Fun Day @ PNW Historics!

[MarcoB]

Always a great show at Pacific Raceway over the 4th weekend!

[masraum]

Cool. The top of the line modern racers are cool, but I prefer the old stuff. It's got more character and charisma.

[Jeff Higgins]

All of those cars had left by Sunday, when we (R Gruppe) were there for the car corral. Even our racing member, Eric with his Irish green '69 #65 was gone by then. A couple run groups only went out with two cars. Raining cats and dogs much of the day. Some poor guy with a gorgeous Datsun 1600 lost the rear end going through the kink (at maybe 50 mph) and tagged the end of the jersey barrier on the left with his left front, then proceeded to pinball his way down the straight, tagging all four corners in the process. A crying shame - the only "straight" panel left was the hood. Kind of put an exclamation point on why no one else was going out.

I have to say, too, that participation is the lowest it has been since they started in the late 1980's. Is vintage racing dying? Cars too "valuable" to race? There was only one long hood even registered, R Gruppe die-hard Eric. Very few (maybe two or three) 356's. I remember seeing fields of over 30 long hoods, and at least as many 356's. I remember my good buddies Gary and Rod Emory driving two full 40 foot semi trailers full of cars and support equipment up from McMinnville for their 356 racing customers. Those truck/trailer combinations are long since sold, Rod is down in Hollywood building some bytchin' 356 outlaws, and Gary is sitting with his feet up in the old barber's chair back in the old barn, mostly "retired".

One of the best races I ever had the pleasure of watching was some 15 years ago. That Tyrell Ford of Jackie Stewart's was racing one of the old Shadow Can-Am cars, with its 500 inch aluminum Chevy "rat" motor. That little Cosworth DFV motivated Tyrell would run away and hide down on the bottom half, pulling out several car lengths. Then going around turn eight, that big ol' "rat" motor would damn near suck it in through its Hildebrand injection stacks. It was glorious.

McLaren Can-Am cars racing Formula 5000 cars racing Lola T70's. 904's, 906's, 908's, even a 910 used to compete regularly. Vic Edelbrock's split window 'Vette and his black and gold Trans-Am Camaro. The old Sunoco Donohue/Penske Camaro racing their old red, white, and blue AMX's. Lister/Chevy racing Lister/Jaguar racing Caddilac powered Allards. Pre-war Alfas. Birdcage Massaratis. The Lola "Frisbee" car, essentially an F1 car hiding under a fiberglass Can-Am style shell. Ferrari 250 GT's being raced, as were a couple of 512's.

All gone. What a shame. I wonder if it will ever come back.

[Baz]

Nice pics - thanks for posting, Mark!

To answer your question, Jeff....

All gone. What a shame. I wonder if it will ever come back.

Music, Cars, Architecture, Clothing/fashion, Manners, Movies, TV Shows, Art, Schooling, & especially Politics.

We've already lived through the VERY best eras of ALL of those categories.

Nothing is coming back - except in revisionist/reboot form.

We've already done it - there's nothing more to do. Certainly not as good as we did.

Sorry for the cynicism.

Regards,
Proud to be a Boomer Bazza

[KNS]

Interesting topic. I can understand owners not wanting to risk damaging cars that are not only increasing in value but are becoming more difficult to replace.

Will longhood values drop 20-30 years from now when the generation that covets them dies off? Will the next generation then bother to flog them around a racetrack?

When I see Model A or '57 Chevy on the streets these days (which is rare), the guy driving it is really old. I don't think I've ever seen anyone under 40 driving cars like those. Now, a Speedster or '73 RS might be different many years from now but only time will tell.

[Dantilla]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

All gone. What a shame. I wonder if it will ever come back.

Sad thought.
I attended every year when I lived in Gig Harbor.
Always a wonderful weekend.

[jhynesrockmtn]

I raced Formula Vee from 2008 up to a few years ago with SOVREN. The bigger money guys like Bruce McCaw have retired or only go to bigger money events these days. Some of these teams could bring 10-20 cars to an event. I haven't seen the Emory's there in years. In some ways, vintage has been the victim of it's own success. Events competing with other events. Car values have had an impact as well.

A few deaths at events in recent years, Chuck Lyford in Spokane and recently Jim Bushnell in a 911 in April at PR have probably had an impact.

They have tried to expand membership by letting newer cars in. They waited way to long to do that.

