This past weekend 24 vintage cars kicked off the vintage racing season at the Harvey West Memorial races at Brainerd International Raceway. As always the field included an eclectic mix of cars ranging from a 1959 BMW Huffaker Formula Junior to a 1969 BMW 2002 to a 1970 Boss 302 Mustang --- and a whole lot of variety in between.
The weather can always be hit or miss in Brainerd over Memorial Weekend, however Saturday the racing conditions couldn't have been better with partly cloudy skies and a high near 70 degrees. 22 cars took the green flag during the race on Saturday. Brian Kennedy easily lead from flag to flag in his 1970 Mustang, but there was a lot of racing action amongst the cars behind him. Ben Robertaccio in his 1970 Porsche 914-6, Kent Burg in his 1970 Corvette, Rich Stadther in his 1970 Dulon Formula Ford, Erik Dieterle in his 1969 BMW 2002 and Darwin Bosell in his 1971 Corvette all swapped spots multiple times in exciting battles for position.
Despite rain overnight Saturday, Sunday got off to a good start with two dry vintage sessions in the morning. The lunch break, however, brought the first round of rain showers that continued throughout the rest of the afternoon. When things started to get soggy a number of participants packed up and headed home early. That left a small seven car field for the inverted grid "rabbit" race at the end of the day. For the second consecutive year Jon Belanger in his Formula Vee managed to cross the checkered flag first, followed by Steve Nichols in his MG B.
All told the Harvey West Memorial Races were a great kickoff to the 2017 VSCR racing schedule. VSCR returns to Brainerd on July 1 & 2 to support the Brainerd Trans Am weekend.