When an actor or a musician becomes a mega-star – becomes essentially a household word – they become known the world over by just a single name – Cher, Sting or Frank. In the automotive world, and certainly the classic automotive world – arguably one of the largest and most important events on the annual calendar shares this same status, Monterey.
Twenty-six years ago, Steve Earle and a few friends had a wacky idea: rent the Laguna Seca racetrack for an entire weekend and play with old racecars. Since that seminal day, the Monterey Historic Automobile Races has grown in stature and prominence to the point that it is now much more than just a race weekend. Monterey has now become a world event, spanning more than a week and featuring four major auctions, two major concours, two full weekends of racing, not to mention countless club gatherings, parties, manufacturer introductions and press launches. In short, it is automotive nirvana. However, ask anyone who has been in recent years and they will tell you that the one major problem with the Monterey “weekend” is that you can’t possibly fit it all in. There is simply too much to do and see.
Since we at Vintage Racecar Journal are automotive masochists of the highest order, we thought we’d try and bring you a taste of what it is like to do it all – the concours, auctions, parties, races – the whole experience. In all, we brought eight staff members to Monterey for this year’s event, including bringing European Editor Ed McDonough and photographer Peter Collins over from England. Since many of us have been making the trek to Monterey since the dawn of time, we thought it might be interesting to let you see the event through the eyes of our European colleagues.
—Casey Annis
Thursday
The Monterey Historics weekend starts on Thursday for us journalist types, though a lot earlier for many of those involved in racing, buying and selling serious classics at the auctions, or owners of the dazzling gems which appear at Friday’s Concorso Italiano and Sunday’s Pebble Beach Concours. It’s probably not an exaggeration to say that the road to Monterey is a long one and that the journey may take some time.
In our case the journey was made much more interesting by the fact that Peter Collins and I would be making the pilgrimage in one of Porsche’s press fleet Carrera Turbos. Heh, someone had to drive it! We left Los Angeles at o’dark hundred on Thursday morning and with the Editor and the rest of our bleary-eyed staff trudging along in the company truck, we “quickly” wound our way up California’s Highway 5 to catch rustic Highway 46, which would connect us to Highway 101 and the Monterey Peninsula. Since we were making the sojourn in a Porsche, it seemed only fitting that we stop for a photo opportunity along Highway 46 in a tiny hamlet called Cholame, which has as its claim to fame a small memorial commemorating the fact that this was the place where James Dean met his untimely end – oddly enough driving a Porsche on his way to a race at Laguna Seca, as well!
As we motor through the golden rolling hills of California’s Central Valley, Peter and I never tire of spotting catchy number plates like “6ADDICT,” “ITS-MOI” and the Iso-Rivolta with the license “65ISO-GT.” Back home in England, people pay $50,000 for a license that oftentimes makes little or no sense!
All along the trip we either pass or are passed by an amazingly broad collection of classic cars also making the pilgrimage. At one point, we even joined up with a caravan of Panteras and a lone Lamborghini Murcielago, presumably heading up for Friday’s Concorso Italiano.
When we arrive at the track, we immediately head for the vendor midway where we lend a hand putting together VRJ’s booth for the weekend. After renewing a few acquaintances in the paddock and watching a short bit of free practice for those drivers who are new to Laguna, we set off across the beautiful rolling hills toward Carmel Valley and the Quail Lodge golf resort to secure credentials for the following day’s Concorso Italiano. With Saturday’s Bonham’s auction being also at Quail Lodge, we get a chance to venture over and see some of the choice racing machinery due to come under the hammer. Some of the racecars included a 1961 Abarth Record Monza, a 1947 Kurtis-Kraft Midget, a 1955 Alloy Mercedes-Benz 300SL, a 1973 Lola-Cosworth T292 and a 1960 Lotus-Climax 19.
