Where the car sport/hobby is going.....

The Race of Gentlemen – A Race for the Ages By Ruby Rae Scalera
The Race of Gentlemen is a marvel. Unlike any automotive event I have ever attended, The Race of Gentlemen, affectionately referred to as TROG, is less like driving down to Wildwood, New Jersey for a weekend of vintage fun, and more like stepping through a time portal into another world.
For so many reasons TROG is both unusual, and a car show to be imitated. It has the unique location of actually being on the beach, which sets a tone to the crash of waves – if you can hear them over the sound of vintage motorcycles, and the illustrious background of ferris wheels, roller coasters, and the far off New Jersey boardwalks. It almost gives one the impression of having stumbled into bike racing at Coney Island in the 1920s and 1930s.

That sensation, of course, is what they want. Great effort was put into selecting vendors, period attire was requested, and all around there were images evoking carnivals, classic foods, and the earliest days of racing.
Because that is what we’re really there for, after all. Both days of the events are chock full of vintage motorcycle and hot rod racing down the beach. Drivers are dressed in vintage style racing gear, with rounded helmets and knee high laced boots, their parachute pants bulging at the thigh. Some cars are in great shape, but others are rusted, dusty, and a whole lot of old school. The racing is not about the winning. The racing is about the marvelous experience of these vintage beauties starting and running, and at not unimpressive speeds either. Cars jumped the what-would-have-been-tree more times than I can count, but they ran, kicking up sand against the checkered starting line posts, revving powerful, classic engines with a great rumbling thunder to mimic the waves behind them.

The Race of Gentlemen is a visceral, sensory event. One didn’t attend the show, they experienced it, sloshing through the wet sand upon their shoes, smelling the salt sea air mix with thirty year old exhaust rust coughing into the air. The revving of engines on the line seemed to reverberate through the wild, excited crowd. Hot sun baked our skin, vintage, boozy root beer cooled our throats.
My first thought upon entering the show was something along the lines of wow, they moved the ocean a lot closer to the Bonneville Salt Flats. My second was that I had stumbled into some sepiaed scene from the early pages, (and left out of the movie), of Hunter S. Thompson’s Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas where sports journalists gather in the desert to report on motorcycle racing – kicking up dust, shooting back whiskey, speaking out stories to editors across the country on the single phone out that far from civilization as the American dream grows around them, a phoenix from its own ashes.There’s no other way to describe this show – it was cool. It was sailor tattoos and album covers and pin up girls cool. It was hot rods, and rat rods, and motorcycles with rusted out racing numbers cool.
It was also incredibly inspiring. Sounds a little odd – here were are, standing beside an original Wall of Death motorcycle performance tent, watching Bettie Page inspired Hot Rodders throw back Sailor Jerry’s rum, and I’d call that inspiring? More than inspiring, hopeful as hell. Because this show, unlike so many car shows, is not comprised of a nostalgic group of car owners, recalling the days of chrome bumpers and sock hops. This show was younger kids, millennials with young families, young adults who never lived through the era they’re dressing as, speaking as, driving as. They’re not remembering their own history. They’re remembering the history of the automotive hobby, and not because it’s nostalgic, but because it’s damned cool.

That’s no slight on the wonderful, classic tradition of car shows countrywide. Those shows are so important to preserving the hobby and the history. But this show didn’t feel like a glimpse of the past. It felt like we had slipped right back into the photograph, and we were standing on the Bonneville Salt Flats, wearing cuffed jeans and racing whatever we could cobble together, not quite realizing we were changing the automotive world forever.
I believe wholeheartedly that hot rod and vintage racing culture is going to be the direction of the hobby. The Race of Gentlemen brought together history, cars, and hobbyists, but it also brought the next generation of classic car lovers. It brought families, and kids – drawn by the beach, the noise, the tents. It was a family affair that has all the potential to save the very hobby we love so much. And it was damn fun.
We need more events that blow our socks off. We need more left-field madness of motorcycles on posts two stories in the air – their driver balancing on one leg as it spins around a treadmill. We need more vintage style, historical photographs, wild and unique racing – so close to your face sand gets into your eyebrows. We need all of these things to push the hobby forward, to make it bigger and grander and more likely to last for years to come. The Race of Gentlemen is just the kind of event to get us there

 

a few pictures
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...0395805&type=3

 

The Race of Gentlemen 2017

15,160 views
•Aug 11, 2017
What is that yellow car around 4 min 30 seconds?

