When McLaren comes to play at Velocity Invitational

McLaren drivers Lando Norris, Pato O’Ward, Alexander Rossi, David Malukas, Tony Kanaan and Tanner Faust, together with McLaren CEO Zak Brown, were the undisputed stars of the fourth running of Velocity Invitational.

Oh, there was much more than just McLaren at this year’s Velocity Invitational, held at Sonoma Raceway, California. After last year’s Laguna Seca outing, this meant a return to the event’s founder Jeff O’Neill’s home base. Velocity Invitational is growing quickly, and for instance Ford had chosen the venue to present its final interpretation of the current Ford GT model, aptly named the Mk IV. The car is made by Ford Performance and Multimatic.

F1 demos

Zak Brown not only brought drivers from his stable – from F1, Indycar and Extreme E, but also a strong selection from McLaren’s heritage centre. Niki Lauda’s world championship-winning McLaren MP4/2 F1 from the 1984 season for instance. Or Lewis Hamilton’s MP4/23A, the car with which he grabbed his first F1 title in the last corner of the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2008. Also: the McLaren MP4/6 with which Ayrton Senna collected his third F1 championship in 1991.

Rally and sprint cars

Demo runs brought action to both asphalt and on the dirt, thanks to the DirtFish Rally School performers Alister McRae, his son Max and Benjamin Pedersen. For the first time, Velocity Invitational held a demo race for sprint cars as well, around the Turn 11 hairpin on the track.

Historics

Historic racing saw no less than ten different race classes, and one pre-war exhibition group. Classes were diverse, reaching from 2006 – 2016 ALMS and LM GTE to historic Trans-Am and Can-Am, and an SCCA Production Sports Cars classes bringing cars from the fifties and sixties together. Zak Brown took part in the Formula 1 race with his 1980 Williams FW07, finishing fifth in a race that was won by Bud Moeller in his 1982 Williams FW08.

Full results on all the races can be found here.