Dale LaFollette

August 31, 2026 By pete 7 Comments

Dale LaFollette passed away last week due to a stroke. Dale was the Track Manager at the Portland International Raceway for 27 years, owned Vintage Motorphoto and contributed many articles to VeloceToday. To say he will be missed is a gross understatement. Below is one of our favorite articles by LaFollette, followed by links to a few more of his best.

Story and photos by Dale LaFollette

Pete asked me for photos of the Disco Volante so I had to go back to the Mille Miglia Retrospective of 1986. Wow, what wonderful memories that dislodged!

The Disco Volante was being piloted by Phil Hill and John Lamm and I was in a C-Type Jaguar that was owned by my good friend Steve Earle. Our numbers were close to each other so we seemed to be in contact for at least the first full day of the three-day event. Phil and John told me that the Disco belonged to the Alfa Romeo Museum and they seemed a little concerned about the mechanical preparation if memory serves. [Read more…] about Dale LaFollette

And How! VeloceToday’s Most Valuable Assets

January 6, 2025 By pete

In addition to our comments section below each article, VeloceToday often gets very nice compliments, sent via email or included in a note with a subscription check. These comments rarely get published, but are meant as recognition of the work done by our contributors, who create the content that makes VeloceToday what it is. Magazines are nothing without good content, and therefore contributors are our greatest and most valuable assets.

They are historians, authors, editors, photographers, columnists, journalists, judges, drivers, restorers, artisans, collectors and constructors. They hail from the United States, Great Britain, Australia, Germany, France, Belgium and Italy. Here are the names of thirty-three whose contributions made the year 2024 one to remember.

Jeff Allison, Gary Axon, Giles Chapman, Bob Cullinan, Rodney Diggens, Joseph Duray, Brandes Elitch, Graham Gauld, Greg Glassner, Bob Harrington, Joe Hurwich, Stefan Ivanov, Vince Johnson, Jackie Jouret, Allen R. Kuhn, Dale LaFollette, James Lanoway, Frederic Levaux, Bernard Linck, Roberto Motta, Herb Miska, Chris Nugent, Willem Oosthoek, Paul Sable, Charley Seavey, Jonathan Sharp, Jim Sitz, Roy Smith, Sean Smith, Pete Vack, Hugues Vanhoolandt, Paul Wilson, Robert Young

And How! You know anything about this?

October 21, 2024 By pete

What is it? Can you help?

By Dale LaFollette
Photos courtesy Dale LaFollette and Tom Black

My good friend Tom Black is at it again. (See Tom’s previous project, below) He just purchased the car pictured here in the last couple of months.

I think the motivation was he couldn’t figure out what it was or who did it. Here are a few specifics; perhaps our readers can shed some light on Tom’s find. [Read more…] about And How! You know anything about this?

Dale LaFollette: Heroes at Long Beach,1976

June 12, 2023 By pete

At first, a small group of famous drivers gathered for the cameras; Moss, Fangio, Dreyfus, Hill and Gurney.

Here is Dale LaFollette’s version of Heroes at the Long Beach Grand Prix of 1976. Please also read Larry Crane’s version (click here). Note the two photographers did not know each other at the time and didn’t know one was shooting the same scene from a different angle.–Ed.

Story and photos by Dale LaFollette

My May issue of MotorSport magazine arrived some time ago and as I thumbed through it, memories came flooding back as there was a story about a historic race in 1976 that I was quite familiar with.

In 1976, my closest friend Frank Fitch and I decided we needed to be at the first Long Beach Grand Prix, scheduled for March 28th. Frank was a service engineer for Mazda and a Formula B racer whose financial obligations had halted his racing program. I was three years into a career as manager of Portland International Raceway and I wanted to see how the folks in Long Beach would transform city streets into a racetrack overnight. Frank just wanted to see the race.

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Velocity Invitational at Weathertech Raceway, Laguna Seca

October 24, 2022 By pete

Goodwood, anyone?

Story by Brandes Elitch, Photos by Dale LaFollette

As of October 14-16, 2022, there is a new star in the small firmament of international historic racecar events: The Velocity Invitational at Weathertech Raceway, Laguna Seca. The creator and organizer, Jeff O’Neill, saw an opportunity to create something new: he reached out to owners of famous and iconic historic racecars that in many cases are seldom raced because of their skyrocketing value. As he said, “All of the great cars are staying in their garages!”

