Hey guys,

Eric (BigE) and I have been working to set up a Teamspeed meet up for anyone in the bay area who would like to attend the Wine Country Classic vintage races on May 31st at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, CA. BigE will be there on Saturday as a corner worker and we'll both be there on Sunday as spectators. If anyone will be in the area and wants to meet up at the track, shoot a PM to either me or BigE or post in this thread. The plan is to meet up at the Sunoco station in the paddock at Noon but if anyone wants to meet up earlier or later, PM me for my contact info.

Here is the website for the event: Wine Country Classic

Schedule

Entry List

I hope to see some more members there!

Cheers,

Alex

 

This year's Wine Country Classic is shaping up to be a great event with the largest turnout ever. For those of you that have never attended a first-class vintage racing event like this, you can expect to see over 400 cars being raced in 10 classes. Cars range from pre-WW2 machines that are surprisingly fast and have numerous hand-machined components, to whole grids full of Healeys, Morgans, Jags and Aston Martins from the 50's, to the thundering big block Can Am cars that have similar power to weight ratio's to today's F1 cars (900+ hp in 1,600 lbs).

The crowds are never big for these events and the paddock area is always open for spectators to roam and look at the cars in detail. The drivers are not professionals race drivers, they are true auto enthusiasts who are more than happy to talk about their machines in great detail and what they are like to drive.

My personal favorites are the pre-WW2 and the Can Am, but check the list of entrants and I'm sure you will find at least one group, if not many full of your favorite classic cars.

I really hope to see many of you here for this event in my home town of Sonoma, CA. Alex/Alzilla is making the trip from Minnesota for the event. It should be easy for any of our Bay Area TS'ers to attend....

 

Here is the entry list for Group 1, the pre-WW2 cars. Note the three Bugattis, several Alfas (these cars were built by Enzo Ferrari himself) and a BMW 328. The 1931 Alfa is a legendary car among vintage racing events. It is driven by Pete Giddings, and it wins almost every race it is entered including the Monterey Historics. It is surprisingly fast for such an old car and Pete drives it hard every race!!!!

1928 Bugatti 35B
1917 Chevrolet
1920 Falls 8
1926 Frazer Nash Bonlogne
1934 Bugatti T-59
1916 National
1934 MG
1924 Ford T Barber-Warncock
1929 Lagonda 2 L
1931 Alfa Romeo Corto/Mille
1932 Miller Scofield ForD
1925 Bugatti T35A
1932 MG J2
1933 Winfield Ford
1952 Siata Daina
1934 Morgan SS
1934 MG N Magnette Spl
1932 Alfa Romeo 8C-2300
1953 MG-TD
1930 Morgan Super Aero
1931 Riley 4 Port Ford
1939 BMW 328

 

Honestly, words cannot describe how excited I am for this...

 

Bueller...Bueller... Any interest in this???

 

I would love to be there, but I'm leaving for Hong Kong a few days later. Really wish I had known earlier, I would've liked to set up a vineyard tour before the event. However, (and a very disappointed 'however' believe me) I'm looking forward to the pics that you guys get.

 

Oh, there will be pics and LOTS of them! Have fun in HK!

 

Alzilla and I had a great time at the Wine Country Classic races at Infineon yesterday. The event had its best turnout in its eight year history with over 400 cars entered including numerous extremely valuable and rare vintage racing machines.

Bonham and Butterfields brought some cars they are featuring in their upcoming auction including Jackie Stewart's Lola Can Am car, a Bentley Blower and an Auto Union Type D that is expected to command over $8 mil at their upcoming auction.

I am still jealous that Alex got so sit in that F50, McLaren F1 and Bugatti T35, but being 6'8" does have its drawbacks including not fitting in many of the cars I love so much.

In all, it was an amazing day of vintage racing at Infineon and truly enjoyable to hang out with Alex his dad and his brother. I took a few pics with my little Canon powershot, but Alex took over a thousand with his SLR, I am looking forward to his post with the pics from the event.

 

Here are a few pics. Alex took over a thousand with a much better camera than mine. I am really looking forward to seeing his pics

 

Awesome pics, Eric! You really did a nice job with your little Canon. Man, I'm so bummed I missed that CSL! We left at 3:30 expecting to get stuck in traffic but there really wasn't any and we easily could've hung around for another 45 min!