Virginia International Raceway has announced that the featured marque for this year’s Gold Cup Historic Races will be a tribute to Road Racing Specials.
In the heyday of 1950s sports car racing, many resourceful road racers applied what was known as “hot-rod” principles to develop low-cost alternatives to the expensive world-class machinery from such manufacturers as Ferrari, Maserati and Jaguar. The result was a significant number of lightweight, high-horsepower “Specials” that raced from coast to coast. These innovative and sometimes unconventional cars ranged from the very successful, like the Scarab, Devin, Chaparral and Ol’ Yaller, to the less successful back-yard projects of many an enthusiastic hobbyist. VIR plans to have a representative cross-section of both small- and large-bore Road Racing Specials on hand for the Gold Cup to illustrate this fascinating chapter of road racing history.
Additionally, special emphasis will be placed on those cars that utilized the small block V-8 engine during the 1950s and ’60s such as Corvettes, Lister-Chevrolets, Allard-Cadillacs, Cobras and Shelby GT350s. For more information contact VIR at (888) RACE099 or visit the track’s Web site at www.virclub.com
