Champion, Gold Cup Winner Honored at SVRA Banquet
SEBRING, Fla. (February 27, 2024) – Long-time SVRA competitor John Nash was honored as the 2023 SVRA Driver of the Year on Saturday night at Sebring International Raceway. Voted on by previous Driver of the Year honorees, Nash was selected by his peers based on his skill, safety, sportsmanship and consistent performance. Nash is the 38th driver in SVRA history to receive the honor.
“Oh my gosh, I’m speechless,” said Nash as he received his award. “Thank you so much for this honor of being Driver of the Year for 2023. This is absolutely fantastic. I don’t have any words to explain how appreciative I am. I look forward to racing with SVRA for many, many years to come. This wouldn’t be possible without Jeff Edlen, my crew chief, who’s been with me since 2018; my wife, Lorna—she’s a great motorsports fan and has supported me all the time. Thank you all so much for everybody here, and for all the competitors. Thank you so much, indeed.”
Nash started driving in the early 1970s, but marriage, family and a new business led to a long hiatus in his racing. In 2017, he returned to the track, got a taste of SVRA vintage racing and caught the bug. He got into British cars, attended SVRA’s 2018 Drivers’ School at Roebling Road Raceway, progressed well and earned Rookie of the Year honors that same season. By 2020, he was a multiple-time winner of the Gold Cup and earned his first SVRA Sprint Series points championship in Group 3. By 2021, he added another Lotus Super Seven to his collection to start competing in Group 8, in addition to Group 3, where he once again was named the Group 3 Champion in SVRA’s Sprint Series. He got the trifecta as he secured his third Group 3 championship in 2022.
“It’s the former Driver of the Year winners that get together at the end of the season and go through all the points and the series and have a discussion about who we feel fits the criteria that was started a long time ago,” explained Dave Handy, 2005 SVRA Driver of The Year. “First, the person must be a driver’s driver, skilled, competitive, capable of running consistently at the front of their group. The driver must exhibit integrity, sportsmanship, and be worthy of the words engraved on the perpetual steering wheel, having achieved the goals of SVRA—safety, consciousness, sportsmanship, and consistent performance.”
After being selected by the previous Driver of the Year recipients, each honoree is presented with a trophy, a painting of their car, a badge for their year, and their name is added to the perpetual trophy that is on display at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, N.Y.
2022 honoree Chris DeMinco presented Nash with the award.
The SVRA season continues this weekend at Thunderhill Raceway Park for the Thunderhill SpeedTour, March 1-3. Registration is open now at SVRA.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 2024, SVRA will host 22 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.