Story and photos by Dennis Gray
The Classic Sports Racing Group (CSRG) kicked off its 43rd season at Infineon Raceway on April 9-11, 2010. The event featured testing on Friday, with vintage racing on the 12-turn, 2.52-mile road course on Saturday and Sunday. A full field of vintage race cars graced the road course over the weekend, which also celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Alfa Romeo with special Alfa-only events.
Friday was a perfect day for racing – sunny and warm with just a touch of a breeze. Over sixty Alfa Romeos were on hand, ranging from the pre-war cars of Martin Swig’s 6C 1500 Sport Zagato, Peter Gidding’s 1935 Tipo 8C-35 and Tom Price’s 1932 8C 2300MM to post war examples of a Tipo 33 and many Giulia Spyder Veloces, Giulettas and Berlinas.
Not to be left out, Sweden was represented by seventeen Volvos and two Saabs participating in the Volvo Celebration Grid for Volvos manufactured before 1973, as well as Sports Racers and GT Cars powered by pre-1972 Volvo engines.
A reward for arriving early Friday was the chance to see and hear the Maserati 250F of Tom Price circulating in preparation for shipment to the Monaco Historic GP race on May 1-2. The 250F has been missing from recent historic events and it was great to see and hear it back on form.
Saturday opened to a heavy cold overcast that grew darker as the day progressed. By mid-day Saturday, CSRG had a full pit area with over 200 cars.
Saturday night most drivers and cars headed home rather than exposing themselves to Sunday’s forecast for a monsoon. The weather report was unfortunately correct, as heavy rains soaked the track and kept participants at bay. By noon so few cars were left that we included qualifying times but not race results.
CSRG returns to Infineon Raceway, October 1-3, 2010 for the CSRG Charity Challenge. CSRG generously donates the proceeds from its event weekends to the Sonoma Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities, the charitable arm of Infineon Raceway. CSRG has contributed more than $425,000 to Sonoma County youth organizations through Speedway Children’s Charities since 2002.
For more information, visit www.csrgracing.org.
Cars of Interest
2010 CSRG Season Opener at Infineon Raceway Sears Point – Photo Gallery (click image for larger photo, description and qualifying time)
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[Source: Dennis Gray]
Great article. Thanks for posting it. We had a great time and despite the rain on Sunday, many who stayed behind had fun socializing and telling lies in the garages.
Great site by the way.
Martin.
Very nice report and photos! Always enjoyed Dennis Gray’s photos and can now say the same for his writing. More please!
I kind of put the Vintage Volvo Group together. We were made to feel very welcome by CSRG’s Tom Franges and all the CSRG club people. We had great racing on Saturday when the track was fairly dry with Josh Rodenbush in a very fast P-1800 taking the win. Then the “impromptu” Volvo/Alfa Challenge in the pouring rain on Sunday proved to be an adventure. The underdog Volvos finished in four of the top 5 positions with a pretty red Volvo PV 444 driven beautifully by Gil Stuart from Nanaimo B.C. taking the win.
We all had a great time and many significant Volvo and Saab racers from back East, the Midwest, and all over the West Coast made a heroic effort to put on a great show at Sears Point.
I had a great time on Sunday in rain, my Alfa SS was a boattail for a day. Definitely hats off to Gil Stuart Volvo #19 who showed us on Sunday what driving in the rain is all about.
Well done to you as well, Ross in that pretty white Alfa SS. Kudos for going out and braving the weather. I think I was holding you up all day Sunday in my red PV 544. I finally floated off track in the giant puddle at turn 10 and had a low speed encounter with the wall. Sorry for ending your everybody’s race, but it was just miserable out there anyway. Next year I’ll bring rain tires!
Ah, I did see that, wheels right – car straight; hope nothing serious. My US Navy training came in handy navigating turn 10…
I liked the photos of “The Slug” Jon Norman’s 1750GTV and,Marnix’s TZ .I sold it to him for $5000 after I took it in as a trade-in on a new Daytona. It had been imported new by Rezzaghi motors on Hyde Street SF and was registered as a Giulietta Sprint Speciale.i remember I thought nobody would would have any interest in buying it and along came Marnix. My how times have changed.
As for the Bucci special I had a hand in this as well.The body was built to convert Clemar’s 12Cyl Alfa GP car into a sportscar. He kept the monoposto body so that it could be put back on the Alfa 12C which is what happened.When I visited him in Buenos Aires he had an Alfa 2500 chassis and had decided to put the Nestor Salerno body on it to make a sports car which he then sold to Italy to a friend of mine. On behalf of the Italian owner sold it to Adrian Hall in the UK where it was sorted out into a proper running car.The real Bucci special was the Alfa 12 C GP with this body on it.
I really enjoy your news letter.Keep up the good work.
Regards from Italy
Stephen Griswold
Were any Griffiths either 200 or 400s entered in the CSRG races? I thought Steve Ferron would certainly enter a Griffith or Tom Lynch and his Griffith 200 who put Shelbys Cobras to shame, for seven laps-blew a rear left tire, at Goleta in l965, SCCA races at Santa Barbara.
Are there any racing Griffiths in California? My best, Chuck Pineda 2010 Democratic candidate for
Governor of California, and a Griffith 400 owner, original owner. Met Jack Griffith at Amelia Island.