However, time is not our friend this weekend, and with it being near 5p.m., we are faced with the problem of needing to pick up credentials for both the track and Pebble Beach, on opposite sides of the peninsula, in just 30 minutes. A quick conference with the rest of the staff and we elect to hightail it across town and pick up our track credentials today and hopefully squeeze Pebble in sometime tomorrow. With just minutes to spare we make it to the hotel that is serving as race headquarters, and while standing in line we bump into old friends Luigi Chinetti Jr. and Brian Redman as well as several other notable drivers of yore. One of the many fabulous things about Monterey is that almost anywhere you go – the hotels, the restaurants, the loo(!) – you’re bound to run into someone interesting…there’s always someone good to talk to around here.
Friday
With a lot of ground to cover, dawn comes early again…as it has to every day here. We are at Concorso Italiano making the rounds a little before 8a.m, and, unfortunately, so are thousands of others. We hear later that it takes three hours to get in from the circuit after noon. Even at this early hour on a Friday, in order to get some worthwhile photos, with less than a hundred spectators hanging over the cars, requires quickly taking control of the green where some superb stuff is resting. This year Concorso Italiano featured Italian racecars, and a fabulous cross section of racing history was represented by cars like Greg Whitten’s long-tail Alfa Romeo 33/2; the Stanguellini Formula Juniors of Pablo Gonzales and Ugo Piccagli; Merkel Weiss’ 1964 Fiat-Abarth 1000GT prototype; a 1950 Abarth 205 Vignale Berlinetta; John Devine’s Ferrari 500 MDTR; the ex-Amon Ferrari 312 Grand Prix car of 1969, and many others. Concorso started some 15 years ago as a Maserati Club picnic and, like the races, has grown into a world-class event that features not only Italian cars, but motorcycles, food, fashion and even opera! The presence of hundreds of Alfas, Ferraris, Maseratis, Lamborghinis and Etceterini mandates that we make a thorough but rapid tour of the premises and the extensive vendor area before heading back to Laguna Seca, by noon.
However, before we make it over to the track, there is still the small problem of making it over to Pebble to pick up our credentials. Our esteemed Editor mercilessly stuffs me in the so-called back seat of the Turbo, so that he, Peter and myself can blaze over to Pebble. The growing cramps in my legs were made all the worse by the fact that, once at Pebble, we have to carefully work our way through the vast security patrol which means parking in some distant and far-flung spot, so we can sign on and get the required documents without which you cannot even approach Pebble Beach on Sunday morning. Once accomplished, there’s just enough time to swing by the Christie’s tent where the Sunday auction will take place. At Christie’s, we get the chance to chat with Nick Benwell and Colin Warrington, both on Christies’ staff and good mates, and have yet another look at the ex-Dan Gurney Eagle F1 which owner Ben Liebert hopes will sell well. This is AAR003 and was driven by Dan himself, Richie Ginther and Ludovico Scarfiotti and raced in 1967 and 1968. Other notable racing machinery include the late Bill Serri’s Bugatti Type 51, the ex-Camoradi Le Mans Corvette and from the Ruger Estate, a wonderful 1913 Mercer Raceabout Type 35 –J…and that is just the racing stuff!
Once crammed back into the Porsche, it’s back across country, into the circuit paddock and track down the shuttle bus that will carry us up to the infamous Corkscrew, perhaps the single most photogenic spot in motor racing, a tumbling connection of turns which see men become both meek and mighty. It’s a great place and photographer Collins is impressed…the light is amazing… a bit Greek island blue…and the locations and angles endless. It sort of spoils the rest of the track for me, though the last corner onto the pit straight does provide plenty of action. We take in several of the practice sessions before actually managing to get back to our lodgings, however briefly, before the evening’s events…a rushed meal, a quick appearance at a social gathering for Art Evans’ “Fabulous Fifities” group (an organization made up predominantly of racers from the ’50s), and then we are away again, this time to take in the first night of RM Auctions’ gala sale.
