Last weekend, Sara and I made the trek back home to California to pick up the last of our stuff since we moved. Well, that was a convenient side effect, but the real reason we were local again was to head to a couple events. First, the Golden Week Kyusha Festival, then the Trans Am SpeedFest.
When Sara initially told me about the SpeedFest, as held at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca last weekend, I thought it was just a vintage event. However, in the days leading up to the event I did a double take when I looked at the schedule: This wasn’t just a frivolous bit of gentleman’s historic racing going on, this was a proper round of the Trans Am series.
Seeing the contemporary Trans Am cars on the tarmac of Laguna Seca back-to-back with a slew of ’60s and newer muscle cars was just so cool.
Spanning into the ’90s and early 2000s, there was plenty of big displacement, American greatness screaming down the Corkscrew over the course of the weekend.
The Trans Am SpeedFest wasn’t just limited to old school American cars, though, and a number of really awesome support classes were present. It was a bit like a scaled-down version of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion; think vintage F1, Datsun 510s, plus a few German and Japanese surprises.
Of course, the most intense racing was found during the championship TA and TA2 races.
Relative to other racing series in many ways, the fundamental rules of Trans Am haven’t changed all that much since its inception in 1996. Perhaps best of all, these silhouette cars sound as incredible as ever.
As with the Kyusha Festival, I’ll be back soon with full coverage plus a couple 35mm rolls from Laguna Seca. That is, if they all turned out okay — otherwise, I’ll probably lock myself in my room until later this summer.
Trevor Yale Ryan
trevor@speedhunters.com
Instagram: tyrphoto
TYRphoto.com
Additional Photos by Sara Ryan
Instagram: pockowokosara