Rare 1939 Alfa Romeo takes to the track at Sonoma Raceway
Rare 1939 Alfa Romeo takes to the track at Sonoma Raceway
By Dave Stoneberg
SONOMA, Calif. — At the end of his almost 30-year racing career, Dave Olson estimates he’s had 14 or 15 race cars, including his current car, a rare 1939 Alfa Romeo that he drove during the March 15-17 Classic Sports Racing Group’s David Love Vintage Races, held at Sonoma Raceway.
Olson still loves racing and serves as president of CSRG, a group founded in 1968.
“A few years ago, I was thinking maybe it’s time to no longer race,” Olson said.
But then he raced his Lotus 23, a purpose-built, mid-1960s racecar with a twin-cam four-cylinder engine and got on the pole, which means he was fastest in qualifying.
“I won three of the four races that weekend, and I asked, ‘Why am I quitting?’ I sold the 23 to a friend; I might be trying to buy it back.”
At Sonoma Raceway, he drove his 1939 Alfa Romeo 6C 2500 Super Sport Berlinetta Aerodinamica, which means it has a six-cylinder 2.5-liter engine with three Weber carburetors and puts out 125 BHP at 4800 RPM. It is a two-door streamlined competition coupe rather than an open (convertible) roadster.
Why did Olson buy the 84-year-old car?
“I just fell in love with the looks of it and what it was,” he said, “and I wanted to see what I could do with it.”
Olson said the Alfa’s history “is a little foggy” because of World War II.
“The big story is the body was taken off, it went to Poland and another body was made in Italy in the 1950s,” he said Sunday, standing in the pit/garage along the front straight at Sonoma Raceway.
He said it apparently took a long time to put the car together, and it ended up in Australia. Last August he bought the car from the Australian owner.
In Sunday’s race Olson placed 21st out of 24 cars. The winner in his group was Charles McCabe, who drove a red 1955 Maserati 250F and whose fastest lap was just shy of 2 minutes. Olson’s fastest lap was 35 seconds slower than that.
“It’s a big car, and in a pre-war group, it probably does really well,” Olson said. “But against BMC Mini Coopers, the class we’re in today, not so well because they are a little faster and a lot more nimble.”
At this point, though, it’s not about how fast Olson can propel the Alfa Romeo around the track. It’s about preserving a piece of history and sharing it – one that we don’t often get a chance to see.
Olson’s other race car is a 1965 Jaguar XKE that he found on the East Coast. Its engine is being rebuilt because he blew it up during last fall’s Charity Challenge, one of four annual CSRG events. For 10 years he raced an alloy-bodied Jaguar XK 120 coupe, which he said he wouldn’t mind buying back, as well.
Olson owned and raced a Braham BT 29 for 10 to 12 years. When he sold it, he looked at the log book that all race cars have.
“I realized I had been out for 110 weekends with it,” he said.
The late David Love was one of the founders of CSRG and was a long-time racer. The mid-March race was named in his honor.
Eight groups of cars make up a vintage race, with each group having practice time, qualifying races and 25-minute feature races during the three-day event. Cars are grouped by type and engine size. For example, all of the American Corvettes, Mustangs and Cobras with fire-breathing V-8 engines are in one class. European and British sports cars with four-cylinder small-bore engines make up another group. Another group is open-wheel, single-passenger race cars with either Ford or VW small displacement engines. During the weekend 174 cars built from 1939 to 1993 showed up. It was the first event where the CSRG allowed the 1993 Mazda Miatas, two-passenger sports cars, to race.
A buried Porsche Speedster
One of the 174 vintage cars entered in Sunday’s race was a 1957 Porsche 356 Speedster, owned by David Lalonde of Long Beach. The official description of the color is “blueish,” but that could be provenance and patina.
“It came out of a garage in North Long Beach, was raced in the ’60s and the owner got upset about the SCCA rules and parked it in the ’70s,” Lalonde said.
It was so buried in the garage, Lalonde said he couldn’t see it, and he had to help the owner dig it out before he could buy it.
“He was worried that someone was going to steal it, even in 1970, when it wasn’t worth much back then,” he said.
The “blueish” Porsche was parked next to another Porsche 356 Speedster that is red and gray, owned by Steve Schmidt. Lalonde said when he got the car, about 10 years ago, he wasn’t sure what to do with it.
“I didn’t want to restore it, but I was just driving it and showing it. I had it in a shop to fix a leak, and Steve (Schmidt) saw my car.”
Schmidt knew these two cars were both original race cars that raced together in the 1960s. He told Lalonde that he should turn his Porsche back into a race car so the two cars could race together again.
Today mechanics have spent a year going through Lalonde’s car to make sure it’s fit to race. Instead of the original Super90 engine, there’s a purpose-built race engine in it.
“I made the right decision because it’s a fun car to drive and I’m so excited to have it back on the track, where it belongs,” Lalonde said. “I have all the trophies it won when it raced back in the ’60s, although I’m not going to get any trophies in it.”
The two Porsches were original race cars competing in the Sports Car Club of America races.
“Their owners were roommates back in the day and raced the cars together. It’s just cool,” Lalonde said.
The weekend vintage races were Lalonde’s debut with his blueish Porsche. After Sunday’s feature race he was in last place, but it probably didn’t matter since he had a great time.
Visitor from British Columbia
John Wansborough from Victoria has been touring California and the area for the past six weeks, and when he saw a notice about the vintage car races, he knew he had to go.
“This place, Sonoma, I used to read about it in Road & Track (magazine) when it was called Sears Point years ago,” he said.
