Velocity Invitational is America's Goodwood Festival
Where else can you see such a wide variety of racing pedigree?
It's Friday afternoon and the sun is just starting to set (thanks Daylight Savings 😒). The windows are down as we cruise through the hills just outside of Salinas. We take a right from CA-68 and head up "A Rd", which is wonderfully twisty and surprisingly steep. We crest the hill and turn left at a Lexus sign with an IS500 parked at a display stand. As soon as we turn the corner, we hear it; the thunderous roar of 1960s American muscle.
The gate attendants can hardly hear us as we ask for a moment's patience to find our tickets in our email inboxes. We scan them and move up to security. We let them know what direction we're headed and they just nod their heads, likely not hearing a word we said over the chorus of cross-plane V8s. We head up to the grass field and park facing the track. The sun is slowly setting as we grab our gear and hop on a golf cart headed up to the corkscrew. As I'm sitting facing backward in the cart, the sound of racing and the view of the track nestled below the setting sun has me speechless.
Velocity Invitational continued to leave me speechless for the entirety of my time at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca. The sheer pedigree of the cars in attendance was impressive in itself, but seeing them take the track at 10/10 was an absolute treat. You had three Ferrari 250 GTOs hitting the corkscrew with their 50s and 60s GT counterparts. There was a reunion of all the Ford GT Le Mans race cars led by Jim Farley in his Mk II Ford GT. Mika Hakkinen lapped the track in Mclaren's two-seater V10 F1 car and was joined by one of Mclaren's V8-era Vodaphone cars as well.
Not only were these cars visible from the track, but they were accessible all day in the open paddock as well. Every car was parked next to others as if it were no big deal. You could walk right up to each one and peer inside. It kind of desensitized you to the value of what you were looking at. They may be worth millions of dollars, but they're still just cars.
If I had to pick a phrase to summarize the event, would say this: Velocity Invitational is America's Goodwood Festival of Speed. There's no better way to describe it. Both events embody the same ideal; that cars are meant to be driven, no matter their value.
Velocity Invitational's 2nd annual meeting is tentatively scheduled for October 14-16, 2022 at Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Join In
Comments (6)
It was a great event. Weather was perfect, can’t wait for next year ; )
Me neither! I'm already blocking out time to make sure I'll be there!
holy cow those photos are damn good
Thank you :)
Monterey Car Week
Not quite the same spirit of this event. Lots of cars sitting around and being trailered. Lots of closed access and fences. This event was fully open with the exception of the track, which I was able to head out to for some of these photos as a...
Read more