As part of Fleet Week for San Diego, the Historic Racing Association puts on a vintage race at North Island Naval Air Station in Coronado. It’s a fun event with lots of vintage racecars, open pits (so you can see everything up close), and a constant stream of action on the track. A friend of mine with a local radio show has been able to get me press access for a couple years now, so I’d take off Friday morning from work and go hang out down there during the press preview day and shoot some photos.
Usually I limit my time down there to Friday, skipping the crowds of people for the main event on Saturday, but this year I felt Roman was old enough to hang out for a bit, and he has shown a penchant for cars (really anything with a motor) in the last few months. So on Saturday I rousted him out of bed early and we headed down to Coronado.
The ride down was even extra special because, for the first time, he got to have his car seat facing forward. Every time we passed a big rig, or other big truck, I heard a “Whoa!” from the back seat.
The press credentials I had allowed me to park in a VIP section up front, which was nice because we didn’t have to walk too far and we ended up making several trips back and forth to the car. Because of this, Roman made friends with the sailors manning the security checkpoint on the way in and out. Each time they asked for high-fives and Roman was happy to oblige. One time he even got to play with the metal detector wand while they had to check out my camera bag.
Once in, Roman wasn’t sure what to do with himself. He heard the cars at the track, and wanted to go see them, but there was a lot going on even on the way in. First stop was a full, military-spec Humvee that he got to sit in.
I eventually had to drag him out of there because other people were milling about to get to peek inside, so we headed on to the pits. Walking through the pits, Roman pointed at every other car, asking “That?” We walked up to most of them, and when the owners were around, they let him touch the cars or even sit in them. Several of those got me a little jealous because I really wanted to sit in them too!
We eventually made our way trackside and found a nice place to sit and watch the current session of smaller displacement cars (though some were really loud!). For a good ten minutes, Roman just stood there, watching the cars go by. Sometimes pointing and getting really excited about a certain model, and sometimes asking (or demanding) “more” when there was a gap in the traffic. After a little while, we left the grandstands and headed over to another section of the pits, which housed the drift teams.
Though not using “classic” cars, the drifters were brought in last year to help attract a younger audience. For a while, I thought drifting was pretty lame, as it’s not a motorsport when the winner crosses the finish line first, it’s based off judging criteria. Over the years I’ve warmed to it, paying more attention to the professional series. Last year I was introduced to one of the drivers, Cyrus Martinez, who was nice enough to give me a ride-along this year.
Normally, as a passenger in a racecar, I’m not terribly excited. I’ll nit-pick the driver’s racing lines and wish they would just stop and let me drive. Riding with Cyrus I had none of those thoughts, just an enormous grin under my helmet as we went sliding sideways into the first corner at 90mph. Needless to say, I now really want to build a drift car.
With Roman in tow, I thought we’d just swing by and say hello real quick and then head back to the grandstands. Instead, we ended up spending most of the day hanging out there. We met another pro drifter, Jeff Abbott, who let Roman hang out in his car and play with the steering wheel for a while. The rest of the time, Roman was the center of attention, as he walked around and checked out all the cars, making “vroom, vroom” noises.
Eventually, they all had to head out for their exhibition session, so we headed over to a special section right by the track to watch them run. I think Roman liked the drift session even more than the grip racers because each time they passed, he instantly said, More! At the end of the session, Cyrus and another driver did tandem donuts right in front of us, which Roman loved until the cloud of tire smoke floated over and we got pelted with little bits of tire (which I later found in his hair).
After this, “Uncle” Beau showed up and we walked the pits again with him, then sat and watched some more races after we ate some lunch. At this point it was getting way past Roman’s nap time so after a long day at the races, we headed home.
The entire ride home, all I heard from the back seat was “Vroom! Vroom!”