{"id":498188,"date":"2019-05-14T15:19:39","date_gmt":"2019-05-14T22:19:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=79000"},"modified":"2025-01-06T00:24:26","modified_gmt":"2025-01-06T00:24:26","slug":"before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\/","title":{"rendered":"Before Catch Fences &#8211; Memories of Races in Europe"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class='memberful-global-teaser-content'>\n<p>It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. I think someone already used that as an opening, but it really does apply to my time in Germany from April 1967 to July 1968. I was a young Second Lieutenant in the Army assigned to the 97<sup>th<\/sup>Engineer Battalion in Pirmasens, Germany. Before the entire unit was reassigned to Ft. Riley, Kansas, I had been promoted to First Lieutenant in \u201967 and then Captain in \u201868. During my sadly short time in Europe, I was able to attend a number of races and experienced both highs and lows.<\/p>\n<p>As you will see from the accompanying photos, I was an amateur motorsports photographer. This was long before I learned the art of photography, but I did get lucky with some of my shots. The first couple of events I attended were before I bought a decent camera \u2013 a Pentax Spotmatic. It was an excellent camera and had a through-the-lens light meter. Even better, the Takumar lenses that were available were among the best. In a way, it was good that this was back in the day of film. I shot a lot of prints, and it is from those that I selected and scanned the ones for this article.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<style>\n        .memberful-global-teaser-content p:last-child{\n            -webkit-mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n            mask-image: linear-gradient(180deg, #000 0%, transparent);\n        }\n    <\/style>\n<div class='memberful-global-marketing-content'>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content-wrapper\">\n<h2 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-title\">No Subscription? You&#8217;re missing out<\/h2>\n<p class=\"a07online-global-marketing-content\">Any Text Here<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"a07online-global-marketing-prompt\" href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/checkout?plan=86696\">Get Started<\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">\n<h4 class=\"a07online-global-marketing-signin\">Already a Member? <a href=\"https:\/\/supercars.memberful.com\/account\">Sign in to your account here<\/a>.<\/h4>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It was the best of times; it was the worst of times. I think someone already used that as an opening, but it really does apply to my time in Germany from April 1967 to July 1968. I was a young Second Lieutenant in the Army assigned to the 97thEngineer Battalion in Pirmasens, Germany. Before the entire unit was reassigned to Ft. Riley, Kansas, I had been promoted to First Lieutenant in \u201967 and then Captain in \u201868. During my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":170,"featured_media":710791,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,3766,11272,261,16918,18207],"tags":[2727,16861,4595,60,11657,11351,17140,548,11382,17225,583,501,504,604,17143],"class_list":["post-498188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-history","category-members-only","category-motorsport-racing","category-races","category-special-feature","tag-1960s","tag-1960s-races","tag-eagle","tag-ferrari","tag-grand-prix","tag-motorsport-history","tag-members-only","tag-motorsport","tag-dan-gurney","tag-race-recap","tag-monaco","tag-nurburgring","tag-spa","tag-f1","tag-special-feature"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Before Catch Fences - Memories of Races in Europe<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"J. Michael Hemsley uses his personal photographs to recall two heady seasons of following the F1 and sports car circus, across Europe, in 1967 &amp; 1968.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\/\" \/>\n<link rel=\"next\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\/2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Before Catch Fences - Memories of Races in Europe\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"J. Michael Hemsley uses his personal photographs to recall two heady seasons of following the F1 and sports car circus, across Europe, in 1967 &amp; 1968.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2019-05-14T22:19:39+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-01-06T00:24:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/05\/24-MC-1-1-e1557871268620.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1391\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"James Hemsley\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"James Hemsley\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"20 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"James Hemsley\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/622dfa4c3904745c455ab2b4fa42961d\"},\"headline\":\"Before Catch Fences &#8211; Memories of Races in Europe\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-14T22:19:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-06T00:24:26+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":2818,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/24-MC-1-1-e1557871268620.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"1960s All\",\"1960s Races\",\"Eagle\",\"Ferrari\",\"Grand Prix\",\"History (Motorsports &amp; Racing)\",\"Members Only\",\"Motorsport &amp; Racing\",\"People (Dan Gurney)\",\"Race Recap\",\"Racetrack (Monaco)\",\"Racetrack (N\u00fcrburgring Nordschleife)\",\"Racetrack (Spa-Francorchamps)\",\"Series (Formula 1)\",\"Special Feature\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Car Culture\",\"History\",\"Members Only\",\"Motorsport &amp; Racing\",\"Race Recap\",\"Special Feature\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/\",\"name\":\"Before Catch Fences - Memories of Races in Europe\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/before-catch-fences-memories-of-races-in-europe\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2019\\\/05\\\/24-MC-1-1-e1557871268620.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2019-05-14T22:19:39+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-01-06T00:24:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.supercars.net\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/622dfa4c3904745c455ab2b4fa42961d\"},\"description\":\"J. 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