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| 1935 Alfa Romeo Tipo 8c35, possibly the most significant car in attendance. |
A day spent contained within a humidity-producing former swamp-land-turned-city-operated-racetrack may not sound like the ideal way to whittle away a 93-degree day but for people like us who will do almost anything to smell burning petrol, burning tires, burning brakes and burning cash, we would have it no other way.
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| Aftermath of a paddock repair to a smashed fender on a Jaguar XK120. |
The annual Portland Historic Races, active for the last 37-years, is a PacNW right of passage for car nuts*. (*Not the rubber appendages you see dangling from the trailer hitch of jacked-up F150's but rather people who live and breathe automobiles.) While the weather did seem to dampen the crowds a bit compared to previous years the enthusiasm of those attending was unmatched. Al Unser Jr. was the Grand Marshall tho we did not personally lay eyes upon him, but ever-present Portland Car Guru In-Chief Keith Martin made the rounds, and a few laps, in his own vintage Alfa.
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| A young driver creates a lifelong memory. |
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Our favorite of the show? That would be the car in the header, that lovely '35 Alfa Romeo racer that ran from 1937-47 at Indianapolis on the same engine (!!!) and hosted drivers such as Nuvolari, Farina and present Owner/Driver
Peter Giddings. This fantastically historic automobile isn't a pampered pooch however and is regularly raced and perhaps more surprising, the owner graciously allowed attendees to sit inside the car and pretend, for just a few moments, that they were speeding through the turns at Monaco or the Nurburgring just as #31 did so many years ago. This car, an ex-Scuderia Ferrari championed racer is frame #8, engine #50012 (SF#64) is also rather valuable in the tangible sense, a similar car (#50013-SF#65) will go up for auction at Bonhams Goodwood Revival sale on September 14th and is estimated to be worth approximately $8.5-10 million.
We spent so much time photographing cars on the in-field and among the
paddock, chatting up the members of various car clubs and visiting with
our own
MBCA
fellows that we missed much of the racing this year, so forgive the
dearth of photos of screeching tires, but we hope you will enjoy this
giant gallery of images we managed to bring home for your viewing
pleasure.
Click "read more" for the full gallery of images! Click on any image to see a HUGE version.
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