Some of the racecars crossing the auction block on RM’s opening night include a 1963 Cooper-Monaco Chevy, a 1969 McLaren M12 Can-Am car, a 1972 McLaren M8F, an ex-Emerson Fittipaldi Indy March 88C and 1998 Corvette C5 Le Mans car. Unlike the sober atmosphere of English auctions, this is all rootin’ tootin’ and hard sell…a shock for us, but great if it’s your car they are working so hard to sell.
Saturday
This proves to be almost a full day in one place…almost. With the first of two days racing, there’s the opportunity to get a good look at cars qualifying and racing and catch up with notables and old friends in the paddock. Throughout the course of the day we get the opportunity to talk with Dan and Evi Gurney, Dutch racer Ben Pon (see last month’s interview), Corvette legend Dick Guldstrand and sports car standout John Morton among others. However, as fantastic as all this was, I have to confess a guilty pleasure…the press lunch at Laguna Seca rivals virtually anything Peter and I have ever experienced. I know…you think we freeload 5-star style everywhere – but Goodwood’s crinkled quarter sandwiches and Mallory Park’s greasy cafeteria pale in comparison! Not only were the lunches delicious, they were themed…themed!! Chinese one day, Mexican the next! All this because the organizers have the foresight to feed the drivers, teams and press from the same catering center. It may not seem like a big deal to you, but it is indicative of the level of thought and planning that has gone into making this event what it is today.
Of course, in order to justify that lunch, it’s back up the hill to the Corkscrew where the racing is good, too! It starts with a ten lapper for the Pre-1931 Sports and Touring Cars where the 1939 Lagonda V-12 of Richard Morrison out-ran Francois Castaing’s 1930 Chrysler. In the second race, 1927 to 1946 Racing Cars, four Alfa Romeos and a Maserati made a futile chase after Mark Gillies’ fleet 1934 ERA. The sight of a prewar Monza, two P3s, an 8C 2300 and the 1500 cc Maser 6CM hurtling down the Corkscrew was worth the price of admission.
In between race groups, vast hordes of Corvettes, the featured marque celebrating its 50th anniversary, thundered around along with some special cars and the LeMans class-winning Corvette C5. If you planned your time well, there was also the opportunity to tour the large tented areas in the center of the paddock that housed a special display of Corvette history including the CERV 1 experimental racecar, the Mako design exercises, the SR2 and SS, and a superb Grand Sport. In the sponsor Rolex’s marquee there was a fine tribute to Dan Gurney with one of his F1 Eagles present alongside the 1967 Ford Mk IV with which he and A.J. Foyt won Le Mans. Dan himself said he was quite moved by the display and I found Bob Bondurant in there wandering through some of his own interesting history and of course enjoying all the Corvettes.
After watching Lancia D24s and Phil Hill in an Alfa Romeo 6C 3000CM make the race for 1947-1955 Sports Cars exciting, it came time for what was probably the finest race of the day – if not the weekend – a ten lap battle for Over 2500 cc 1955-1959 Sports Racing Cars. This was a cut and thrust affair between the two Scarabs of Brian Redman and Rob Walton and Tom Holfelder’s ex-Meister Brauser Chaparral Mk I driven by Paul Brown. Walton led during the early going but when he started to fade, it became a real battle between Redman and Brown, with Redman pipping Brown by just a few feet at the flag!
Next, 23 Corvettes (including organizer Steve Earlels) fought off a few non-bowtie interlopers in the 1963-1966 GT/Production Car thrash which saw a number of bent cars and a win by Ken Ballard’s Corvette. With time constraints again pushing us on, Collins, the Editor and myself had to skip the final race of the day to rush up the road to a plush country club setting for the press preview of the new Bentley GT Coupe. Upon arriving at a private country club near the track, we and a couple of dozen invited guests were feted with afternoon tea before being ushered into a small tent where the design team responsible for Bentley’s newest flagship unveiled the sleek, 12-cylinder beast to a dumbstruck crowd. The GT Coupe is far away one of the sportiest Bentleys ever made and with a target price of $150,000, the three of us hacks were in agreement that they will likely sell a lot of these when they come out in 2003.
