Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival 2013 Wrap-up

Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival
Vintage Sports Car and Classic Car Races Wrap-up
Starts: 05/18/2013
Ends: 2013-05-19
Sonoma Raceway
Sonoma County, California
US

Story and Images© Michael Rockich
Contact Photographer For Information on Photos of this Event


The Sonoma Historic Motorsport Festival celebrated the 60th anniversary of the Chevrolet Corvette, May 18-19 at the Sonoma Raceway. The event took place under warm sunny skies, but the track got much, much hotter.


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Guest of honor

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Corvettes ready for track

Nearly 400 historic racecars took to the track on the 2.52 miles of undulating, curving road course. Car classifications covered periods from pre-1941 through 1991. The cars could be found in the paddocks before and after their track time for a closer look.

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Corvettes ready for the wave off

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The one minute signal before starting the formation lap

Several Corvettes and Porsches dueled in Group 14. Ross Thompson's 5817cc Corvette grabbed the lead and kept adding to it while Ranson Webster's # 42 pink and white 2994 cc powered Porsche pursued. In the end the Corvette prevailed.

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Corvette Sting Ray

The Porsche Can Am car was on display but did not race, a 12 cylinder twin turbo juggernaut, and in show condition. The rear tires were massively wide to help get the 1,150 HP onto the tarmac.

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Porsche Can Am entry

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The business end of the Porsche's Can Am car; note twin turbos left and right

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Can Am race cars in Group 13 have virtually unbounded specifications. Large wings and very wide gummy tires glue them to the track.

The Can Am race was a close duel as Steve Cook's orange #76 McLaren took the lead. Chris MacAllister's mustard #5 pursued closely. At the midrace point while going through traffic up the long grade MacAllister pulled right onto Cook's gearbox, but no pass. At one point the safety car appeared for few laps due to a mishap. Finally, on the penultimate lap going into the U-turn preceding the main grandstand the cars were very close. In the grandstand the crowd was on the edge of their seats with anticipation as they waited for whichever lead car came into view. Suddenly MacAllister's nose was even with Cook's cockpit. Some fans jumped up off their seats and cheered. But once again MacAllister could not quite get it done. Consider the wisdom of a racing sage and shed no tears - good race driver's never loose, they just run out of time

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Winner Can Am Group 13, Yountville's Steve Cook's 1968 McLaren M6B sn-50-21

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