CSRG Charity Challenge 2019 – Report and Photos

The CSRG Charity Challenge 2019 was held on October 4-6 at the 12-turn, 2.52-mile Sonoma Raceway in Sonoma, California. The 16th annual Classic Sports Racing Group event featured a strong field of more than 250 historic race cars, with Formula cars, Prototype and Production sports cars and IMSA cars spanning from the 1930s through the 1980s.

There were nine race groups at this year’s Charity Challenge, with most containing two to three separate classes of cars. Veteran racer John Morton, famous for driving Trans-Am, Can-Am, IMSA GTP, F5000 and many other race car types, served as Grand Marshal, and raced in the season finale of the Morton Trophy, a series created for small sedans from the 1960s and 1970s. The historic race weekend was also highlighted by two additional feature groups, including the Crossflow Cup that celebrated 51 years of Formula Ford and the USRRC G4 Series that paid homage to the USRRC Series from the 1960s.

The notable and interesting entries at the CSRG Charity Challenge 2019 included Nick Colonna’s 1958 Devin SS; David Hagan’s 1967 Porsche 910; Cameron Healy’s 1977 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR and 1953 Cooper Porsche ‘Pooper’; David Smoker’s 1965 McLaren M1A; Tom Fry’s 1966 Shelby Mustang GT350; and John Goodman’s 1964 Ford Shelby Cobra. There were also large number of small displacement sports racers from Porsche, Elva, Genie and Lotus, as well as several groups of Formula cars — Fords, Atlantics, Juniors and Formula Bs.

Highlighting the fund-raising activities was a raffle of both racing-related and non-racing items and the always popular Charity Track Rides on Saturday and Sunday. Proceeds from the race weekend benefited the Sonoma Chapter of Speedway Children’s Charities, the charitable arm of the raceway. CSRG has contributed almost $1,000,000 to Sonoma County youth organizations through Speedway Children’s Charities since 2004.

There was a Saturday night track dinner for all the entrants, entrants’ spouses, crews, corner workers, CSRG personnel and friends. It was a wonderful opportunity for all to wind down, enjoy good food and wine and spend time with fellow racers, mechanics and team members.

Similar to the 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 races, Sports Car Digest also documented the 2019 CSRG Charity Challenge, with Victor Varela producing the following set of fantastic images from the wine country track.

CSRG Charity Challenge 2019 – Photo Gallery (photos: Victor Varela)

 

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