A portion of an outstanding Bugatti turnout includes David Duthu's T-35A (14) that was driven by Jim Strandberg; Matt Cobb's T-37A (37); Peter Mullin's Delage-Era, driven by David Duthu and Peter Mullin's T-35C. Credit: Michael T. Lynch
A Weekend of Wine, Food and Cars
By Michael T. Lynch
Steve Earle, through his company General Racing, has been the most influential organizer of American vintage races over the past 30-odd years. This year he expanded and renamed his long-running Wine Country Classic. The first edition of the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival was held June 5th & 6th at Sonoma’s Infineon Raceway.
Despite the onset of World Cup fever, Brazilians Fred Della Noce from Rio de Janeiro and Andre Resende from Sao Paulo brought their Alfa GTAm (25) and GTA respectively to lend an international flair to the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival. Credit Mike Finnegan/General Racing
On Friday, there was a charity Heels and Wheels fashion show at the Jacuzzi Family Vineyards in Sonoma. The runway was set up in the barrel room. Some of the mannequins may have been upset to see the racing and classic cars parked around the property getting more attention than they were. Befitting the region there was plenty of wine and food. It was all for a good cause – Sonoma Valley Teen Services.
The cars taking part in Saturday evening's Sonoma Valley Race Car Festival are seen on the road on their way from Infineon Raceway to the historic Sebastiani winery. Dick DeLuna's Hall-Scott leads John Norman's Alfa GTV, perhaps the fastest of its type in vintage racing. The Hall-Scot won the People's Choice Award at the event. Credit: Mike Finnegan/General Racing
On Saturday and Sunday, the weather hovered on either side of 80, but a strong wind made it comfortable. 375 entries put pressure on the paddock area and several car clubs had corrals as well. A new format saw seven 12-lap races on Saturday with a further six on Sunday. Infineon is a stop on the NASCAR Sprint Cup series, and there was a class for drum braked historic stock cars. Other crowd favorites on Saturday included 1980s IMSA prototypes and a class for the ground pounders from the original Can Am series. When the Saturday’s racing was done, the car clubs took over the track for parade laps.
At Infineon, Gooding and Co. previewed three beauties they will feature in their Pebble Beach week sale. The blue Talbot Lago is a T-26 Grand Prix car with an illustrious record, the silver Maserati 200SI was driven by both Stirling Moss and Jean Behra and the yellow Ferrari 340 is from the estate of the much-missed racer and vintner, Gil Nickel, who worked his wine magic at Far Niente in nearby Oakville. Credit Michael T. Lynch
Then it was time for the Historic Race Car Festival. 40 of the racers were escorted by California Highway Patrol Officers to downtown Sonoma. The usual venue for this gathering is the beautiful Sonoma town square, but this year’s unusual rainfall levels made the ground too soft to accept the cars. Foley Family Wines stepped up like a good neighbor and provided space at their architecturally distinguished Sebastiani Winery.
Peter Giddings's Alfa 8C 35 is perhaps the fastest pre-war road racer in the country. As usual, he won that race. Listening to the sound of the straight eight in full song made one wish to have heard a full 1935 race grid. Credit: Brad Fox/General Racing.
The Culinary Institute of American maintains one of its three campuses at nearby St. Helena and the area is known for food of a quality to match its wine. At the festival, attendees were treated to samplings from many of the area’s best restaurants. A dozen or so local wineries provided their products to enhance the food.
David Duthu drove this ultra-exotic Delage 15S8 fitted with an ERA engine. The car belongs to Peter Mullin who recently opened his Mullin Automotive Museum, which pays homage to French autos and decorative arts from the age of Art Deco. Credit: Mike Finnegan/General Racing.
Sunday began with a strong pre-war entry, including six Bugattis and four Alfas. The 8-cylinder Alfas dominated, with Peter Giddings’ 8C 35 leading Peter Greenfield’s 8C 2600 and Tom Price’s 8C 2300.
The up to 1961 sports racers provided the closest racing and Don Orosco prevailed in his Lotus 15.
Tom Price's Alfa 8C 2300 was the third Alfa in a sweep of the pre-war race by the Portello cars. Credit: Brad Fox/General Racing.
A fan favorite on both days was the Wine Country Pavilion in the paddock which was open from noon to 3 p.m. Local wineries and restaurants were again promoting their wares. After sampling the Pavilion’s temptations, there were various Q & A sessions with owners as well as Steve Earle, Infineon President Steve Page and Martin Swig, creator of the California Mille and other events.
The racing closed out with a huge entry of Trans Am cars. Jim Hauge’s AMC Javelin barely held off Ken Epsman’s Dodge Challenger.
Greg Whitten's Alfa P3 leads Bugatti restorer, Jim Strandberg's Type 37A up the hill. Both were well driven and beautifully turned out. Credit Brad Fox/General Racing.
At the following awards ceremony, Chris MacAllister of Indianapolis won the Phil Hill Trophy for best overall performance and presentation. Chris won the Can Am race on Saturday with his McLaren M8F. MacAllister was a gracious recipient. He remarked, “Having my name on the trophy means the world to me. It has been 26 or 27 years that I have been racing all over the world and the best events I have ever been to are those organized by General Racing. To participate is really cool, to do well is great, but to be recognized by all my peers with the great cars, the great drivers at the best event in the country is really the best…it’s as good as it gets.”
Whether participants or fans, almost all would agree with MacAllister’s assessment of a great event.
Jim Strandberg,
good to see you in here..
Ron
This is fantastic! My hat’s off to Steve, General Racing and all the participants for another superb experience.
You can build it, but will they come?
It’s great that this event has General Racing behind it and I am sure the racers will enjoy the event, but for the spectators this is a hot grueling time. Unlike Laguna Seca there are very few tree and almost no shade . Infineon has spent millions to put up nice stands and safety barriers but neglected the landscaping or shade. How about putting in a few hundred trees for future race fans, help the environment.
beautiful & nostalgic.
a kiss from PORTUGAL
Minor nit:
The grass downtown was too soft for the people, not the cars. The cars are displayed on the paved drive that wraps inside the park in front of the courthouse. Steve (Earle) told me the town really wants the Saturday evening event to return to the square next year and thereafter, even though Sebastiani does allow for more cars.
The suggestion for more trees is a good one, and should be made to Steve Page at Infineon. I think anyone reading this article should pass the idea on to the track.
We were lucky that it was relatively cool as I can recall one event where we sat on a delayed grid for a long time in 107 degree heat! I can’t recall it ever being that bad at Laguna, but the weather there is much more variable and you never know what to expect. For a warm up for one Historic they thought the fog had lifted but then had to bring us in when, by the time we got to the Corkscrew, the visibility had dropped to a dozen feet or so. Like that turn isn’t exciting enough, try it without headlights when you can hardly see a thing!