinks …