Katrina and I just got back from a very fun and relaxing weekend at the Walter Mitty Vintage Racing event at Road Atlanta. Unlike Nascar, this was for people who really enjoy old cars and racing. The competition was excellent considering the way vintage racing works. The vintage races really take me back to when Trans Am and Can Am ruled the racing world. Innovation was the name of the came and a small guy could be competitive if he was a good wrench. However, it was also possible for a company like Ford to through lots of money and talent at developing a car and go win Le Mans!
Ford was the featured Mark for the event and we expected to see a few of our beloved race prepared Talladega or Spoiler II replicas on track but such was not the case. However, the facilities were excellent and the weather was great with the exception of some Friday rain that caused a number of on track incidents for some of the participants.
Road Atlanta is a beautiful track with excellent viewing locations all around the track. Our camping location permitted us to step outside the motor home and watch from a great vantage point or we could set in the comfort of our dinette and have the same view. We spent most of our time outside and enjoyed the beautiful weather except for Friday qualifying because of the rain.
The track personnel, racers, crew members and the spectators were much more friendly than you will find at most sporting events, especially Nascar. We walked through the entire paddock more than once and every car we stopped at invited us in to hear about the history of the car from its crew or driver/owner.
Because it was a Ford weekend there were a number of Blue Oval cars and power plants but not as many as we expected. We anticipated more vintage stock cars and authentic Trans Am examples.
We were thrilled with the three Ford GT40s that were there and some fine Boss Mustangs. Everything considered, it was great, relaxing and we will do it again.
Beautiful cars! I miss the days when the cars on the track actually looked like the ones on the street. Better yet, I miss seeing cars on the track that started life as cars on the street. Nice article. I wish I could have been there. Carl.