British Extravaganza 2013

The Vintage Auto Racing Association invites all VARA members and SVRA West members to attend the 18th Annual British Extravaganza at Buttonwillow Raceway Park. As always, this event will feature the British Concours of cars. In addition to VARA's normal run groups, the event will have feature races including the MG, Mini, Sprite, and Triumph Challenge Race* and the Pre-War/Historic Run Group (*other small bore British Cars will be invited in the specialty race).

For additional entertainment, there's the now-famous Saturday Night BBQ with music, dancing, Karaoke, etc. Each race entry will receive two BBQ tickets. The BBQ benefits the Scholarship Program for the Buttonwillow Chamber of Commerce. (Additional BBQ tickets may be purchased for $15.)

For more information and registration, visit the VARA Racing Events page.

Buttonwillow Extravaganza 2007

May 5 and 6 – On a brilliant and breezy weekend, hundreds of Brit cars and vintage racers of all persuasion converged at the Buttonwillow Raceway for the Eleventh Annual Buttonwillow Extravaganza hosted by Moss Motors and VARA.

As vintage formula ones and race-equipped Sprites and Minis and MG’s and Triumphs sped around the raceway, shiny Brit cars lines up for the BBCC / Moss-hosted car show.

The raceway is in the middle of a desert-like plain about ten miles north of the actual small town of Buttonwillow, and the sun can be intense — especially since there is a near complete lack of shade trees around. This weekend was no different; however, the coolness of the breeze made the time under the sun refreshing.

A highlight for the BBCC was Linda Freeman’s taking of two First Place trophies for her beautiful E Type – one for the Jaguar category, and one for Most Popular Car in Show. Wally Freeman took Second Place in the “Other British Open” class. So it was a bit of a Freeman sweep for the weekend.

Cortnie and I met some new friends – Steve and Linda Simmons of Southern California. Their beautiful racing-equipped 1969 MGC GTS won First Place in the MGB class. The car is an immaculate red with classic white sport dots on the hood and sides. You can view more of their automobiles on their personal website, www.mgnuts.com.

The highlight of the event for Cortnie and me was the track time. We took out ’69 GT Coupe onto the track with the other participating Brit cars and let the car stretch out. The pace car kept us at a maximum speed of about 55 miles per hour, but that was plenty for us track newbie’s getting a feel for the curves for the first time.

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