Velocity Invitational 2026 Brings Live Cars & Bids Auction to Sonoma

A car you have only ever scrolled past on a phone screen is about to fire up ten feet from you in Sonoma. Velocity Invitational and Cars & Bids announced this morning that they are adding a live on-site auction to the Memorial Day weekend event at Sonoma Raceway.

The mechanics are straightforward. Members of Doug DeMuro’s online auction site can submit vehicles for consideration at viavelocity.com/cars-bids. Approved cars will be displayed in the paddock for in-person inspection, listed on Cars & Bids before the event starts, and sold through a live-bidding experience that concludes during the weekend of May 29 to 31.

The anchor lot is already confirmed: a 1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ from the Petersen Automotive Museum.

How the Auction Works

Cars & Bids members with a vehicle they want to sell can submit through the Velocity portal. If the car meets the event’s criteria, the submission gets fast-tracked as a featured auction listing. The listing opens on Cars & Bids before the weekend begins and closes before the event ends, which keeps the on-site display and the digital bidding window aligned.

Every approved car will be staged in the Sonoma Raceway paddock. Interested bidders can walk the car, open the doors, hear it run, and form their opinion the way collectors have always done. Then the bidding plays out on the Cars & Bids platform, with the physical car a few paces from where the final price lands.

Sellers who consign a vehicle receive two General Admission tickets. Buyers and fans who simply want to attend get access to a separate discount code through Cars & Bids.

Cars & Bids reports more than two million monthly visitors and nearly $800 million in cumulative sales since its 2020 launch, according to the company. Those are marketplace-scale numbers that now land in a paddock better known for pre-war Ferraris and historic Le Mans entries.

The Alfa TZ Anchor

The 1964 Giulia TZ that Velocity and Cars & Bids are leading with is worth a paragraph of its own.

Autodelta, Alfa’s in-house competition division, built the TZ1 between 1963 and 1965. Production totaled somewhere between 112 and 117 cars depending on which records are counted. The chassis is a light tubular frame, the body is aluminum, and the design is credited to Zagato, whose signature “coda tronca” short tail cut aerodynamic drag while giving the car its distinctive cropped rear profile.

Under the hood sits a 1.6-liter twin-cam four-cylinder paired with a five-speed gearbox. Curb weight came in around 1,430 pounds. At that power-to-weight ratio, the TZ won its class at Le Mans, the Targa Florio, and the Tour de France Automobile during 1964. The Petersen example is among the few TZ1s on public display in the United States.

What the Deal Signals

Cars & Bids did not exist six years ago. It launched in 2020 with Doug DeMuro, a YouTuber with a reputation for long, earnest walkarounds of weird and interesting cars, as its public face. It has since become one of the primary ways a particular kind of enthusiast discovers and buys cars.

Velocity Invitational sits on the other side of the collector universe. It is a paddock event, founded by Jeff O’Neill, modeled loosely on Goodwood. The crowd that gathers at Sonoma each spring has historically been the group that flies to Monterey Car Week and remembers where they were the year a Porsche 917 stalled at the Laguna Seca corkscrew.

Putting those worlds in the same paddock is a bet on generational change. As O’Neill said in the announcement: “The next generation of enthusiasts have grown up online yet the emotional connection to cars is still very much physical. By bringing Cars & Bids together with Velocity Invitational, we’re creating a new kind of experience, where digital discovery and real-world connection combine.”

Daniel Harman, Cars & Bids CEO, put it more bluntly: “The best cars are the ones that actually get driven.” Online auctions have always had a structural limitation there. A car is a physical object. Pixels cannot substitute for standing next to one.

Before You Bid

If a Velocity auction lot catches your eye, a weekend is not enough time to inspect a car properly. The serious buyers plan to spend Friday walking every featured car, reading every service record, and running the VIN on anything that checks out. Casual bidders would do well to copy the habit.

A few practical filters hold up across vintages. Ask for service records going back at least five years. Verify the VIN against the claim on the listing. Check for matching numbers if the car’s value depends on originality. Walk away from any seller unwilling to answer specific questions about the drivetrain’s service history.

