Nicholas and I were able to hop in the E-type and drive down to Kent on Sunday, July 6th and catch the last day of the 2008 Northwest Historics. We met up again with Philippe & Francoise Reyns, as well as their son Michael. They graciously allowed me to park the Jaguar in the paddock in front of their car hauler. (The Jag attracted a few admirers while there.)
After we socialized a bit Nick & I went off to see some racing, wander around the paddock, take pictures, and generally drool over cool old cars. If you are into old race cars this place is heaven… the paddock is wide open to spectators and the cars and owners are very approachable and friendly. Some of the world’s most noted car collectors are here in the Seattle area and this is the big event as far as vintage racing goes here in the Pacific Northwest.
Above: I was pleasantly surprised to see this Alfa TZ2 out on the track!
Above: A Jaguar XK 150 on the Car Corral parade lap.
We watched two heats, then the car corral parade laps, where local car clubs take their cars out of the “car corral” reserved for them along the front straight and go for a parade around the track. I thought about sneaking in… but figured it was best to sit and watch. Maybe next time.
We then went for a walk around the paddock to take photos.
Above: George Follmer’s UOP Shadow CanAm car. I saw this car run at Road America at Elkhart Lake when I was a little kid. I also met George Follmer last year on the GTTSR.. nice guy.
My heart skipped a beat when I saw this ferrari 512m. Yes, if you’ve seen the movie ‘Le Mans’, you have seen this car. Wow. This was only the beginning of amazing cars in store!
This 300sl wasn’t here to race… like the 65E somebody drove it to the track to watch the races!
Above: A paddock runabout. Note the brake!
Above: I’m not a big Porschephile so I can’t tell you exactly what porker this might be. A 908 maybe?
Nick and I rounded a corner and there was that blue Alfa I liked so much!…
…and apparently it has some serious provenance…
What a beautiful car!
Above: Running into this GT40 gave me the chance to tell Nick the story of Enzo & Edsel, which is how this car came to be. But… what’s that in the background?
Above: WOW! Tazo Nuvolari’s Monoposto! What a treat to see such a notable machine. later we were treated to seeing it in action, but for now I showed Nick the amazing DOHC straight-eight, and impressive big finned drum brakes. Very cool.
…and next to it…
Another car from my childhood, one of Jackie Stewart’s elf mounts.
We headed back to the track, as we knew that Philippe would be out soon in his Lola and we wanted to be there for that. On the way we ran into this familiar sight:
We found a spot in the grandstand and watched Philippe’s heat. He was in with a fast crowd, Formula 1, Formula 5000, Can-Am and Le Mans cars.
Above: Philippe waves an F1 car by on the front straight.
Above: Philippe Reyns’ Lola screams down the front straight at speed.
Above: That big bad Ferrari roars by.
After that heat finished we went for another stroll through the paddock to see what we had missed before (old NASCAR cars were out on the track.) Nick had a sno-cone and I was treated to another star of the movie ‘Le Mans’…
We saw the rest of the paddock and stopped in to see the Reyns. Phillipe told me that we really had to cross the track and go see the back side. The front straight of Pacific Raceways is not to thrilling… the track also serves as a dragstrip, so the front straight is probably a mile long, running parallel with the dragstrip for over a quarter mile, then with a kink where it joins the drag’s long runout, before a long wide left-hander that disappears down into the woods. Philippe told us the back side is like “a little Nürbergring Nordschleife with wonderful curves through the woods and hills.”
So Nick and I wandered through the Car Corral and headed for the gate to cross the track between heats.
Above: Saw this porker in the car corral.
It took a while for the track to clear, it was filled with really loud Corvettes, Mustangs, and other TransAm class cars making noise. Did I mention the sound? It was deafening.
We finally made it across, and after a bit of a hike we found this:
It does sort of look a little bit like a slice of the Nordschleife doesn’t it?
We spent the rest of the event here, thrilling to all sorts of on-track action. What a great little vantage point!
The highlight was seeing and hearing that ex-Nuvolari Grand Prix Alfa Romeo Tipo P3. It had a wonderful, deep basso profundo voce.
I used my still-camera to capture footage here and there during the day, and pasted it all together into this video… enjoy!