Auto Racing Photo Negatives from 1950's?

Hello, I posted this last week on a sports forum I'm a member of, but haven't received any replies yet. Perhaps auto racing memorabilia is not all that common. Thought I would try here. I guess this is more about photo detective work than anything.

I bought a lot with some photo negatives some years back that included these photos (below), from what appears to be a Formula 1 auto race sometime in the 1950's. My best guess so far is they are from a F1 race between 1958-1962, perhaps at the Belgian Grand Prix as one of the negatives appears to have a sign for Phil Hill (I think). I believe Hill's 1st Belgian F1 was in 1958. Some of the photos resemble the Belgian course (a little). There are 2 sign ads that may help identify the course. One says "L Eau Rougue", the other "Real Ixelberg" (a Belgian vendor, I believe). All the other ad signs are generic for car venders (Pirelli, Castrol, Lucas, SuperShell, DKW, Englebert, & Bosch). There are some photos that include motorcycle racing, including 2 men on a cycle. So these may not be from the same event. I'm not sure about any of this. I'm just trying to narrow it down to what year, or what course (assuming F1), if possible. I apologize for the grainy photos. I'm using a phone app (Filmory) with a less than ideal backlight to convert a negative to a print. Plus my photo skills are less than stellar. I've also photo'd some of the negatives as is, as that seems to render a less grainy image, to try decipher signs in the background of the images. Here are a few of the images. If anyone here cares to chime in with suggestions of when these photos may have been taken, and where, feel free to comment. Thank you.

 

@Jerry Coker, would you be kind enough to go back and change your photographs from Thumbnail to Full image? That will make them easier for everyone to see.

Debora

 

Belgium Grand Prix at Spa-Francorhamps.

Debora

 

In the background, there appears to be a Volkswagen Transporter microbus which debuted in 1950. Not helpful. But I think from clothing you're looking at end of decade or into next. Any photographs with women?

Debora

 

The Porsche 718 of Dan Gurney (USA) sits in the pits.
Belgian Grand Prix, Spa-Francorchamps, 18 June 1961.

Now that's a pretty famous car and driver.!!

That sports forum... likely all young folks hoping to show off a pair of Jordans !

 

https://www.motorsportimages.com/photos/?p=6&tag=action&race_type_id=54&year=1961

 

Another photograph of Phil Hill taken on same day.

Debora

 

Thank you for all the replies! I just switched the photos to full image, I forgot to do that! Indeed this appears to be the 1961 Belgian Grand Prix. I wasn't sure my photos were of Phil Hill, plus I could not find a good photo of the course in 1961 that showed the clock. Thank you for finding those photos! Also, I just found and watched an Youtube video of the 1961 race and within the video there was a very similar shot, like my photo, of the partial Phil Hill plaque on the brick wall, with the same two cars parked identically (#6 and #4). When I was younger I went through a period of watching the F1 grand prix on TV (1970's). At the time many of the courses were inside the city limits of some very old/historic places. And I much preferred watching the cars navigate a windy course, vs an oval. Which is ironic as I was born in Indianapolis Anyway, I lost interest in car racing as I got older, so I feel lucky to have stumbled on these old photos from a early 1960's F1 race! It appears scanners are the best way to convert negatives to prints, as opposed to the smart phone converters like I'm using. But they are rather expensive. Does anyone have a suggestions of what to look for when trying to find a professional photo place to convert some of these negatives for me, for a fee? I'd like to convert and keep a few. They appear to be 70mm negative film strips that were cut into smaller framed pieces. Thank again for the help! PS: Looks like when I made the images full size they precede my text now, can't seem to fix that, sorry!

 

I just read about Dan Gurney, looks like he was very famous. Sounds like you're saying that Gurney's Porsche did not compete in this 1961 race, because he didn't qualify, or the Porsch had problems? I'll look to see if I have any pit photos in all these negatives. And yes, likely a lot of guys in the sports forum are more interested in Jordan & Ohtani than old F1 racing

 

Debora, thank you for the replies, so far I have found one photo of what I believe is a woman spectator from this race. Not a very good photo on my part:

 

Thanks for going to the trouble. She'd be more helpful if she were wearing a skirt. But I'd think Kennedy years. Early 1960s.

Debora

 

dan finished 6th..... Phil Hill won !

click on my link..

 

Inverted, cropped & sharpened.....Very Cool!!

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Thank you, how did you make it so sharp!?

 

Is anyone here having any success converting old film negatives to digital without buying an expensive scanner? I tried the smartphone app Filmory using an old laptop display as a backlight, plus a piece of glass over the negative to keep the curled negative flat, but I'm not satisfied with the results (too grainy). Perhaps there are other apps and/or methods I could be using? Thank you.

 

I DID sharpen it just a little......but, if from the 50s/60s, it had to have already been a pretty crisp negative (which isn't always obvious when the image is in the 'negative' state!!! I use 'Photoshop' a LOT, but have a couple other excellent (for the most part...) programs....I spend WAY too much time playing with them!!!!!

 

@Jerry Coker, I still have an older COREL "PaintShopPro X9" photo editing program..... Unless you're into 'professional, I find it pretty much the same as my 'Photoshop' program (which is a monthly subscription that I bought when you could actually BUY it)....I used my older PaintShopPro to do the sample image below....also did it in Photoshop....they came out exactly the same....but first I desaturated the image to B&W which was originally Sepia toned....Personally, I don't think the scanner on a printer doesn't do as good a job, as taking a snapshot of your original photo, then sending it to your computer.....that's maybe just me tho!! But PaintShopPro (there are a couple of versions) do let you try it out with a 30 day trial!!! Here's the link if you want to check it out.....

https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/products/paintshop-pro/ultimate/

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Thanks for the info Aquitaine, I used my iPhone camera using an old laptop monitor for backlight, then imported into an old version of Photoshop I forgot I had, inverted in PS, and the result is better than Filmory. I'm still not sure if I'm ok with the clarity after inverting in PS though. The negative photos using the iPhone look surprisingly good. Not sure if it can be improved in PS after inverting. I don't know PS very well. Seems like the inverting process in PS is taking away some of the clarity. I did check with my local library to see if they have a DSLR camera (Internet things service), and they currently don't. I'm also beginning to wonder if I can improve the clarity with a proper backlight too. But I'm loath to purchase a backlight I only use for these auto racing negatives. I've been told that 70mm film from the 1950's/60's is pretty darn good. So I'd like to improve the quality. Legacybox may be an option. I'll check out PaintShop Pro as well. Thanks!

 

I'm still thinking of sending these to Legacybox. But last night I made a 2nd effort to improve the clarity. Below are a few. If anyone cares to know, the best results I had was:
-making a negative holder to keep the negatives flat (these negatives were all cut from a 1961 70mm film roll, before I got them)
-used my laptop display for a backlight
-used my iPhone camera
-held the negative about 2" from backlight and 2" from iPhone, a bit of zoom
-opened photos in an old version of Photoshop, and inverted, cropped

If there is a way to enhance B/W photos in Photoshop, I'd like to know specifically what I can do.

This process worked better than Filmory's AI inverter, for me. I really think a good DSLR camera and a proper backlight, or a good scanner would work best. Or send to a professional, Legacybox, etc! Happy Holiday!