+34 Andretti, Häkkinen, Morton and more in action
Velocity Invititional brought legendary cars and drivers to Laguna Seca. Mario Andretti behind the wheel of a 2013 McLaren MP4/28A, Mika Häkkinen in a 1985 McLaren MP4/5B and John Morton reunited with his BRE Datsun 510. That is a lot to take in.
It was McLaren CEO Zak Brown who made sure much of Velocity Invitational was about McLaren. There was Andretti, 82 years young, having a go in a modern F1, a promise Zak Brown had committed to earlier. There was Indycar star Pato O’Ward in Ayrton Senna’s 1990 McLaren MP4/5B.
Mika Häkkinen made a return to a Formula 1 cockpit, demoing the ex-Alain Prost McLaren MP4/5B among others. And of course, the McLaren F1 GTR was one of the absolute stars of the show.
Drive ’m
Velocity Invitational perfectly grasps the importance of showing legendary race cars like these on the move. They don’t have to race, but have them move, make some noise, it makes all the difference for race cars.
Kicking the dust
Of course, Velocity Invitational made sure it had plenty of historic racing on the menu as well. Ten groups made sure there always was plenty of action around the California circuit. From Minis kicking up dust as the sun set to – again – Zak Brown firing up his Holden WR-014 from the Australian V8 Supercars series for some fast laps against some recent endurance legends (Corvette C5R, Ferrari 355 Challenge, Porsche 997 RSR,…)
McRae
A welcome addition to the program came in the form of the Dirtfish Rally School. The Seattle-based school shipped over six iconic rally cars to Laguna Seca, among which the Lancia 037 Group B, the MG Metro 6R4 Group B, Subaru Impreza and Peugeot 206 WRC. The cars were driven by Alister McRae. We will only say Colin’s brother for easy identification purposes, because Alister’s build a more than impressive rally career for himself as well. His son Max is ready to bring the McRae name back to the front of international rallying, it would seem.
