Rolex Reunion Monterey
Pebble Beach Concours or Rolex Reunion? Better to watch cars doing what they were meant to do.
By happy coincidence my current trip to California coincided with the Monterey Historic Car week. A busy personal schedule meant that I could only be there on Sunday, which did present somewhat of a dilemma as to whether or not to go to the Pebble Beach Concours or the Reunion race meet at Laguna Seca.
The racing won out as I prefer to look at cars doing what they are supposed to do, rather than sitting on a nicely manicured lawn being polished.
Compared with some of the events in Europe the Rolex Reunion had a nice relaxed atmosphere, with easy access to wander round and look at the cars in the paddock and not huge crowds. The concession stands had rather good food too as Lobster rolls are infinitely preferable to the greasy burgers sold at Silverstone!
One of the themes of the weekend was a tribute to Dan Gurney, and the Paddock had a special display of many of the cars he drove or that his Eagle team has built. Two of these cars stood out for me: the Ford Mk IV which he shared with AJ Foyt to win the 1967 Le Mans 24 Hours, and (no surprise here) the Ferrari Daytona that Gurney (along with with Brock Yates) drove from New York to Redondo Beach in 35 hours and 54 minutes in the original Sea to Shining Sea Cannonball Run.
The racing itself was categorised into age groups and engine capacities for the majority of the races, although there was one race for old Stock cars and one for 1968-1983 Formula One cars (the 3.0 formula basically). To my European eyes it was very welcome to see a different group of cars on track to those often seen back home, with different eras of Corvettes and Mustangs making up a good portion of the field. The races were much less aggressive than some of those at Goodwood can be, in part as such driving was frowned upon with a furled black flag shown to drivers deemed to be too aggressive or who went off track, and also in part because many of the cars were driven by their owners rather than professional racers. I'm sure the thought of writing cheques for repairs tempers any over-enthusiasm with the throttle!
For me the best race was the 1955 to 1962 GTs over 2500cc., with a large mixed grid which included a number of Ferrari 250 SWBs, Porsche 356s, Corvettes and the winning chrome-polished Aston Martin DB4 GT Zagato.
After the racing had finished I took the opportunity for a wander round the paddock and my eyes were almost immediately taken by a stunning Alfa Romeo 8C 2900. I believe that this was a former winner of the Pebble Beach Concours and it is stunning in every respect, certainly one for the Fantasy Garage. Other delights included a Gulf Porsche 917, a 1959 Ferrari 250 Testarossa and the NART Ferrari 312P.
All in all, a fun day out and certainly something I would like to visit again. A full gallery of photographs from the day can be seen in the Drive Cult Gallery section.