The 2007 Gold Cup Historic Races, scheduled for June 8-10, will celebrate the 50th anniversary of the opening of Virginia International Raceway. To commemorate the occasion, VIR is expecting a number of very significant racing cars that helped form the track’s history.
One of those cars is the legendary Scarab Mk I, which raced there over the weekend of May 3-4, 1958. The Scarab is an all-American sports car, built and campaigned by a “dream team” that took on the best that Ferrari, Maserati, Jaguar and all the other established European manufacturers had to offer.
The first chassis, No. 001’s second-ever race was at VIR It was the first time that Reventlow’s squad would face off against the vaunted Briggs Cunningham team. Reventlow started 3rd behind the Cunningham Lister-Jaguars of Walt Hansgen and Ed Crawford. Reventlow led early but faded to 5th in Saturday’s 30-minute sprint, and came home 3rd, winning his class, behind Hansgen and Crawford in Sunday’s one-hour feature.
“We are thrilled that the legendary Scarab will be returning to VIR for the 50th Anniversary Gold Cup Historic Races,” said VIR co-owner Harvey Siegel, “and we can’t wait to see the rematch between it and the Ferrari 412MI. It is our intention to make the 2007 Gold Cup one of the ‘must-attend’ events of the year, and having these two cars battling each other again on the racetrack will go a long way toward realizing that goal.”
