This past Saturday we made the trek up the coast for the F.A.S.T. ( Ford “A” speed technology) time trials at Santa Margarita Ranch. FAST holds time trials throughout the country, all are based on a 1/10 mile, standing start, single car pass, with classes ranging from bone stock model T up to overhead B powered sprint cars and the semi unlimited X class where just about anything goes, as long as the engine is based on a 1934 or earlier Ford 4 banger. Typically you can get in as many passes as you want throughout the day with only your best time/speed counting, which gives the great opportunity for some test and tune practice runs.

This was a sort of transition year for the event as Tim Edwards and David Wheeler took the reins from Phil Pharber and Ron Mosher, everything ran smoothly and the new caretakers of the event did a great job. In addition to the races there was a swap meet set up as well as a car show area. The drivers meeting kicked everything off and racing got started around 9, there was about 40 or so cars making passes throughout the day with speeds ranging from around 20 seconds at 20mph down to mid 8’s at 70+mph.

It’s always a great laid back event with plenty of time to visit pals throughout the day, lunch time is split up with a vintage aeronautics display with a few planes coming over from the paso area, and ranch fires up the steam powered pacific coast railroad and cruises around the property alongside the track. All that plus the awesome atmosphere that Santa Margarita Ranch provides makes for one of favorite events and we can’t wait to do it all again next year.

for more info about the time trial or to sign up visit the F.A.S.T. website at hotforhotfours.com