History is a wonderful teaching tool – it helps us learn where we come from, what we did, the mistakes we made, and the successes we had. As far as cars go, history is especially important – it tells us how the pioneers started out in what is a huge industry today.
Considering the British influence on India, most Indians are quite conversant with what happens in the car world in the tiny islands known as the United Kingdom. Goodwood, for one, is famous when it comes to vintage and classic car matters. Across the pond, or Atlantic Ocean, in the United States of America, and, on the West Coast, Goodwood has an equivalent – it’s called Monterey, and is famous for golf, cars, Pebble Beach, and the Laguna Seca track, which is best known for its infamous corkscrew turn that plunges down the equivalent of five storeys. Monterey could easily be called the jewel in North America’s vintage and classic automotive crown.
Classic Car Week in Monterey is renowned – automobile enthusiasts from around the world make California their destination. There is the Concourse at Pebble Beach, there are rallies, auctions, and parties. But there is only one place where the classic and vintage cars come alive and strut their stuff, and that is the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca with 600 of the world’s most significant cars in 19 competition groups recreating a timeline of historic automobile racing that starts from the early 1900s.
Dan Gurney is one of America’s legendary drivers – name any major formula and he has been involved in it either as a driver or a car constructor. As a tribute to Gurney, four race groups – Formula 1, Bugatti, Trans-Am, and Stock Cars – were given feature status. Originally from Port Jefferson, NY, the 79-year-old (now) Gurney moved west shortly after high school and developed his driving skills weaving through the Southern California orange groves. He eventually competed in 20 countries, driving 51 different makes of cars, and racing in 312 events – winning 51 of them and posting podium finishes a total of 98 times. Of the seven Formula 1 races he won, 4 were Grand Prix Championship points races, and his 7 Indy Car victories, and 5 NASCAR victories were rounded out with endurance race victories at Le Mans, Daytona, Sebring and Nürburgring – making him one of the most accomplished drivers of all time. The Gurney Flap, named after him, is an aerodynamic aid that attaches to the trailing edge of a race car’s wing, thus aiding speed. Dan Gurney’s son, Alex, drove the Gurney-Westlake Eagle V12 on a complete tour of the Laguna Seca circuit, while Dario Franchitti drove a Birdcage Maserati that Dan Gurney once raced. For the Trans Am race, it was Dan Gurney himself who waved the Green Flag to start the race.
The cars at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion are present by invitation. The invitees are hand-picked and represent the most significant machines of their respective periods. Ranging from a freshly restored 1962 TVR Grantura – racing for the first time since restoration – to a magnificent 1914 Mercer 450 that set the road racing speed record in 1914 at Corona, California, over 300 miles at an average speed of 86.5mph, a 1937 AC Two Seat Sport Competition 16/80 – one of only 14 cars of this model built between 1937 and 1939 – as well as an ex-Tazio Nuvolari Cisitalia 202 built after World War II for the1947 Mille Miglia, just to name a few.
Of the 90 Bugattis from over a dozen countries present at the Mazda Raceway, 35 raced at the Reunion, including a 1936 Bugatti Type 57, and a totally original (unrestored) 1925 Type 35 Bugatti from Holland. With 2010 marking the 60th year of Formula 1, there were 34 authentic Formula One cars at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion negotiating Laguna Seca’s challenging twists and turns, like a 1976 March 761, and a Ferrari 312 T4 driven by Gilles Villeneuve.
Trans Am cars were represented too – in fact, 44 of these beasts from 1966-1972 returned to the grid, and muscled their way past the stands. The presence of father and daughter, Vic Edelbrock Jr. and Christi Edelbrock, added to the allure too. The name Edelbrock is synonymous with automotive aftermarket performance parts, as anyone with any knowledge of racing cars knows. Also present at Monterey was TV and film actor Patrick Dempsey, racing a 1992 RX7-92 Mazda GTP.
After four days of racing at the 2010 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, Graham Wallis from California drove away with the Spirit of Monterey Trophy for overall excellence in presentation and performance of his 1929 Lagonda, which raced in the group for Pre-1949 Sports and Racing Cars. Said Wallis, “We go shopping in it, we vacation in it, we go to the garden center and put plants in it, and, four or five times a year, we pump the tires up, and we go racing. The car is absolutely all original – we’ve traced its history back to the 1930s, and found that the body is all original – most of the leather is original, the engine and gearbox are all original, and it’s all as it was when it came out of the factory.” Wallis also received a Rolex Oyster Perpetual Cosmograph Daytona, and artwork from artist Bill Patterson’s event poster (signed by Patterson and Dan Gurney), which renders Dan Gurney’s famous Eagle-Weslake Formula 1 race car, and reflects the tribute to Gurney that marked the weekend’s festivities.