After touring the paddock, Wansborough said he is partial to German cars and liked some of the Porsches in the paddock, including the two 1957 Speedsters and another Porsche, a 1969 908-2 purpose-built race car, also owned by Schmidt.
When asked if he saw the handwritten “for sale” sign on a 1974 Porsche Carrera RSR racecar, also in the paddock, he said he did.
“Are you going to call the guy?” he was asked.
“I don’t think so, although I do have a Sprinter van with a tow hitch, so I could take something home.”
Wansborough and all the other spectators were able to walk through the paddock, talk to the drivers and sit in the bleacher seats because admission to the vintage car races was free for spectators, unlike the NASCAR races or the NHRA drag races that also race at Sonoma Raceway. The Sonoma Raceway is about an hour south of downtown Napa on Highway 121, near Highway 37. It is a 1,600-acre facility with a winding 2.52-mile road course and a quarter-mile dragstrip. Seating capacity is 47,000.
Two fast brothers
Kelvin and Kenny Tse were driving nearly identical 1968 Datsun 510s, small-bore, two-door sedans that originally raced in the SCCA Trans-Am series, which was held annually from January 1966 to October 1979. To Kelvin, the 510s handle unbelievably well since they are lightweight, well-balanced and with 200 HP Dave Rebello-built race engines, “We’ve got a great power/weight ratio.” With numerous similar Datsun 510s in group three, the racing between all the small sedans was close. The winner of the group-three feature race on Sunday, Parker McKean, won the John Morton Cup driving a 1967 Alfa Romeo GTV.
Back in the 1970s, Morton raced a Datsun 510 in the Trans-Am series, and Kelvin said it was an epic battle between the Alfa Romeos and the “newcomer” Datsun 510.
“So John Morton is like our semi-godfather of B Sedan racing,” he said.
Lap times for the two brothers was pretty close, although Kenny was a second faster at 1:53:667, while Kelvin’s fastest lap was 1 minute 54 seconds and change. When asked who is fastest, both brothers said, “My brother.” Kelvin added, “This weekend Kenny is doing well. He’s definitely putting it to me this weekend. He’s a great racer.”
Kelvin is from the Sacramento area, while Kenny lives in San Francisco.
“My brother and I have been racing together for a few years,” Kelvin said. “We also race (Porsche) 911s, but we’re not racing those this weekend. We limit ourselves to one car per weekend; otherwise, it could be too taxing. It is so fun to share this with my brother and my son.”
Both brothers wanted to thank their great mechanics team, Z-Car Garage and Rob Fuller of San Jose.
What’s next for the Tse brothers? The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association, established in 1978 and the largest vintage racing organization in the United States, will host its Sonoma SpeedTour from April 19 to 21 at Sonoma Raceway. Tickets and more information can be found here.
My brother, Peter, and I have spent most of our lives enjoying cars and race cars, with Peter driving and me helping out in the pits. As teenagers, one of our first experiences was in July 1973 at Wisconsin’s Road America racetrack, when we volunteered to be the pit crew for Peter Gregg and Hurley Haywood, who raced a Porsche Carrera RSR in the SCCA Trans-Am L&M Championship series. The No. 59 RSR suffered an early engine failure at the track, and Gregg only completed 22 laps. Even today, I’m glad I didn’t have to fill the car up with gas during the race. We enjoy attending vintage races together, even though Peter is no longer driving race cars.
If today's story captured your interest, explore these related articles:
Spectacular Warrior Dogs exhibit continues at Napa Valley Museum Yountville
Sunday E-dition: Napa Valley Features is online news, features & information source
Innovating tradition: the rise of flash détente in winemaking
Birdwatching in Napa County reveals avian wonders and conservation champions
Dave Stoneberg is an editor and journalist who has worked for newspapers in both Lake and Napa counties.
Thanks NVF for another great article for the "ages" (or aged?) with fascinating photos! I admire Dave Olson for his racing career.
I wanted to race sports cars since since spending many weekends watching the exciting events at Meadowdale Raceway outside Chicago while in college. My first sports car was a 1962 MGA in 1966, then a 1962 Triumph TR3 in 1967. I still wanted to drive fast in my BMW M roadster until I finally succumbed to the lure of a new 2005 Prius which still gets me from Lake Berryessa to Napa regularly at 225,000 miles on the odometer.
I've been to Sonoma Raceway (Sears Point racetrack at the time) many times. It's where I took the Bob Bondurant School of High Performance Driving course and learned to race go-karts. Riding ATVs around Knoxville OHV Park and Stonyford Recreation Area and racing jet skis at Lake Berryessa and other lakes followed.
Nothing beats going fast (safely).
Agree. Nothing beats going fast. I invite you to the CSRG fall classic races at Sears Point, oops, Sonoma Raceway, from Friday, Sept. 13 through Sunday, Sept. 15. I believe admission is free, so there's no point in not showing up. On Saturday and Sunday, you can buy a seat in a race car to go three laps around the track, benefitting Sonoma Children's Charities. I did it in a 1962-3-4 MGB two years ago and loved it. Wear long pants, a long-sleeved shirt and closed toe shoes and bring $125 to $200-$300, depending on the car you've chosen. My first car was a 1959 Triumph TR-3, which I bought for $400 in 1971, when I was 17. Great car, great memories. My brothers and I loved the old English sportscars and owned a bunch, all beaters, barely running, but we learned a lot about cars and what made them run. BTW, do you have a spanner I can borrow? Best to you, Peter, thanks for your great memories!