The 3 mile Langa-Langa racing circuit at Gilgil in the Rift Valley was inaugurated in 1951 by Eric Cecil using perimeter roads built during WW2. It was only in use for a short time before Mau Mau activities in the mid 1950s rendered the course unsafe. It was also the impetus for the 1953 inauguration of the East African Safari Rally, when Cecil's cousin Neil Vincent declared, with reference to the new circuit, that it was too boring to drive round and round a track!
Trotter's album of 1952 photographs must capture one of relatively few races to be held at Langa-Langa. The images show cars and workers at the service pit, the starting grid for various car and motorbike races and many photographs of individual cars/ bikes and their drivers. There are also several shots of spectators around the perimeter and on the bends.
Motorsport was one of Trotter's passions, and he photographed many competitions, including the East African Safari Rally over several years. More detail on the cars and their drivers at Langa-Langa can be found in the negative book 2001/090/1/2/1.
1 hardbacked binder containing 78 pages, half of which have b/w photographs glued to them. Many of the facing pages are stained as a result of excess glue which has seeped out from under the photographs. All the photos have a corresponding negative number stuck to the page with sellotape, and additionally have the negative number written across them in ink.
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