For any lot built since roughly 2000, engine-specific reliability data is a useful first filter before you even walk the car. Most catastrophic repair bills on modern collector cars cluster around a handful of known failure points that vary more by engine than by model year. Our engine reliability database catalogs complaint frequency and severity by engine for the modern US market, drawn from NHTSA owner complaints and investigations. A 1964 Zagato falls outside its scope. A 2005 Ferrari 612 Scaglietti does not.

Attending the Weekend

Velocity Invitational runs from 9am Friday, May 29 through 6pm Sunday, May 31 at Sonoma Raceway. Ticket options include single-day and weekend passes, family and couple bundles, luxury packages, and add-ons that cover VIP access, hospitality with Sonoma wine tastings, ride-alongs in vintage race cars, parking, and on-site camping.

Early release pricing starts at $159 plus taxes and fees. Full ticket inventory and hospitality options are at viavelocity.com.

Sonoma Raceway sits about an hour north of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Where to Stay

Memorial Day weekend hotel inventory in the Sonoma Valley fills quickly, especially during a major event at the raceway. The tight cluster of hotels in downtown Sonoma usually sells out first, followed by Napa. Petaluma sits about twenty minutes south of the track and holds availability longer. Book early and book refundable.

Useful starting points for rooms near the venue:

• Hotels in Sonoma for May 29 to June 1, 2026. Closest to the raceway and the event paddock.
• Hotels in Petaluma for May 29 to June 1, 2026. Roughly twenty minutes from Sonoma Raceway, with more availability at weekend rates.
• Hotels in Napa for May 29 to June 1, 2026. Good if you want to combine the event with a wine-country weekend.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Velocity Invitational?

Velocity Invitational is a three-day motorsport and lifestyle festival held at Sonoma Raceway in California wine country. The event combines historic racing, modern hypercars, and rare collections with wine tastings, hospitality packages, and immersive paddock access. Founder Jeff O’Neill launched the event to bring a Goodwood-style atmosphere to Northern California.

When and where is Velocity Invitational 2026?

Velocity Invitational 2026 runs May 29 through 31 at Sonoma Raceway, located at 29355 Arnold Drive in Sonoma, California. Gates open at 9am Friday and close at 6pm Sunday.

How do Cars & Bids members enter a car in the auction?

Submit the car through viavelocity.com/cars-bids. If it meets the event’s criteria, the listing gets fast-tracked as a featured auction on Cars & Bids. Sellers whose cars are accepted receive two General Admission tickets to attend the weekend.

How does the live auction work?

Featured cars get listed on Cars & Bids before the event begins, with bidding open throughout the weekend and concluding before it ends. The physical cars are displayed in the Sonoma Raceway paddock so interested bidders can inspect them in person before placing a bid online.

Can I attend without bidding on a car?

Yes. General admission tickets start at $159 plus taxes and fees during the early release window. Cars & Bids members who want to attend without consigning a vehicle have access to a separate discount code through the platform.

What is the 1964 Alfa Romeo Giulia TZ, and why does it matter?

The Giulia TZ is a lightweight Alfa Romeo race car built by Autodelta between 1963 and 1965. Somewhere between 112 and 117 TZ1 examples were produced depending on which records are counted, featuring a tubular chassis, aluminum Zagato body, 1.6-liter twin-cam engine, and five-speed transmission. The car won its class at Le Mans and the Targa Florio in 1964. The Petersen Automotive Museum’s example is the anchor lot for the inaugural Velocity auction.

Are there hospitality and camping packages?

Velocity Invitational offers hospitality tiers that include Sonoma Valley wine tastings, ride-alongs in vintage race cars, VIP paddock access, and luxury packages. On-site camping is also available for buyers who want to stay at the raceway through the weekend. Full package details and pricing are at viavelocity.com.

Who runs Velocity Invitational?

Velocity Invitational was founded by Jeff O’Neill. The event is operated as an independent motorsport and lifestyle festival, distinct from Sonoma Raceway’s regular event calendar. The 2026 edition marks the expansion into on-site live auctions through the new Cars & Bids partnership.

The Physical Car Still Wins

Anyone who has watched a Cars & Bids countdown clock tick toward zero has probably wondered whether the car actually sounded as good as the photos looked. For one weekend in May, the answer will be a few paces from the bidder’s paddle. That is the real news here. The rest is logistics.