Unfortunately, we can’t drool over the Bentley too long because we are expected at 6p.m. for dinner with some of the staff and friends of the magazine. Once dinner is complete, we pile into the Porsche once more to head back to downtown Monterey for the second night of the RM extravaganza. One of the main attractions of the weekend’s quartet of auctions (yes, it is now four with last year’s addition of a muscle car auction by Russo & Steele) is RM’s feature car of the sale, Pierre Bardinon’s 1962 ex-Phil Hill/Olivier Gendebien Le Mans-winning Ferrari 330 Tri, which was motored onto the auction stage by Hill himself. The atmosphere in the large, packed Doubletree convention center was electric as the bidding began with a fury. Bids were being raised in $100,000 increments as the Ferrari quickly rose above the $4 million mark. For nearly 45 minutes the drama and razzmatazz was stupifying until finally the gavel fell and this no questions piece of Le Mans history sold for $5.7 million (not counting sale commission!). Equally surprising was the fact that, in this supposed down market, the Ferrari fetched one of the highest prices ever attained by a car at auction. After the excitement of the Ferrari, it was a struggle for the rest of the night not to be a bit anti-climatic, even though there were several other notable racecars including a 1964 Porsche Carrera GTS, a 1959 Devin SS, Bill Serri’s lovely and well used Ferrari 250 Monza Spider and the highly touted 1967 Sunray DX L88 which brought all the Corvette fans out.
Sunday
It seems that no sooner had the applause from RM died down that we were climbing out of bed again to head off for that oddest of events, the Pebble Beach Concours, where the most expensively dressed women…and men…are polishing their cars on a foggy beach at 7a.m.! I can never entirely get my head around this event, so long perceived as a blue ribbon show, and that’s possibly because we come in at this inhospitable hour to photograph – while the crowds are “somewhat” diminshed, yet never really enter the atmosphere properly. The draw for us was the special class for racing machinery, which was what had made this year’s Concorso sparkle that bit brighter as well.
Apart from cheery greetings from well-known British historic racer, Barrie ‘Whizzo’ Williams, in charge of the Ecurie Ecosse transporter on display, there were some splendid racers adorning the plush grass, and for once the morning fog wasn’t too intrusive. Some of the racecars on display included a super display of Ferraris and Jaguars, and numerous tiny Italian, under 1-liter machines which continued to attract big crowds to small cars. American TV celeb Jay Leno was to be seen among the exotic machinery, even at this hour!
As the huge throng paying $100 a time for a ticket started flooding in, we were off again, our snappy Porsche looking at home on the 17-Mile Drive, though we were now headed the ‘wrong way’…..back to Laguna Seca for the finale of the racing and seven practice and race sessions. In the first race, the ten lap bash for Under-2000 cc Sports Racing Cars 1947-1955, Bill Perrone’s immaculate OSCA MT4 beats the equally lovely Porsche 550 of Robert Baker and Jim Fuchs’ Ferrari 166MM. The 1956 to 1962 GT/Production Cars Under 2500 cc sees Elva Couriers, Porsches, TRs and Alfas battling it out. Dutch Porsche racer Ben Pon had to switch from Dean Watt’s Carrera Abarth, the very car Pon used to own and race in 1960, to Watt’s Speedster as the Carrera’s gearbox failed. Pon was 8th overall. Lotus F.Jr. and F1 cars dominated the Formula Cars race, Rob Walton in his Grand Sport led another huge horde of Corvettes in the larger production car event, while the final race of the weekend was a stunning display of Trans-Am machinery swapping positions for much of the race.
And then that was it…We pack up and head south again to LA, the mountains and sprawling Monterey peninsula lost in late evening purple haze, and a week’s serious auto activity had just been jammed into a few days. Are we exhausted? Yes. Will we be back next year? Absolutely!
