Karen Salvaggio raced her 1965 Shelby Daytona Coupe replica in the 2022 Spokane Festival of Speed.
AIRWAY HEIGHTS- Sixty cars, some capable of reaching speeds upward of 170 mph, raced sped around the 2.25-mile-long track at Qlispé Raceway Park (QRP) last weekend, competing in the 10th annual OVREN Spokane Festival of Speed (SFS).
The three-day-long event saw races in seven categories, including vintage cars, large-bore productions, road racers, formulas and sports racers over 1600cc.
Some spectators seated on a small hill in the middle of the tracks got an up-close look of the action.
Karen Salvaggio, a privateer, has been racing for 40 years. It was her sixth Spokane Festival of Speed. She competed in the large bore category with her replica of a Gen 3 R model 1965 Shelby Daytona Coupe.
"There were only six of these cars made originally. I built this replica in 2016 and it's got an original paint coat from 1965," Salvaggio said. "Everything underneath is new. All I have to do is drop in the fuel cell and it's a race car."
Underneath the chassis is a Ford 5.0 liter engine with 425 horsepower. Salvaggio said she had topped it out at 173 mph. Her top speed on the wet track over the weekend was 125 mph.
Charlie Lyford owns T-Zero Racing- a restoration, preparation and maintenance company for vintage cars out of Preston, Wash.
He and his crew were preparing cars for clients and himself. Lyford has participated in the SFS since it started 10 years ago.
"I've been racing since the seventies," he said. "We're supposedly doing this just for fun but it's still dangerous. It's a fun event and the people here are great and it's smaller so it's pretty casual."
Jim Sullivan, Vice President of SFS, said the motorsport community is close-knit despite the generational differences between the people and their cars.
"More people are using speedways because they can use the features that the car is actually built for," he said.
Sullivan said that the different interests in car types have never stopped the motorsport community from coming together because the general interest is the same.
He hasn't raced since his retirement five years ago, but he was rooting on his son at SFS.
Much like Sullivan, Salvaggio is also passionate about the people in the racing community.
"The cars bring us here and the people bring us back," Salvaggio said. "There are people who've known each other on this paddock for 40 years. When you race, this becomes your second family."
Michaela is a former newsroom intern at the Cheney Free Press. She covered stories on education, city government, cops/courts/fire departments and local businesses.
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