Please note: I have used the title (Above) since 1985 when I wrote a column for a local newspaper in Fairfield (CA). It didn't last long but, it fit what I was doing. In England and the backwoods of New England, you will hear of someone being, "Over The Edge," or "A Bit Round The Bend," usually meaning obsessed or fixated. I became fixated about anything involving motor racing in the mid fifties. Not the circle track stuff at Agawam or Stafford Springs in Connecticut, but road racing at Watkins Glen and Lime Rock Park. I acknowledge (not blame) my late Uncle, Road & Track Magazine, the late Bernard Cahier and Motorsport, an English motor racing magazine for my being a bit round the bend about auto racing. So there you have it. And here Goes!
HISTORIC RACING AT MAZDA RACEWAY LAGUNA SECA UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT! Monterey Historic Photographs Provided By: Paul Zimerman The Monterey Historic Automobile Races at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca on August 12-15 2010 have a new name and will be henceforth referred as the "ROLEX MONTEREY MOTORSPORTS REUNION."
By now, everybody knows that General Racing and Steve Earle were unable to come to terms with the management of the historic Northern California circuit located on the Monterey Bay. Some may consider this to be a bad thing. However, I believe it to be a good thing. Consider, if you will, the Monterey Historic Automobile Races have been run at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for over thirty years! Most marriages don't last that long! Well, at least none of mine have. . .Personally, I believe that Gill Campbell and her management staff at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca will do an excellent job. We old Fahrts will have to get used to calling the event whatever she and her group decide to call it. maybe she could steal the title that Bing Crosby used for his annual Pebble Beach Golf Tournament, "The Clambake."
DAN GURNEY AND HIS CARS!
In a change from the way the other event had operated, The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion will honor both a manufacturer and an individual. Bugatti being the chosen Marque and Dan Gurney and his cars being selected as the first honoree under the new leadership.
The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion feature both "veteran," and "vintage," racing cars. Veteran cars are pre World War II vehicles
and vintage racecars are post World War II era racers.
An example of a veteran car would be the white (Left) Mercedes SSK, a "between the wars," racer driven by the likes of Rudolf Caracciola. The pair of Porsches (Silver 104 and Red 17 featuring aerodynamic wheel covers) (Right) and the BRUMOS Porsche 935, number 59 (Below) are vintage racers.
Spectators will also be able to see and smell some of the finest racing machines in the world such as vintage Trans Am Mustangs and Camaros or Maseratis and Ferraris or D-Type
Jaguars and Shelby Cobras!
Oh, by the way. The number 59 Brumos liveried Porsche is a factory car.
The Porsche Kremer 935K cars (above) were not recognized by the Porsche factory as they were built by Erwin and Manfred Kremer's shop in Cologne, Germany to Group 5 specifications rather than the Porsche Factory in Weissach, Germany! The Kremer Porsche's raced in both the IMSA GTP and the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM). They featured a more aerodynamic body style than the factory Porsches. A Kremer Porsche 935K3 won the 1979 24 Hours of Le Mans!
However, official Porsche histories do not recognize the win as a Porsche triumph.
Strolling through the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca paddock, you might meet Indy Car Champion Bobby Rahal, TV personality Jay Leno, or IMSA GT Champion Hurley Haywood. You may also run into fifties racing legend John Fitch or Carroll Shelby or Bob Bondurant, or even Hans Stuck or Klaus Ludwig, you never know. You may even run into me!
One thing for certain is that no matter where you go in the paddock, you will meet some VERY interesting people who will be more than delighted to talk with you about their car! That's the fun of the Monterey Historic Automobile Races.
As a veteran of the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) or in American, the German Racing Championship of the seventies and
eighties, and having been
intimately involved with 1978 German Racing Champion and Zakspeed Turbo Capri racer, Harald Ertl's Racing Car Show in Mannheim, I'd love to see the fire belching Zakspeed Ford Turbo Capris and Schnitzer Turbo BMW 320i's over here amongst the plethora of Porsche Kremer 935Ks!
A couple of year's ago, I was talking with European Le Mans Series racer Stefan Mücke who told me that his historic racing father, Peter, owned at least two of the iconic Zakspeed Turbo Capri's. Of which, I believe 6 were built
. The Division 1 twin Turbo car (seen here as the Liqui Moly/NIGRIN Manfred Wincklehock driven car) and five single Turbocharged Division II cars. The SACHS Sporting car of Harald Ertl and the D&W Zubehor car of Klaus Niedzwiedz
For some reason I have not heard the distinctive Turbocharger squeak during my visits to the Monterey Historic Automobile Races. It can best be described as similar to the sound made by sneakers on a gymnasium floor!
Please note: The cars pictured here are Harald Ertl's SACHS Sporting Turbo Capri, Hans J. Stuck's Schnitzer Rodenstock BMW 320, The Liqui Moly twin Turbo Capri raced by Manfred Winkelhock and Klaus Niedzwiedz's D&W Turbo Capri.
Tickets for the ROLEX Monterey Motorsports Reunion may be ordered online. Just click on the link.
See you there!
