Walt Carrel's Need for German-Bred Speed

When talks about cars and racing his eyes sparkle and his mouth curls up in a devilish grin.

“I’ve been into cars since approximately when I was born,” Carrel said.

Carrel grew up in a post-war America that had gone car crazy and like a lot of boys his age Carrel was a gear head. He didn’t fall for Detroit iron and big tailfins, though; he fell for a small, light, nimble sports car called a Porsche.

During a family trip to Germany in the 1950s, Carrel’s father bought a convertible Volkswagen to ship back home. During that trip Carrel discovered Ferry Porsche’s sporty masterpiece and was instantly and eternally smitten.

“It’s a driver’s car,” Carrel said. “There’s nothing else like it.”

Carrel bought his first Porsche, a 1965 911, just after high school. Then he was off to tech school in Colorado, where he did quite a bit of autocross racing, and then a stint in the Air Force in Japan. 

During those years Carrel would head into the mountains and find fun roads to drive, and other drivers who shared his passion.

“We found other cars up there that were like-minded,” Carrel said. 

Carrel admits that many of his speedy adventures weren’t exactly of the legal kind, but fortunately for him he always managed to stay out of trouble.

“I never did get arrested,” Carrel said.

These days Carrel has most of his fun on the racetrack, where he takes part in vintage racing events with SOVREN, the Society of Vintage Racing Enthusiasts.

A local group, SOVREN holds many events at Pacific Raceways in Kent. SOVREN’s biggest race every year is the annual Pacific Northwest Historics, a three-day long vintage racing meet in the summer that raises money for Seattle Children’s Hospital. 

Carrel tries to get out to every race he can, which works out to somewhere between 4 and 7 races a year.

“If the car will run I’m going,” Carrel said.

Carrel’s enthusiasm and steady participation earned him 2nd Place in the under 2-litre class during SOVREN’s 2010 season, despite driving a car that’s usually outclassed by much of the competition.

Carrel was happy to get the 2nd Place trophy for that season. “It felt pretty good,” Carrel said.

Carrel doesn’t really care too much about winning, though. “I do it for the fun,” he said.

Instead, Carrel draws satisfaction from pushing himself and his car beyond what either is usually capable of. He likes that for the 20 or so minutes it takes to run a race he’s forced to fully concentrate on the task at hand. Nothing else crosses his mind and everything slows down.

“It’s sort of a Zen kind of thing,” Carrel said.

And when Carrel gets into that zone, good things can happen. At SOVREN’s fall finale in September Carrel qualified on the pole in his first race and eventually finished in second, thanks to a bit of rain and Carrel’s ability to concentrate and slow everything down.

“In the rain everything is so intense,” Carrel said. “Things will go bad in a hurry.”

Carrel kept it together, though, and just went fast. In fact, he drove his little Porsche fast enough to lap a Ford GT-40, a race-bred sports car Carrel had no real business competing with.

“I lapped that sucker,” Carrel said gleefully. “It was an absolute hoot.”

Okay, so maybe he does like to win a little bit.