timscribbles.com

Words by Matt Willis

We’ll be wrapping up the coverage from the Coronado Speed Festival this week. We know that it’s been a few weeks since and we apologize for the delay. Both of us have been really busy and the events seem to be rolling out like crazy. Anyways, this post will host a collection of action shots, as seen from “right there” on the track. It was a thrill just being up close and personal with these historic and iconic cars, let alone the fact that they were accelerating out of turns at wide-open throttle and sliding around in the chicanes. Really gets your heart pounding.

For those that don’t know, the Speed Festival races are run in a separated-classed format. There are nine different classes: Race Chassis’52-’59, Race Chassis ’62-’72 (under 2000cc), Race Chassis ’69-’80, Production (under 2000cc) ’53-’66, Production (Disc brake) ’59-’66, Production (over 2000cc) ’62-’66, FIA Mfr. Championship Chassis ’65-’88, Historic NASCAR bodies ’72+, and perhaps the most popular – Historic Trans-AM ’66-’72. These classes undergo minor changes from year to year, but for the most part stay the same. There were some VERY rare gems out on the track, so rare that it made me borderline nervous. I think the drivers understand the value of the cars and try to “under-compensate” a tad so as not to throw a mint vintage roadster into the wall, but at the same time I saw some of the cars just barely hanging on out of the tight corners. One of the historic NASCAR bodies managed to play a bit too hard and ended up spinning, but other than that all the racing was pretty clean and the cars drove away intact.

So without further adieu…

Tim posted up on the front stretch…

The grandstands were full most of the day, with breaks in between races.

As usual, Brecht BMW had their fleet taking people out on hot laps during staging.

Couple of vintage Morgans fighting for position…

The non-production classes were vibrant this year, I think there were 25+ some-odd cars in the grid…

‘

I moved up towards the chicane, trying to see how close I could get to the action.

Porsche 356s were plentiful…

…as were 914s…

…and a couple of vintage 911s…

Mini…

Alfa Romeo…

The historic NASCAR class took to the track…this one in the late Dale Earnhardt’s iconic livery…

…Michael Waltrip’s #30 from the early 90s…

As I mentioned above, there was only one car I saw all weekend that lost it and this was it…either too quick to get on the gas or came in a little wide…

…the car suffered a bit of tail damage but drove away from the scene right away.

This car did end up having some mechanical difficulties…

Shelby 427s leaving the staging area…

…And they hit the track hard…

Chevy might be “Like a rock”, but Ford is “Like a boss”.

Z28 leaving the pit area…

GT350…

Another Boss…

Cobra on three…

Ford GT…

Really wide Buick GN…

Even as the day wound down…the stands were still full.

That just about wraps up our coverage. We hope you enjoyed it There will be one last small piece — highlighting the drift demo — as well as the events from last weekend coming down the pipe. The next few weeks are going to be fairly busy, with The Chronicles 3-year Anniversary Celebration and Sevenstock 14. And following that…a very big event that will be a timscribbles’ first. In the meantime, here’s a teaser from the drift shots:

As always, thanks for reading.