This year’s Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races, held August 18–20, was the 33rd running of what has arguably become the world’s largest gathering of the classic car faithful. With a diverse 400-car field and a star-studded collection of famous drivers and automotive personalities, this year’s Historics paid tribute to the racing legacy of the Cooper Car Company, as well as the 40th anniversary of the Trans-Am.
With Cooper the honored marque, there were dozens of significant examples of the Surbiton racer throughout the paddock, including Jack Brabham’s 1960 T53 “Lowline” F1 car and the Cooper he raced in the 1961 Indy 500, as well as the Lang Cooper and everything from 500-cc F3 machines to Monacos and Mini Coopers.
In addition to the Cooper contingent there was also a full grid of ground-pounding Trans-Am machines, 3-liter Formula One cars and an impressive grid of 1970–1980 IMSA GT cars. With all this impressive machinery, it may not come as much of a surprise that there was a lot of star power up and down the pit lane as well. Some of the bigger names included Sir Jack Brabham, Sir Stirling Moss, Vic Elford, John Fitch, Bobby Rahal, Howden Ganley, Gijs van Lennep, Brian Redman and current F1 pilot Ricardo Zonta.
With Toyota now the presenting sponsor of the Historics, the factory sent Zonta to Monterey along with this year’s TF106 and a team of support personnel to provide some “demonstration” laps and maybe—just maybe—to crush the track record. Amazingly, on Zonta’s first “installation lap,” he matched the existing track record of 1:07.722, set by Helio Castroneves back in 2000 in a Champ car. Yet, much to the amazement and delight of the crowd, Zonta proceeded to steadily reset the record, each day, until he left it at a seemingly untouchable 1:06.309, at an average speed of 121.504 mph!
Also tying in with the Cooper theme of this year’s event was Mini’s launch of the new “John Cooper Works GP” special edition Mini Coopers, as well as the kick off for the “Mini Takes America” cross-country rally. In attendance, for these and the other weekend festivities was John Cooper’s son Michael, who was overwhelmed by the show of interest and support for his father’s, and grandfather’s, cars. “I can’t begin to tell you how gratifying this is to see all these great cars and owners. I know my Dad would have been completely overwhelmed.”
By Casey Annis
