Chattanooga Motorcar Festival Announces that Sportscar Vintage Racing Association will Sanction Racing Competition at the Pace Grand Prix at the Bend in 2022

The Sports/GT Racing Class of ’50s and ’60s cars at the 2021 Pace Grand Prix at the Bend.
(Chattanooga Motorcar Festival image)

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (May 20, 2022) – The Chattanooga Motorcar Festival, which will hold its third annual event on October 14-16, 2022, has announced that racing competition at the Pace Grand Prix at the Bend this year will be sanctioned by Sportscar Vintage Racing Association.

The approximately 2.4-mile purpose-built race track in the heart of the City of Chattanooga was created in 2021 to hold vintage/historic races during the Festival, giving racing and collector car fans a variety of activities to enjoy, including a road rally through the Tennessee countryside, a traditional Concours d’Elegance, a Mecum Auctions event, an art show, along with racing competition at the Pace Grand Prix at the Bend. The circuit was named after the late Jim Pace, the Festival’s original Chief Operating Officer, who lost his life to COVID-19 in 2020.

The course, set along the banks of the Tennessee River, will be lengthened this year, and will include an infield loop and other track enhancements. Practice laps will begin on Thursday. Racing will take place on Friday and Saturday of the Festival.

“It’s important to have an experienced sanctioning group handle all the necessary and complicated details that go with operating a race track,” said Festival founder Byron DeFoor. “We feel that the SVRA, with its CEO Tony Parella at the helm and the vast knowledge and expertise the group has acquired, will be valuable assets to our event.”

“I’m very excited to get SVRA involved in this prestigious event,” said Parella, who heads the 45-year-old organization. “The Chattanooga Motorcar Festival is one of the most special events in the American car culture. SVRA will not only sanction the event but will invite special cars and drivers to race their automotive masterpieces and demonstrate the unique capabilities of their cars.”

Applications to enter vintage/historic race cars in the Pace Grand Prix at the Bend along with applications to enter other events may be found at https://www.chattanoogamotorcar.com/applications-overview.

Tickets for the 2022 Chattanooga Motorcar Festival will soon go on sale. The latest information on the Festival is available at chattanoogamotorcar.com.

About Chattanooga Motorcar Festival: Proceeds from the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival support neuroscience research through Fifty Plus Foundation, Inc. After more than a decade of supporting Alzheimer’s and neuroscience research, Fifty Plus Foundation, Inc., created the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival to bring that support to a local level while funding research that will help find a cure. Learn more at chattanoogamotorcar.com.

About Sportscar Vintage Racing Association:  SVRA is the largest vintage racing organization in the world. A typical event has several hundred vintage race cars representing over 100 years of automotive history on the track. The drivers of these race cars are high net-worth, prominent professionals. In 2022, SVRA will host 21 events at some of the most iconic race tracks in North America, including Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Sebring International Raceway, Watkins Glen International, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Sonoma Raceway and Circuit of The Americas, among others. This nationwide footprint has over 312,000,000 Americans living within 200 miles of our events.