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These photographs are unreleased and not for sale.
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Sometimes, the most crazy ideas create the most profound realities. When John Nikas’ great friend and automobile racing companion was diagnosed with cancer, the idea got hatched to take this rusting, abandoned 1953 Austin-Healey 100 and drive her across America to raise cancer awareness, to prove the right spirit can make almost anything happen and to give kids living with cancer an open-air joyride as a respite from their daily ordeal. We met John in Hood River, Oregon, near the finish of his planned One Lap For America – forty-nine states, one hundred thousand miles and countless joyrides later. He was tired, windburned and elated. His car breaks down “every day”. Her retractable windshield is permanently retracted, explaining the windburn. He’s on the road for up to twenty hours a day, explaining being tired. She’s an open car, so driving through a hailstorm is, well, like driving through a hailstorm. There is little to explain the elation, except for the fact that his car has become a rolling beacon, inspiration and memorial to thousands of people touched by cancer. The writing on the car started spontaneously and now has a life of its own. Names are inscribed in indelible ink on every available surface, even on the engine. Nobody wants this tour to end.
John doesn’t usually name his cars. This one’s name is Grace.
all photographs were made on 6x7cm film.
