Pacific Raceways hosted its 9th annual NW Toy Run sponsored by Lexus of Bellevue.

The event brought out thousands of cars with cash and new unwrapped toys to benefit the Marine Corps Toys for Tots program. Sgt. Jennifer Budinick and Cpl. Stuart Kranick from JBLM were on hand to accept the gifts brought in and pose with Santa for those who chose to do so.

ProFormance Racing School’s Manfred Scharmach pitched in with “lead/follow” to a limited number of sign-ups around the 2.25-mile historic road course.

Not normal to the road course was the path they took as it put the cars through a “puddle” that at any kind of speed would toss water on all directions, (see images in the photo gallery). With music playing and food offered up by Bigfoods (something new this year) people walked around over 2500 cars that passed through the gates.

There was a lot of picture taking and posing with some fine looking machines, and it generated a lot of ideas for their own rides.

The weather did its part though; one downpour refilled the “puddle”.

According to George Hight Jr., the coordinator for Toys for Tots in Pierce County, the money raised through corporations and personal donations, touched $7,000 and brought in 4,555 toys to help those in need.

With meetings already set up to plan for next year’s event, this year was just a starting point for what can be accomplished.

Happy Holidays to all!

Images from the event are now available – to purchase images click here.