The 2003 “Monterey” weekend was, again, a jam-packed period of several days of diverse automotive events, with the celebration of 100 Years of Ford the prominent theme at auctions, concours and racing activities. At the Mazda Laguna Seca circuit, the usual Friday qualifying and Saturday practice and racing featured no less than 432 entries for the 15 races, though the competing events enticed many of these to leave the paddock after the racing on Saturday to go appear at the Pebble Beach Concours; such was the quality of some of the cars entered.
The opening race for pre-1939 sports and touring cars saw a David-and-Goliath battle at the front between Francois Castaing’s 4500-cc Chrysler and Rodney Smith’s diminutive Austin 7 with only 800-cc.
Bugatti shared a large chunk of Ford’s limelight as an amazing 41 “Bugs” contested a special 1919–1939 Bugatti Grand Prix, and only three were not running at the finish. The field included a T-32 “Tank”, as well as examples of the T-57, T-35, 35A, 35B, 35C, 37, 37A, 37SC and 39A—a truly stunning field. German Michael Gans brought his 1928 T-35B home in 1st over Briton Allan Rippon’s 1926 35B. Nine of the Bugatti’s were overseas entries with Richard Longes bringing his 35A from Australia. The cars also made several other appearances in the area over the weekend including the Pebble Beach concours.
The much-awaited FIA Manufacturers Championship 1963–1969 13-lapper brought out no less than 11 Ford GT-40s and five Ford-powered Cobras, the top spots fittingly falling to the GT-40s of Bill Murray and Tom Armstrong. Rob Walton had to retire in the GT-40 chassis 1075, the car which won the Le Mans 24 Hours in both 1968 and 1969. On Sunday Rod Jolley won the race for 1957-1963 F1, F2 and F.Jr machines in his Cooper T45/51.
The historic F1 race for 1967–1983 cars saw a fine field of 27 Grand Prix cars, and Dan Marvin’s 1974 Brabham BT44 led from start to finish with the Tyrrell 011 of Jim Busby, the Tyrrell 009 of Rick Knoop, the Williams FW08C of Erich Joiner, and James King’s March 761 putting pressure on each other behind Marvin for the whole race. The Tyrrell spectacle was enjoyed by the crowd, though John Delane’s 001 retired with a gearbox problem. Sir Jackie Stewart had driven the car in a demonstration earlier. John Dimmer drove a fine race in his 004, Stewart’s 1972 Monaco car. Brit Lorina McLaughlin became the first woman to race a Grand Prix car in America in a March 721.
The expected Ford battle in the Production GT 1963–1966 race was fiercely fought between John Morton in the Ford France Cobra Daytona Coupe and Derek Bell in the similar Shelby car, and Morton led most of the way until retiring on Lap 8, whereupon Phil Gallant’s 1964 Cobra managed to get past Bell to win a superb race.
Submitted by Ed McDonough
