Photo: Racer.com
While the vast majority of supercar collectors might store their treasures and let them rot away, the folks at the Velocity Invitational are driving theirs like their just everyday performance cars.
The event took place at the world-famous WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca near Monterey, California. It's put on each year by Jeff O'Neill, a man who owns and operates two very successful wineries.
That success has made him a millionaire and allowed him to pursue his other passion, automobiles. He's not the same stereotypical car guy with money that many imagine, though. No, Jeff loves rare classic race cars, and he wants to see them treated as they are. As real performance machines, not museum pieces to sit on a plinth.
This is where the Velocity Invitational comes into play. This year literally hundreds of exotic and rare sports cars and supercars showed up and went racing. In fact, there are so many that they have to be broken up into different categories.
In the 1957-1961 sports racing cars group, a pair of 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossas took on cars like a 1960 Porsche RS Spyder, a 1960 Maserati T-61, and a 1959 Buick Special.
How is it that these uber-rare cars can go bumper to bumper racing without risking major damage? They can't. Here's what O'Neill had to say about that... “The bad news is that once on the track, there is no concept of insurance”
“This time we had some 200 cars on track per day, for four days, and there was only one minor incident, a bumper rub. Cars with minor damage like that can be fixed without losing too much of their value."
What's amazing is that his attitude is pretty clearly the same as many regular car guys. He wants people to enjoy driving, seeing, and experiencing these cars. “The bottomline is that these are race cars, and are meant to be raced. You could leave them hidden away in your garage, like a valuable painting, or let people see, touch, and enjoy them," he said.
It's pretty amazing to hear that about a race where a single bad accident could cost millions of dollars and leave the car world with less tangible history than it had before. And we haven't even mentioned the potential for serious injury. Nonetheless, it's lovely to hear these monsters as they roar down the track.
That success has made him a millionaire and allowed him to pursue his other passion, automobiles. He's not the same stereotypical car guy with money that many imagine, though. No, Jeff loves rare classic race cars, and he wants to see them treated as they are. As real performance machines, not museum pieces to sit on a plinth.
This is where the Velocity Invitational comes into play. This year literally hundreds of exotic and rare sports cars and supercars showed up and went racing. In fact, there are so many that they have to be broken up into different categories.
In the 1957-1961 sports racing cars group, a pair of 1958 Ferrari 250 Testa Rossas took on cars like a 1960 Porsche RS Spyder, a 1960 Maserati T-61, and a 1959 Buick Special.
How is it that these uber-rare cars can go bumper to bumper racing without risking major damage? They can't. Here's what O'Neill had to say about that... “The bad news is that once on the track, there is no concept of insurance”
“This time we had some 200 cars on track per day, for four days, and there was only one minor incident, a bumper rub. Cars with minor damage like that can be fixed without losing too much of their value."
What's amazing is that his attitude is pretty clearly the same as many regular car guys. He wants people to enjoy driving, seeing, and experiencing these cars. “The bottomline is that these are race cars, and are meant to be raced. You could leave them hidden away in your garage, like a valuable painting, or let people see, touch, and enjoy them," he said.
It's pretty amazing to hear that about a race where a single bad accident could cost millions of dollars and leave the car world with less tangible history than it had before. And we haven't even mentioned the potential for serious injury. Nonetheless, it's lovely to hear these monsters as they roar down the track.
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