'Race at the Base' Gives to More Than Just Military

Amazing Opportunity to See Community Racing Organizations in Action

SAN DIEGO, Aug. 10, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The annual Fleet Week Coronado Speed Festival is staged each year to honor and benefit San Diego's military personnel, but the military isn't the only San Diego community to benefit from the event.  Coronado Speed Festival is pleased to host a number of community racing organizations to showcase their skills, and the public gets a unique opportunity to see these drivers in action.

One of the biggest crowd-pleasers is Drift Circuit, a San Diego organization dedicated to furthering the sport of drifting – an untimed freestyle motor sport that is judged based on achievement of the supreme sideways angle and speed in the corner. Drifters gain maximum points through stylized movements and skilled maneuvering techniques. Drifting exhibitions will be during lunchtime on both Saturday and Sunday, as well as following the final race on Saturday.

Coronado Speed Festival also opens its track to the San Diego State University Formula Society of Automotive Engineers (FSAE) team, a student-run organization which designs, manufactures and markets an open wheel race car.  The team then competes against one hundred other colleges and universities throughout the world.

One member of the team, Travis Snyder, is a 1st Class Petty Officer in the Navy Reserves with 10 years of active service.  "I went last year [to Coronado Speed Festival] and I loved the fact that it was on an airstrip," he says.  "What could possibly be a better place for race cars and show cars?"

Now in his second year on the SDSU FSAE team, Snyder can't speak highly enough about his involvement. "I think it's one of the most rewarding experiences of my college career.  The FSAE team really creates a fantastic bonding environment with the other students."

Representing the CalDiego Paralyzed Veterans of America Motor Sports program, Ramona resident Duane Norman races his Datsun 510 at Coronado Speed Festival.  Though he was paralyzed himself at age 19 in a racing accident, Norman still served in the Air Force reserves as a medic during Vietnam.

Norman was instrumental in starting the CalDiego PVA Motor Sports program so other paralyzed veterans could experience the thrill of racing he loves so much.  "We can put any disabled person in San Diego County behind the wheel with a legitimate driver's license," he says.  "We try to help them get into their own race car."

Racing isn't Norman's only passion; he also has his pilot's license.  Recently honored with a 2011 Eagle Spirit Award by Sharp Rehabilitation Services and Sharp HealthCare Foundation for his work serving others with disabilities, Norman says, "On my last day, I don't want to go, 'Man, I wish I'd done that.'"

About Coronado Speed Festival and Fleet Week San Diego

The Coronado Speed Festival is Fleet Week San Diego's preeminent event. Fast-paced, thrilling auto racing and exhibitions for car enthusiasts of all ages mark the widespread draw of this event.  Staged at one of racings' most distinctive locations – Naval Air Station North Island, the birthplace of Naval Aviation – it's the only place to see live racing on an active U.S. Navy runway.

The San Diego Fleet Week Foundation is a nonprofit, public benefit corporation. In addition to honoring the military services through the annual Fleet Week events, the Foundation's goals are to foster awareness of the contributions made by enlisted military personnel and their families, to enhance relationships between the civilian, business and military communities, to provide events that military personnel and their families can attend at little or no cost, and to raise funds for charitable efforts benefiting enlisted service members and their families.  

For more information, or for a complete listing of all of the Fleet Week events, please visit www.fleetweeksandiego.org or you can find us on Facebook at www.facebook.com/fleetweeksd or follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/fleetweeksd.

SOURCE San Diego Fleet Week Foundation

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