Racers Set to Rev Up Their Vintage Autos at Willow Springs Meet
If you love the smell of Castrol in the morning--and the afternoon, too--vintage auto racing at Willow Springs International Raceway may be just what it takes to bring back days gone by.
Next weekend the Vintage Auto Racing Assn. (VARA) will hold the second of seven 1990 race meets at Willow Springs. The track is west of Rosamond in southern Kern County, about 75 miles north of Los Angeles. Racing starts in the morning with practice and novice events and continues until dusk.
VARA, a Los Angeles-based organization founded about 15 years ago, has 400 to 500 members in California and Arizona, President Rick Bennewitz of Los Angeles says. It’s one of about 30 such organizations in the United States and Canada devoted to preserving the sports and formula cars of the 1940s, 1950s, 1960s and early 1970s.
“We started out as a small group of friends who wanted to race cars that were no longer competitive in SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) races,” Bennewitz said. “We’re a lower pressure organization than SCCA, but we get a kick out of racing our Triumphs, MGs, Sprites, Formula Fords, Lotuses, Sunbeams and Alfas, among many other cars.”
Bennewitz campaigns two vintage racers, a Lotus Super 7 sports car and a Techno Formula 2 open-wheel race car. The Lotus is in C Production, while the four-cylinder twin-cam Ford-powered Techno is in the old Formula B category, Bennewitz said.
Cars are classified by their performance and/or engine capacity, on a system similar to SCCA’s:
A Production includes big-engine Cobras and Corvettes.
B Production has small-block Cobras and Corvettes.
C Production has Jaguar XKEs, Sunbeam Tigers and Porsche 911s.
D Production has Porsche 356/912; Austin-Healey 3000/6, older Jaguars, MGBs and Lotus Elans.
E Production includes Morgans, 1275 engine MG Midgets and Austin-Healey Sprites, Triumph Spitfire 1500s, Alfa Guilias and Lotus Elites.
F Production has MGAs, smaller-engine Sprites and Midgets, Sunbeam Alpines, older Spitfires and Volvo P1800s.
G Production has Fiat Abarth 750-850, Volvo P444 sedans and Sunbeam Imps.
Another longtime VARA member, Eagle Rock resident Cliff Jones, owns three race cars, all British: a Healey Silverstone, a Morgan Plus 4 and a Sunbeam Tiger. The latter features the Sunbeam Alpine body with an American Ford V-8 engine of mid-1960s vintage replacing the four-cylinder power plant used in the Alpine.
“One of the things about vintage racing groups like VARA is that the individual drivers choose their own speed,” Jones said. He’s a former VARA competition director. “Some of the guys and gals get out there and charge ahead, while others take it easy. It’s a form of racing that can be as low or high pressure as you want.”
The $10 admission charge per person covers March 31 and April 1 (gates open about 8 a.m.) and allows access to the pit areas of the 2 1/2-mile road course. Overnight camping is permitted and many race fans bring their RVs.
Willow Springs is at 3500 75th St. West, reached from the Rosamond Boulevard exit of the Antelope Valley (14) Freeway. Follow the signs to the track, about 5 miles west of the freeway. For more information call Rick Bennewitz, (213) 874-9135, or Willow Springs, (805) 256-2471.
