Inspiration 2011 Long Beach.....Buried Treasure From The Vault

Posting as frequently as I had hoped hasn't been so easy this past week. Still recovering from a serious cold that seems to have hit just about everyone around these parts, coupled with All Valley Handyman Service... ie me, pulling 9 hour days while doing a major make over of my bro-in laws house here in the Valley with a deadline of the 28th approaching. 
This has me looking for a few simple items to share with hope that they will fall upon appreciative eyes. 
While looking thru some of the MANY bins that have taken over my living room while preparing for a big day at The World Famous Rose Bowl Flea Market Sunday February 13th, following Inspiration 2011 at The Queen Mary in Long Beach on Friday & Saturday. I just ran across a couple of prized pieces from the collection including my Penske Racing Sunoco DX Mark Donohue crew shirt, and Firestone Racing Checkered Flag shirt.

1972 Penske Sunoco DX Mark Donohue Pit Crew Team Shirt
Donohue won the 1972 Indy 500. A few of his many legendary accomplishments include racing the monster Penske Sunoco 10 cylinder 1500 bhp+ Porsche 917 Can Am, the Penske F1 McLaren & PC1 and also the Penske Trans Am AMC Javelin & Sunoco Camaro. Even Penske's first NASCAR win came at the hands of Donohue.  

  Red, white & blue colors and a checkered flag motif together in a shield... an iconic logo fitting of the commitment to excellence that was part of the late great Mark Donohue, 
and to this day is still found in Roger Penske .
The chain stitched SUNOCO DX logo isn't half bad either

Great machine loomed label

Similar Penske Sunoco Crew shirts can be seen in left center of photo.

I realize some may think I'm side tracked with this racing thing, but these are work shirts and with Inspiration 2011 and the Long Beach Grand Prix both just around the corner, I'm getting a little excited. 

Lion Uniform Firestone Checkered Flag crew shirt

Old School loomed patch & nice bar tacking on the pocket. Let's not forget, this is a work shirt

Nice Firestone printed label. Any label including checkered flags is ok in my book

When I first picked up my copy of My Freedamn 3 quite a few years ago, I felt that Rin Tanaka was a sort of brother in arms for lack of a better word. I had never come across someone with a passion for the diverse yet similar items that I loved to wear, collect, and enjoy. His books and appreciation for all things cool helped push me into consider a different path. Inspiration 2010 was a turning point for myself, vintageworkwear.com and The San Fernando Valley Mercantile Co. 
I've said it before and I'll say it again, Rin Tanaka, his vision and his event, a gathering of the who's who of the vintage clothing world, not to mention surfing, skating (Mike Folmer), motocross (Alpine Stars)  along with all the other great artists and vendors... truly inspiring! 


I promise to get back to 1930s thru 1970s blue collar work clothing, denim & canvas. I'll leave the rest of this vintage racing stuff for another blog project 5 years in the works.  I will be sharing some of 300+ vintage racing jackets & promotional items from the 25+ year collection via vintageracingjacket.com, that is if I can squeeze any more time out of a 24 hour day. 

If Rin (and myself) are into this kind of stuff, I think there should be a few others out there who "get it".