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Stories for the AROC National Convention

June 13, 2022 By pete

Click on each photo to read three stories tailored to get the Alfa owners attending the National Convention revved up this week: Dennis Pillar and the Porsches From Dale LaFollette comes a series of photos taken in 1971 at Portland International Raceway, showing how his Alfa-tossing friend Dennis Pillar trounced the Porsches that fine day….

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And How: Dennis and the Alfa

June 13, 2022 By pete

Dennis Pillar in action with his Alfa Spider, 1971.

Photos by Dale LaFollette

I was at the 1971 Rose Cup Races at Portland International Raceway, two years before I went to the track to work full time. I heard that the E Production race was about to begin so with camera in hand I thought I should sneak out to the guardrail and take photos of my good friend Denny Pillar and his Alfa.

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Flight of Fancy

November 24, 2020 By pete

Story and photos by Dale LaFollette

It was a typical spring day sometime in the mid-1990s, with a light mist in the air as I was on my way to work. We were going to have an Indy Lites test session and I already knew there would be complaints about the weather. As manager of Portland International Raceway (PIR) weather was one thing that I did not manage nor did I make excuses for. It just was.

When I got to the office, one of the Lites drivers, Ray Richter, was on the phone asking about the weather and then asked if he could land his RV4 airplane on the main straight. This was something I had allowed before as the FAA seemed to have no problem with it as long as he stayed below 800 feet. I asked what time he would arrive, after he told me I said I would have everyone on the property alerted to his arrival so there would be no issues.

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The Art of Dale LaFollette

January 21, 2020 By pete

Photo Gallery by Dale LaFollette

From the VeloceToday Archives, August, 2017

So often Dale LaFollette has been our unsung hero, providing classic old photos for a variety of uses on VeloceToday. One the most popular such articles was the recent series on Bob Temple’s photos from Watkins Glen. But in addition to being the brains behind Vintage Motorphoto, LaFollette is also an excellent photographer in his own right, as we found out when he sent us his own stunning photos of racing from the 1970s.

In 2017 Dale decided to go to Monterey and just relax, shoot what he liked, and did not go the big buck route at The Quail or Pebble Beach. He returned with hundreds of interesting images, from which we culled the following shots; let your imagination guide you. [Read more…] about The Art of Dale LaFollette

Roger’s Models

November 5, 2019 By pete

Model of the Alfonso Hispano-Suiza made by Roger Jackson. Photo courtesy Dale LaFollette.

One day Dale LaFollette sent me a photo of a King Alfonso Hispano Suiza model to illustrate one of our articles. This was no ordinary model; I was struck by the sheer beauty of the model, it’s construction, color, simplicity and lightness. La Follette told me it was built from scratch by a friend of his in the U.K., and that he had many such models. Please tell us more, we asked, and here is the story of Roger’s models.

Story and photos by Dale La Follette

In the early 1960s, slot car racing was about to sweep the country, and as a total car guy, it captured my imagination. I met a couple of people that had built a track in a garage, and I joined them in informal evening races. Great fun, but the cars that were available at the time were of poor quality, and did not allow close racing. It was evident that we would have to build our own cars, but the basics like gears, wheels and tires were not available in in the U.S.

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And How! Let the Imagination Run Free

August 29, 2017 By pete

Photo Gallery by Dale LaFollette

Juxtaposition: to place two or more things together, especially in order to suggest a link between them or emphasize the contrast between them.

Of course one has to have two or more things in the first place, or as in the case with the Maserati gills, two items in one photo. Whichever, that’s where Dale LaFollette comes in. So often Dale has been our unsung hero, providing classic old photos for a variety of uses on VeloceToday. One the most popular such articles was the recent series on Bob Temple’s photos from Watkins Glen. But in addition to being the brains behind Vintage Motorphoto, LaFollette is also an excellent photographer in his own right, as we found out when he sent us his own stunning photos of racing from the 1970s. [Read more…] about And How! Let the Imagination Run Free