2022 Velocity Invitational: All the things....
It’s usually around mid-October that our car season related depression sets in. By this time, the North American racing season has wrapped and the major racing venues are finished with marque events for the year. Over the past few years though, automotive addicts have been treated to a late in the season discovery known as the Velocity Invitational. Beginning in the mind of automotive and racing connoisseur Jeff O’Neill and the team behind the 2019 Sonoma Speed Festival (held at Sonoma Raceway), the Velocity Invitational entered its second year at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca after a very successful 2021 event. O’Neill found success in the wine business for over 35 years and caught the car bug. He started off his collection with a Fangio-Moss ‘57 Maserati 250F a decision that would lead him down a path to more cars and bigger ideas. This journey led to the creation of an event inspired by the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
Last year, Velocity was anchored by support from McLaren Automotive and their network of dealers and enthusiastic owners which saw demonstrations of the 2011 MP4-26 and 2012 MP4-27 McLarens that were driven originally by Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button. Topping off that demonstration was the presence of two-time Formula 1 Champion Mika Hakkinen and the McLaren MP4/13A he drove to a win in the 1998 Australian Grand Prix. This year matched last year’s exhibition and raised the stakes with Lewis Hamilton’s 2009 McLaren MP4-24, the McLaren MP4/5B that Ayrton Senna drove to a world championship in 1990, Alain Prost’s MP4/2B-3, which won the 1985 F1 World Championship, and the 1996 McLaren F1 GT12R that competed in the 1996 running of Le Mans. In attendance to drive these beast was Mike Hakkinen, IndyCar Driver Pato O’ward, professional driver and Top Gear America host Tanner Foust, and capped off with racing legend Mario Andretti. Yes, when we say drive, that’s just what happened as Andretti would check off one of his bucket list items over the weekend…but more on that later. These entries alone would have been more than plenty to draw us down the Laguna Seca for the weekend, but alas there was more.
DirtFish Rally School brought out six of the rally world’s most famous cars including the Group B Lancia Rally 037, MG Metro 6R4, Subaru’s best Imprezas, and the dominator of 1990’s rallying the Peugeot 206 WRC.
The Peterson Automotive Museum was on hand displaying a stunning assortment of Formula 1 cars from the collection of Juan Gonzalez, the Chairman of Mission Foods and sponsor of McLaren F1 team and the Arrow McLaren SP IndyCar team. The display included the likes of the 1987 Lotus 99T, 2008 McLaren F1 MP4-24, 2013 Ferrari F138, 2017 Scuderia Toro Rosso STR12, and the 2018 McLaren MCL33 all amazing time stamps of F1 history and memories of drivers the likes of Senna, Schumacher, Hamilton, Alonso and more.
Again, any of these three would have been enough to draw us in, but Velocity delivered so much more. A paddock spanning the century of historic racing cars from the Ragtime Racers featuring cars from the pre-war era through the decades of sportscar racing split into proper racing groups. Collective mouths were agape as the event saw several rare and multi-million dollar cars battle on track. Seeing a near priceless Ferrari 250 GTO drop down the Corkscrew is near life changing.
Old school…..real old school….
Also amongst the paddock display were all specs and forms of McLaren’s amazing supercar resume including the P1, P1 GTR, Senna, Senna GTR and two McLaren F1 street cars. We’ve been to numerous events featuring healthy numbers of McLarens, but this event had many many more and much much better than anything we’ve ever seen or heard about.
The things…..
We all tend to throw around the phrase, “all the things” these days, so much so that the its implications have been diminished. With that admission, we really can’t think of a better way to capture the scope of Velocity Invitational. It ticked almost every box and scratched every itch unlike any other single event we’ve been to.
We decided not to try to cram all the things we saw into one post. It would be too busy and frankly too long to lay out effectively in a single post. That said, we will go into detail of some of the aforementioned features below and let our traditional mega gallery speak for anything we left out.
McOverload…
On top of the tonnage of McLaren F1 cars mentioned above, there were also about a jillion other McLarens on static display and some also doing double duty taking lucky attendees on hot laps of the track between racing groups and other track demos.
There were enough 570s, 720s and Sennas, (yes, Sennas like hotcackes) to give one to each attendee, but sadly that didn’t happen. As we waded through the huge numbers of those more “common” models, we were presented with some pretty extreme heavy hitters from the firm from Woking, many of which we’d never seen or heard of. See the rotation below for things like a Senna GTR LM, Elva, P1GTR18, P1LM, P1GTR High Downforce, XP12W Prototype, Artura, and no less than 3 F1s (two roadgoing, and the aforementioned 1996 LeMans veteran)!
And we can’t help but mention…
As much as two McLaren F1s staged together was enough of an awe inducing moment, the Senna GTR in Gulf Livery (1 of five different cars/liveries celebrating McLaren’s 1995 LeMans success) was an absolute showstopper and an example of just how far an already maxed out hypercar can be pushed even further Not sure how many pics we took of that thing, but it was a lot.