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Brit Speed
132 subscribersWildwood New Jersey June 9-11 I have no rights to any music played in this video. I just really like the music and thought it fitting for the video. 1st song is called 'Surf Medley' by Junior Brown on the Semi Crazy Album 1996.

2nd song is a single called 'Lucy Leave' by The Oholics 2008. It's a cover to an old Pink Floyd song with Syd Barrett.

I do claim all rights to any video or still images. I have no copyrights to any music played in this video or do I intend to profit. Pure enjoyment.

 

The Race of Gentlemen Pits Santa Barbara 2019 TROG

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•Mar 12, 2019

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Snot Rocket Garage
67 subscribersThis video is a walk around the pits of The Race of Gentlemen in Santa Barbara Ca 2019

 

Lady of the Line

39,958 views
•May 30, 2018

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Motor House Media
833 subscribersThe Race of Gentlemen's Dynamic and Charming Flag Girl, Sara Francello, is featured in this in-depth look into the amazing vintage racing spectacle that is TROG. As the hot rods line up at the starting line on the beach of Wildwood NJ, all eyes are on the flag girl,

Sara. A barefooted woman with blonde hair with a throw back outfit on and checked flag in hand. She is in control of the starting line. The racers take off when the Flag goes down all while Sara jumps 2 feet in the air giving it her all on every race and with a flare of showmanship.

Sara's energy and playfulness, is fun to watch and part of the thrill of "The Race of Gentlemen". She is the Lady of the Line.

 

The Race Of Gentlemen 2019 | Full Video Recap

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•Oct 7, 2019

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whadafunk
258 subscribersThe Race Of Gentlemen 2019 | TROG 2019 | WILDWOOD NJ On the weekend of October 4th we headed to The Race Of Gentlemen 2019 aka TROG 2019. This is one of the best events of the year and in the past it has been in the summer but this time they had it in October so it was a little more cold than usual.

I filmed this video home video style like you would if you attended a motorcycle event back in the day without having any editing software or computers. If you don't know what The Race Of Gentlemen is....it is an annual event that the Oilers car club hold yearly where people can bring their old motorcycles & cars and race against others on the sand.

I love the entire vibe of this event because it really makes you feel like you were back in the day. I filmed all 3 days of the event from Friday to Sunday and tried to get as much footage as I could for everyone to watch. I was going to make it much shorter but decided that I would keep most of the footage in for anyone who wasn't able to attend the event and wanted to see what it was really like.

Can't wait for next year!!! Hope you love the video Thanks for watching! TROG - The Race Of Gentlemen 2019 - TROG 2019

 

The Race of Gentlemen Experience

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•Jul 11, 2017

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Mark Foster
139 subscribersThe Harley Davidson Museum presents the Special Exhibition of The Race of Gentlemen June 16 - September 4, 2017. The bikes, cars, beach, culture, fashion and images of The Greatest Race on Earth. Film by Mark Foster

 

Race to TROG - “The Race”

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•Jun 7, 2017

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Doing Koool Shit!
1.36K subscribers"The Race" is the third and final episode in the Race to TROG series. DKS! spent a month and half documenting the build of a 1928 Ford Roadster and the journey cross country to "The Race of Gentlemen".

Watch the race and and see the competition unfold between real hot roders and their latest builds. Learn about the history of Lars Mapstead's 1951 original Barris build, Mike Barillaro one off Belly Tanker and finally Heath Pinter's 1928 Roadster Red Kap build.

 

"The Race of Gentlemen" - TROG 2018

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•Jun 17, 2018

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Coast Classics
143 subscribers"The Race of Gentlemen" - TROG 2018, Wildwood, NJ

 

RACE OF GENTLEMEN

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•Jun 28, 2017

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Eddie DeMatos
124 subscribersRACE OF GENTLEMEN RACES IN WILDWOOD NJ