Report and photos by Paul Smith
The Pacific Northwest Historics were staged July 5-7, 2013 at the 2.25 mile, 10-turn Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington. A field of 150 vintage race cars battled on natural road course over the three-day event.
Sanctioned by Society of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts (SOVREN), the 25th annual Pacific Northwest Historics honored the 50th anniversaries of the USRRC and Porsche 911.
On Saturday SOVREN put on a Porsche 911 feature race and a 30-minute USRRC race was held on Sunday. The first Pacific Northwest Historics race attracted so few cars, that SOVREN convinced a local vintage motorcycle club to share the event. That race weekend made $45.00 in profit. During the 25 years the Pacific Northwest Historics has been a fund-raiser, however, the event has contributed over $9 million to Seattle Children’s hospital.
This year Brian Redman served as the featured Celebrity Driver, which allowed him to rip off some hot laps driving a Gulf Porsche 917. Fans were excited, but not as much as the Group 7 drivers who got to chase Brian around Pacific Raceways. In previous years, this event draws well-known racing celebrities to fill this role. Brian himself was here for the 2006 race, and others have included: Parnelli Jones; Al Unser Sr.; Johnny Rutherford; Augie Pabst; Vic Edelbrock; Jim Hall; Phil Hill; Jimmy Vassar and Bobby Rahal.
Notable entrants at the 2013 SOVREN Pacific Northwest Historics included the Shelby 289 of John Goodman; Sadler Formula Junior of Bill Sadler; 1966 Ford GT40 of Walt Cox; 1961 Aston Martin DB4GT of Bruce McCaw; Porsche 908/3 of Cameron Healy; 1975 Porsche 911 RSR of Ned Bacon; Gulf Porsche 917 of Brian Redman; 1959 Devin of John Hall; 1966 Bill Leonheart Special of Richard Duncan; in addition to a great selection of Porsche 911s for the anniversary race.
Pacific Northwest Historics 2013 – Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
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[Source: Paul Smith]
Thank you Paul, great to see so many different cars in action. Good to see the Formula Ford crowd enjoying themselves. The Formula Junior Sadlers I have never seen photographs of before, quite attractive… There´s a Sadler Sports Racer that competes often at the Nurburgring Historic meeting in August, and it gives quite a few of of the well known European Sports racers a hurry up. Thanks for sharing your photographs. Cheers from Sweden GRAHAM.