And the future…
The sheer tonnage of McLarens was breathtaking, but one of the single most impressive things on display was the Czinger (pronounced zing-ur) 21C. Unless you live under a rock, you’ve probably caught wind of this car/brand or its creators. CEO Kevin Czinger and son and co-founder Lukas Czinger have created a revolutionary hybrid powered supercar hypercar using their own proprietary AI design technology and 3D printing. What we’ve learned about this car over the last few months has informed us that this hypercar isn’t like the rest of the hypercar comps. This thing is a totally different animal in almost every way, and seeing it in person has only left us more dumbfounded. There are plenty of hypercars that look, more or less, like they’re “from space.” This one is so different, but we’re not convinced it’s not actually from space. The genesis of 21C is no less than the modern version of alchemy. Take a long look at the pics below…we’ll let them speak for themselves. From the exterior to the the wheel hub (named by Czinger, a “Brake Node”) assembly the 21C appears more Hans Giger than Horacio Pagani. Regardless of the 21C’s lineage, the result is a high downforce, 1,350 horsepower monster that coincidentally smashed the Laguna Seca production car lap record by more than two seconds last year.
After all these years…
We’ve been doing The Loud Pedal for quite a few years now. We’ve seen and done a lot of things that we hadn’t even envisioned when we started our journey. Even with our collective experience and the countless times we have been in awe over something car related, there is still no greater thrill than being able to get close to more modern era F1 cars. We both used to wake up at zero dark thirty every other weekend to watch F1 qualifying and racing on Speedvision. We were weaned on v10s and high-octane coffee.
That being the case, we give Velocity and McLaren Racing CEO Zak Brown all the props for the F1 spectacle they delivered. 4 working McLaren F1 cars, F1 World Champion Mario Andretti, F1 World Champion Mika Hakkinen, X Games + Formula Drift and Global Rallycross Champion Tanner Faust, and current Arrow McLaren IndyCar driver Pato O’Ward. Much to the delight of all, the 82-year-old Mario Andretti wasn’t taking parade laps when he went out in MP4-28a from 2016. He put on quite a show and admittedly, we all got a shot of feels when one of the announcers noticed that at one point, Andretti had entered the famous hairpin that bares his very name. Pretty cool.
More of the same, but different…
As if this McLaren showing wasn’t enough for F1 fans, there was another display of F1 history, this one, noticeably quieter. On static display in the center of the paddock were the cars from the Gonzalez Collection. We’ve never seen so many modern-era cars in one place and the manner in which the cars were laid out, allowed everyone to see the evolution of the formula of F1 racing from 1987 to 2017. The fact that most of the cars in the collection were championship contenders, in their time, made the display even better for those of us who were raised on the epic Ferrari vs McLaren battles from the late 90s into the early 20-teens.
It was nostalgia for us for sure, but it was also quite a draw for others too. Every time we passed this group, we’d see whole families gathered around the cars, taking in all the curves and wings and fat tires. Many automotive events are decidedly male and generally “older,” but we’ve had several experiences of late to see the effect of Netflix’s Formula 1: Drive to Survive on the gearhead community. It was awesome to see that the complexion of racing is changing, and that racing can be, and is, a family experience.
“All the things” wasn’t limited to just cars at this event. We’d be remiss if we didn’t mention how well this event was put together and run. From parking to layout to food and transport, the organizers executed everything at a level we’ve never experienced. Granted this was not an inexpensive event to attend, a two-day pass ran $145, we think it was great value and probably one of the best executed events we’ve ever attended.
The daily passes were just the beginning of the options for spectators, entrants, and drivers. There were also food and wine packages, access to VIP suites, all the way up to an “ultimate” package that included hotel accommodations on top of all of the other perks on offer at the tracks. From $475 all the way up to the $13,000 ultimate package, attendees and participants had quite an array of options. Though we’re not exactly in the “ultimate” set, we were not left wanting.
The paddock was open and inviting. Nothing was crowded or bunched up. There were lots of food options available. We never waited more than 5 or so minutes in any line (that’s a first for a(ny) track event we’ve ever been to). Another consideration was mobility. We’ve never seen so many golf carts running around the place. Now, we put in a lot of steps over the weekend, but we also took numerous opportunities to hop on a Cushman to venture out to the outer extremes of the sprawling Laguna Seca property and numerous trips up to the world famous Corkscrew. Take it from a couple of middle-aged guys, a ride up to the Screw is an amazing thing.
Major props to the organizers for the way in which the cars were staged in the paddock. The organizers clearly made their best effort to display cars in a way for fans to not only get close, but positioned in a way to allow the best photo opportunities possible. Of course the organizers can’t control the tendency to find one’s epic photo moment blocked by background crowds and influencers seeking selfie opportunities, but you control the variables you can and hope for the best.
Velocity is something new and unique and shows a lot of promise for a robust future combining historic racing with ultra modern exhibitions of speed. Is it Goodwood yet? No, far from it. But the start off the line looks good for Velocity and over time and distance it has a chance to win over the masses of gearheads and solidify something truly unique in California and North America.
As usual, we encourage you to take a look at the mega gallery below. As will notice, there were lots and lots of things we just had no way to cover in a single story.
Enjoy.
-The Loud Pedal
