A DAY AT THE RACES, DEC-98

A DAY AT THE RACES

By Jim Barnes

The Show

Fast vintage racing cars - I can still here those engines. A vendor village that had everything from key fobs to kit cars, good food, good drink and a whole bunch of car nuts! That was the Chrysler Classic Speed Festival held on November 14 and 15 on Coronado. Held at the North Island Naval Air Station, and sponsored once again by Chrysler, this years event was a definite winner. The course itself was changed so that the entire track could be seen, versus last year when the cars sort of "disappeared" at the far end of the straightaway. More grand stand seating was added and more room was provided for the car clubs to show off their wares, which, by the way, your club attended in good showing. The SDVSA was invited this year to park in the club car area and we managed to get ten very nice examples of vintage Volvo iron on display! Quite impressive. The eight 1800s, Alan Miller's beautiful red 544 and, of course, Dave Hunt's rare P1900, drew double and triple looks all afternoon. Club ambassador Bob Skoog had no trouble handing out our windshield cards to those who were interested and would stop to talk about these little classics. You could tell they had some past flame rekindled after seeing a 1800S or E coupe or ES in the flesh and realizing that they had always admired them. The whole car club display was a rare and unique treat. Every sports car from an original AC Cobra, once owned by Hank Williams, some of Jaguars finest motorcars, Porsches, Allards, MGs, Morgans, Alfas, Ferraris, Panteras, Corvettes, Mustangs, etc., and the Miata club, who had a great turnout. There was something for every taste.

The Pits and Vendor Village

Attending the Chrysler Speed Festival gives you a great opportunity to walk right up to some fabulous historical racing cars and talk to the drivers and crew about them. These guys and girls are in for the fun of it and their love of keeping these machines alive and weIr in a racing atmosphere they were designed for. There is no million dollar kinda pressure hanging over their heads, just the occasional Ferrari vs. Alfa and Porsche or Ford vs. Chevy rivalries, - just pure racing fun. I helped push a beautiful 70' Boss 302 Mustang, the winning car of the last group of the day, in the pit area while the crew was working on it and getting ready to roll it out to the course. In talking to the driver, I could tell he was excited and ready to race, and I remember thinking, "he's gonna win". If it was car related, Vendor Village had it. The San Diego Auto Museum had a booth and was selling old and new books and magazines, and had a couple of vehicles from their fine collection on display. There were quite a lot of vendors on hand, as were new Chryslers strategically placed around the grounds to grab your attention as you wandered by. A great way to spend some time after eating and before the racing started, -- because when the racing started, it was fast and furious and you wanted to be in a seat!

The Races

Qualifying races were held on the Saturday before, so the seven groups of cars for the Sunday afternoon main event were the fastest in their class. The groups were basically based on the years in which the cars were built and dated back to late 20s, all the way up to 1972, which was the cutoff year. One car in Group Seven was a 72' American Motors red, white and blue AMX who ran in first place until spinning out, and got passed by the Boss Mustang which I helped push! Group Seven cars were mostly big American V8 powered, highly modified production cars, and seemed to be the real crowd-pleasers. These cars were turning a loud and exhilarating 14Omph in the straights. Almost all of the cars in each group had seen a lifetime of competing and held a great deal of historical racing significance. As soon as one group would finish, the announcers, - who did a really great job of calling the races, - would call to the next group to begin staging. A beautiful Dodge Viper GTS was the pace car for each group, and would gather the cars up whenever the yellow flag waved. One of the groups which included late 50's-early 60's cars had an impressive battle going on between a Corvette, a Porsche 356 and Ferrari GTO. The bright red Ferrari was clearlyout front, but really had to battle to stay there, with the Corvette and the Porsche on his tail. As they were beginning to lap slower cars and getting into traffic, the Ferrari was black-flagged for apparently "hitting", - yes I said hitting - another car. The fast Porsche went on to win that group, and, of course, a number of people flocked to the pits to see the damage done to the million-dollar Ferrari GTO. Apparently somebody had dirt in their eyes, because the GTO was unscathed and the driver was standing by his car, shaking his head, and saying "no way would I hit anything with this". All in good fun, I suppose.

Next year, a group of organizers plan to add a "Retromobile USA" classic car show to be held at the San Diego Convention Center the week before the races. They also plan on not only trying to coordinate with the race organizers, but also with the Torrey Pines Concourse people, to create a week long world class car event in San Diego! (Rumor has it that Irv Gordon and his million mile 1800S has been invited to the Retromobile show). This should be something to really look forward to next year, and attend again as a club. Will the following San Diego Chapter Volvo Sports America members and their always welcomed guests please stand up and give yourselves a big pat on the back for making " A Day at the Races" a day to remember. Greg Blake and Julie, Dave Hunt, Alan Miller, Bob Skoog, Jeff Perry, Goran Freske, Bob Workman and friend Cortez, Scott Harrison, Don Bair and his daughter, and new members Tony and Dorothy Brinz in their beautiful two tone grey P1800ES.

(Jim Barnes deserves many thanks from the SDVSA for organizing this, most successful, event. ...Ed)