History Repeats Itself?

At 30,000 feet, questions be­gin to crystallize like ice on the wing… Will the circulation ever return to my hopelessly cram­ped legs? Is that really chicken or is it Soilient Green? Is the woman barking for us to take our seats a flight attendant or a Bulgarian prison guard? While all these questions floated in and out of my head as I wiled away the four-hour flight from Los Angeles to Atlanta, with out a doubt the most intriguing question on my mind was, “Is it good for historic racing to have a manufacturer-backed race/team?”

As you’ll see in this month’s news, American (and perhaps world) historic racing crossed an interesting nexis this past April when Jaguar announced that they would be fielding a two-car, factory-sponsored team of historic XKE’s to compete in eight to nine American vintage races this year. In order to promote this major announcement, Jaguar flew several of us media hacks out to Road Atlanta to take part in the unveiling and to witness the team’s first official outing at HSR’s Walter Mitty event. Never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, I accepted their kind offer, but almost immediately began churning over what this new development might mean for our sport.