2011 Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival to feature McLaren
McLaren will be the featured marque for the 2011 Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival. The legendary name has graced the halls of motorsports since its famed founder Bruce McLaren of New Zealand founded the McLaren racing team in 1963.
“McLaren, like Ferrari and Porsche and other great names in motorsports, created the bloodlines that we worship today in historic automobile racing,” said General Racing’s President Steve Earle, who for four decades has devoted his life to organizing historic car racing events and is the originator of the Wine Country Classic that preceded the Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival for 24 years. “Choosing McLaren as our marque means we will pay special tribute to the name, the teams, and the cars that McLaren has produced in the past and will produce in the future, adding another dimension of enjoyment for both competitors and spectators.”
The 2010 Sonoma Historic Motorsports Festival, held at Infineon Raceway June 5-6, hosted 375 historic race cars, some dating as far back as 1915, in a series of “time capsule” races over the weekend of June 5-6.
“These beautiful machines on the track combined with the Sonoma wine country experience makes our historic car weekend unlike anything else on our schedule,” said Infineon Raceway President and General Manager Steve Page. “Adding the allure of McLaren and the racing heritage that name represents will make the 2011 Sonoma Historics a weekend we’ll look forward to all year.”
More About McLaren
Having dominated the Can-Am series from 1967 through 1971, McLaren was considered unbeatable. There were also McLaren victories at the Indianapolis 500 for American drivers Mark Donohue (1972) and Johnny Rutherford (1974, 1976). In Formula 1 racing, the McLaren name is equally famous. Only Ferrari has competed in more F1 races in the modern era, and McLaren’s driver lineup has included the very best the sport has produced including Bruce McLaren, Peter Revson, Denny Hulme, James Hunt, Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda, Alain Prost, Ayrton Senna, Fernando Alonzo and current world champion drivers Lewis Hamilton and Jenson Button.
Today, the McLaren Group, headquartered in Woking, Surrey, England, is comprised of the Vodafone McLaren Mercedes F1 Racing Team and McLaren Automotive. In 2011, the company will introduce its new road car, the McLaren MP4-12C. The carbon fiber composite chassis with a 3.8 liter twin turbo V8 engine develops 600 horsepower and has a top speed of 200 mph. The seven-speed gear box with paddle shifter will accelerate from 0 to 124 mph in under ten seconds. The MP4-12C’s shapely form and extraordinary performance pays tribute to McLaren’s racing heritage.
Via: www.sonomahistoric.com.