I have been prepping a 914 and did Portland last labor day but having type 1 diabetes has me looking at retiring. Too much risk of having a low blood sugar event in the car and life has changed so much since 2008. I got remarried, now have 3 grandkids fairly close. Life priorities have shifted. I miss it but "it" had become a lot less over the last several years.

I think in many ways vintage racing mirrors where the classic car hobby is going. It was always an old guys game and those old guys have or are aging out and not being replaced.

[dsfnctn]

Originally Posted by Baz

Nice pics - thanks for posting, Mark!

To answer your question, Jeff....


Music, Cars, Architecture, Clothing/fashion, Manners, Movies, TV Shows, Art, Schooling, & especially Politics.

We've already lived through the VERY best eras of ALL of those categories.

Nothing is coming back - except in revisionist/reboot form.

We've already done it - there's nothing more to do. Certainly not as good as we did.

Sorry for the cynicism.

Regards,
Proud to be a Boomer Bazza

Thing is Luck dog Racing league continues to sell out events. Going on seven years.
I have a Sovern , SCCA and PCA liceinse. I cant seem to get myself to any of their races.
Im thinking that I may start racing lucky dog

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Jeff Higgins

One of the best races I ever had the pleasure of watching was some 15 years ago. That Tyrell Ford of Jackie Stewart's was racing one of the old Shadow Can-Am cars, with its 500 inch aluminum Chevy "rat" motor. That little Cosworth DFV motivated Tyrell would run away and hide down on the bottom half, pulling out several car lengths. Then going around turn eight, that big ol' "rat" motor would damn near suck it in through its Hildebrand injection stacks. It was glorious.

McLaren Can-Am cars racing Formula 5000 cars racing Lola T70's. 904's, 906's, 908's, even a 910 used to compete regularly. Vic Edelbrock's split window 'Vette and his black and gold Trans-Am Camaro. The old Sunoco Donohue/Penske Camaro racing their old red, white, and blue AMX's. Lister/Chevy racing Lister/Jaguar racing Caddilac powered Allards. Pre-war Alfas. Birdcage Massaratis. The Lola "Frisbee" car, essentially an F1 car hiding under a fiberglass Can-Am style shell. Ferrari 250 GT's being raced, as were a couple of 512's.

If you're religious, I'm pretty sure that's a description of heaven!

[Fast82930]

I was there with four other 944's and we shared pits with the BRE Datsun 510. I was racing the red #38 1985 944. My buddy Mark was in his Gray #19 1984 944. Our pal from Eugene, OR had the #162 Chalk wide-body 944 but he lost all the bearing in his torque tube Saturday AM.

Good fun but weather was chaotic. Friday it was 85 in my trailer when I suited up. Saturday was perfect and Sunday was a rainy blow out. PR in the wet just isn't worth the risk. Couple cars utterly destroyed in the kink Sunday when they "twitched" and tagged the jersey barrier(s). Sad to see...

I had a great race Saturday afternoon catching and finally passing a BMW 2002. Got zero video from Saturday, maybe I need my glasses...

Here's in-car from #19s Saturday afternoons Mid-Bore Grp 2 race.

https://youtu.be/DZallDYPzOc

Lyall

[Fast82930]

[ted]

Vintage racing in So Cal with VARA is still very popular with the car owners/drivers.
We were at Big Willow last November and had 44 cars in our race.
I prefer the low key events where you run 3 times a day.
Warm up, qualifier followed by a race.
For me that level of vintage fun satisfies my racing needs.
https://www.vararacing.com/events

Monterey Reunion will be full of cars that have been thoroughly scrutinized for period correctness and real history.
Our IMSA Camaro will be there but it's a different kind of event.
Cars on track at all times, but its more social over 5 days with longer wait times between our scheduled races.
It is worth the wait when you get on track with 30 cars with history that actually competed together decades ago.
If you want to go to a Historic race car event on par with Goodwood the Monterey Reunion is a must see.

Notice there is Vintage racing where owners build race cars from older cars and then there is Historic racing where Historic race cars are restored to a point in time to compete as they did originally.

Both are fun but at Vintage races you don't see the historic cars you will find at an event like Reunion.

[MarcoB]

I agree with Jeff - Have been going to Pacific Raceways for the past 35 years, and the attendance for both racers and spectators continues to dwindle…..