Wow. That was, indeed, the perfect day.
We made a cold, early drive and met about 40 cars at a Starbucks in Long Beach. At 9:00 AM, we hauled tail - and I mean HAULED - across 405 and down 710 into the race area. At 10:20ish, they announced the cars that would be driving the track and mine was one of them. At 11:30, we hit the track for an experience of a lifetime.
Thanks for the encouragement guys. You all would have been proud to see a Cobra out there. I had the oldest car there and the only Shelby in a sea of Ferraris, Lamborghinis, Porches, Aston Martins, even a McLaren. The other cars sounded incredible when they were lining up. The 427, however, dominated the scene when we lit her off.
I let Dad drive and had a blast (as you can tell) videoing the experience. He had a pretty bad downshift coming into a tight turn and got a little squirrely. Hope it's fun to watch.
Video