Went south with the Vette to this event this weekend and thought the list
might appreciate some comments and observations. Will cross post through to=
Norcal Shelby Club so they'll be some content specific to Shelby
Clubbers.....Would also like to get other perspectives from partcipants as I=
didn't get to watch many of the other groups.......
This is a "rully big shew".......VARA runs the "Vintage" races but there's a=
car show, a small Kart track, a group of "extreme" sports exhibitions, lots =
of
auto displays, huge grandstands and a pretty neat 2 mile road course. All o=
f
this is set up at a Marine Air Corps Base in Tustin, south of LA and is
organized by the Marconi family of Marconi Childrens Auto Museum and is a
charity event with a projected 100,000 spectators........there's lots going =
on
and it's pretty spread out
On to the races.......The main event was billed as the Jerry Titus Trans Am
Memorial and the TransAm group was the featured race event......there were
about 10-11 cars in that group and they seemed to have a pretty good time as=
usual and put on good show swapping the first three places almost every
lap....no incidents......
There were I think, 13-14 race groups and 300+ cars.......I was in group 9,
A/B production cars and a few old Ford Nascar looking Winston cuppers......b=
ut
mostly the usual suspects, GT350s, Cobras, Tigers, Corvettes, a neat BRG XKE=
coupe. There were some "Group one"(authentic period spec restored) cars whi=
ch
was where I fit in but it was mostly bigger HP cars.
>From memory, as I don't have my packet here....the other vintage race groups=
were comprised of the usual VARA format....i.e. smaller displacement
production cars C,D,E,F......., Open Wheel formula cars, CanAm cars, TransAm=
.
There was a GTP Camel Lights reunion. There were also some decidedly
non-vintage groups including a Race Truck series, IRRC Sportsmans(stock cars=
),
Celebrities racing in Legends Cars and an Exhibition group with late 911s,
Ferraris, a kit Cobra(ended up upside down) and a few other cars tossed in f=
or
good measure.
With all these groups, track time was limited to 2 sessions a day over 3 days
and some practice groups had multiple groups combined (90 cars in the open
wheel practice). The course was nicely designed with mostly wide corners,
wide sweepers and lots of runoff. I never ran at an airfield like this and =
it
was neat to imagine that this was what it was like racing at airports in the=
50's. Jan asked me what it was like running in front huge crowds and I have=
to admit I didn't even notice them or think about them.......We were running=
mid 1:20s for two miles so it was a pretty fast course. At one point in a
combined practice with all the production classes I rolled thru what was tur=
n
4 on the outside of 4 cars abreast with plenty of passing room although the
Lotus driver next to me seemed to pale a bit in sandwich mode.
The scheduling wasn't great as there were too many groups. I ran Fri. mid
morning and mid afternoon(good), Saturday early am and late afternoon and
first out Sunday at 8:00 with a race that didn't start until about 7:00pm.
Left early for the long tow so didn't do the feature....
This was my first time out with this car so I was sorting and fixing most o=
f
the weekend, solved the fuel problem with an electric pump and regulator,
cured the overheating problem and replaced most of the ignition system to fi=
x
another gremlin so I didn't get to watch much or even run a lot. Not
complaining, rather wishing I had been able to watch more and provide more
details. There was a good amount of bent metal and fiberglass. The trucks
and stock cars were colorful in that respect but busted cars were not limite=
d
to those groups by any means.........the worst part is that incidents really=
screw up the schedule for everyone and this event seemed to have it's share.=
...
Would I go back next year........maybe... though It's an 8 hour tow one way
and there are too many run groups and not enough track time to justify it.
We're spoiled here in the Bay area with Sears Point and Laguna Seca within a=
n
hours drive. I have to hand it to VARA though, this is a huge event to
organize and run especially when you consider that they're putting on the "L=
A
Vintage Grand Prix" in downtown LA in just 30 days. They managed to pull this
one off pretty well so thanks and kudos all around.........
Ted
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