The CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 was held October 1-2 at the 12-turn, 2.52-mile Sonoma Raceway Sears Point in Sonoma, California. The 13th annual Classic Sports Racing Group event featured a strong field of historic race cars, with pre-war, sports racing, production and GT entrants.
The notable and interesting entries at the 2016 CSRG Charity Challenge included Marc Sange’s ex-Lance Macklin and Tony Gaze 1953 HWM-Alta; Cameron Healy’s 1977 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR and 1953 Cooper Porsche ‘Pooper’; Nick Colonna’s 1969 McLaren M8C and 1958 Devin SS; Marnix Dillenius’ 1964 Alfa Romeo TZ1; Ian Wood’s 1970 McLaren M12; Thomas Claridge’s 1965 Crossle C9S-27 and Jeffrey O’Neill’s 1960 Maserati Tipo 61 ‘Birdcage’. There were also large number of small displacement sports racers from Lotus, Genie, Elva and Porsche, as well as several groups of Formula cars — Juniors, Atlantics, Fords and Formula Bs. Throw in an MG Reunion and this year’s event had the makings of a great weekend. Something for everybody.
The weekend started on a serious note with longtime vintage racing supporter, Fred Cziska, suffering a pulmonary incident while driving his Shadow Mk. III Can-Am. While Cziska received immediate care from the track safety personnel and was rushed to a local hospital, he sadly passed away on Tuesday, October 4th.
CSRG’s Locke de Bretteville commented,” Fred was a force in vintage car racing and a great supporter of vintage racing in general and CSRG in particular. He was part of the fabric of vintage racing and things will not be the same without him. Our heartfelt sympathy goes out to Fred’s family, friends and the entire racing community.”
As always, a highlight of the event are the charity rides on Saturday and Sunday. For a $75-$500 donation, depending upon the car chosen, fans were able to take a three-lap ride around the road course in one of some 30 different participating race cars, including the Ferrari 250 GTO, Jaguar C-Type and Ferrari 250 Testa Rossa. Proceeds from the race weekend benefited the Sonoma Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities, the charitable arm of the raceway. CSRG has contributed over $780,000 to Sonoma County youth organizations through Speedway Children’s Charities since 2004.
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Similar to the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 races, Sports Car Digest also documented the CSRG Charity Challenge 2016, with Senior Photographer Dennis Gray producing the following set of images from the wine country track. We split up the pictures into two galleries. The first gallery starting below features our favorite images, while the second gallery can be found on the last page of the article and gives a comprehensive view of all the photographs.
CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery
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CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Two
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CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Three
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CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Four
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CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Five
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CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Six
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CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Seven
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Eight
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Nine
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CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Ten
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
CSRG Charity Challenge 2016 – Main Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
[nggallery id=953 images=15]
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[Source: CSRG; photos: Dennis Gray]
As always, colors so vivid you feel you are there seeing the cars in person! Thanks so much.
Don.
CSRG often run into the late afternoon. This time of year the late afternoon light is yellow and the cars really pop especially the red, orange and yellow cars. Thanks for noticing and commenting.