Reunited: And It Feels So Good
It probably wasn’t a good idea for us to pin all of our hopes on one weekend making up for the last year-and-a-half of canceled and postponed car events. We’ve become acquainted to the fact that anything that’s been planned….no matter how certain….no matter how venerable or probable….can be postponed and then canceled. In fact, as the COVID-19 /Delta variant spread like wildfire around the globe and then the States, we were perfectly willing to accept the fact that we might have to drop our h(m)otel reservations and take a raincheck on our passes to some or all of our regular Car Week events. It was a hedge….but after all we’ve been through with the pandemic, what the hell else did we have going?
The past year has taught valuable lessons in accepting that nothing can really be certain, that we are owed nothing, and that what we do, actually anything that we do is a privilege that can disappear. It’s terribly liberating while also a bit frightening to enter the unknown where any plans can disappear as quickly as they were made… even quicker.
Trust us, we’re professionals.
As it turns out, we’re a couple of lucky stiffs! Despite a lingering global pandemic, and all the other crazy going on in the world, we got it all. Itch scratched, rocks offed, jollies gotten. Despite the event being limited to about 300 cars to increase “elbow-room” (which was a great idea), nothing we experienced on our Saturday adventure at the 2021 Weathertech Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion #RMMR, led us to believe anything had really changed. Weathertech Raceway Laguna Seca was a much welcome bubble of automotive amazingness that helped us forget about all of our ills. This year’s event featured Ford cars in Trans-AM, celebrating the 55th Anniversary of the “Pony Car Wars.”
The Reunion consistently features a healthy number of these cars, even when the event is featuring a completely different marque. We always highly recommend that anyone/everyone who goes to this event make it a point to be present in the paddock when the Trans-Am cars are started for warmup or before a heat. It’s pure sensory overload to absorb the spectacle. This year ‘s paddock was all that and then some #literally. In fact, in all the years we’ve attended this event, we’ve never seen a pit row with so many cars in the same racing group. In case you don’t believe us, just watch the video below to see the variety of Trans-Am cars that flexed their muscles on Saturday (we count 43 for this session)
Feel this!!!!
Ford Flexing:
Near the heritage display honoring the history of Ford in Trans-Am racing was a display of the past and present of the Ford GT40 and modern Ford GT serving as a reminder of the brute force performance of cars over 50 years old, that were well ahead of their time. Amongst the displayed cars was the Ford GT MkII driven by Ken Miles at the 1966 24 Hours of Le Mans, that had been “temporarily liberated” from its home at the Shelby American Collection museum in Colorado. Displayed right next to it was GT 40 P/1016 which finished third at Le Mans in 1966 driven by Ronnie Bucknum and Dick Hutcherson. Revealing a continued connection to its racing heritage and efforts to ensure the Ford GT name is appreciated by multiple generations the display also featured the the #67 Chip Ganassi Racing Ford GT which delivered a second place at LeMans in 2017 and in 2018 gave Chip Ganassi Racing its 200th win. Not yet finished with flexing the Ford Muscle the Ford Performance and Multimatic collaboration MK II was on site to show off the unlimited potential of the Ford GT, but in a track only version.
IndyCar:
For the first time at the Reunion was a dedicated historic Indy Car group made up of cars that competed between 1963 and 1978. This was the era that saw the introduction of rear engined cars. Three winners of the Indianapolis 500 would joint the track during the Reunion. 1964 Indy winning Watson, driven to victory by A.J. Foyt; the 1970 Indy winning Colt, piloted by Al Unser; and the 1973 Indy winning Eagle.
Track Action
A necessary component of a Reunion weekend is not just the sensory spectacle of the paddock where you can get up close and personal. Automotive nostalgia comes alive on track where entrants to the reunion push often rare machines to the edge of traction in short sprint races. A sight to behold are the small, light displacement European designed race cars that hold their own against American muscled V8s. The rumbling V8s may win the straights but it’s lightness that wins the corners.
Better yet, take a trip down the rabbit hole to the cars that dominated sports car racing in the 60s, 70s and 80s…sometimes even the 90s where the rules sped to keep up with the ingenuity of mechanics and designers dedicating themselves to unlock any unfair advantage. Top this all off with the knowledge that many of the cars on track throughout the weekend are worth millions and/or are so significantly rare that major damage could be catastrophic, yet they are driven as they were meant to be.
And Over on Pagani Island…
Not everything at the Reunion is “historic,” or even old. Sure, all of the cars that are there to race are one or both of those things, but Laguna Seca is a big place and the automotive world is there for the racing, sure, but the world press and automakers of all kinds are there to shamelessly show off and promote. A perfect example is one spectacle we unfortunately missed in the days leading up to our arrival. Our social media feeds were saturated with the amazing images of the 30-some-odd, ultra-everything, Ferrari Monza SP1s and SP2 roadsters staged all over the Monterey Peninsula and at the track. Sadly, all 30-odd cars were gone by the time we got there on Saturday, but while one door closed, another opened rewarded us with some other ultra-everything Italian supercars.
Most people have never heard of a Pagani, and even fewer have laid eyes on one. We’ve seen a few over the years, and can attest that they are nothing less than truly stunning…even by supercar standards. These folks don’t “do” subtle….not a lick. You simply walk up to one and your mind melts and drips out of your nose. If you’re lucky enough to get to hear one start and even drive….we’ll spare you the description of what happens to the rest of your body. That would be the normal reaction to one car. As the name suggests, this was an Island of Pagani automobiles. We’re pretty sure they’ve cornered the world markets for titanium, Mercedes Benz V-12s (w/turbos, of course) and carbon fiber (and Carbotitanium!…and in every color), cuz that’s all you see in a field of them.
And Out in the Parking Lot….
Not all parking lots are created equal. Sure, the Reunion parking situation is not unlike any other. Most of the cars in the various parking lots at Laguna Seca are pretty garden variety. Most of us drive standard commuters or other vehicles of various utility….makes sense. But a stroll around Laguna always turns up more….so much more. Many car clubs congeal and form “corrals” in the lagoon and other parking areas and it’s not uncommon to find large groupings of Corvettes, Porsches, BMWs, Vipers and usually a good number of various British makes and often Panteras. For whatever reason, this year was really light on the club corrals. That said, there was still a lot to behold.
The Camilo Pardo and Rich Brooks tributes to the P/1015 and P/1016 cars.
The amazing Russell Built Baja 911
The $4 million, 1 of 15, McLaren MSO created Sabre
The the 2021 Reunion exemplified the term. It was a Reunion with our passion for an event that we have attended going on near 25 years. It was a Reunion with the analog automotive experience in a digital world where noise and rumble with hand crafted metal are more important than than the collective infatuation with the latest automotive toy. Perhaps the most salient experience was the Reunion we experienced with a few precious hours of normalcy…just the smell of petrol and the thunder of racecars and visiting with old friends of both the human and mechanical variety. Assuming you’ve made it this far in our summary, we hope you’ve gotten a good taste of the Reunion and you consider giving it a try for the first or umpteenth time when August rolls around next year.
As always, we’ve included a gallery below with more images from our Saturday at the track.
-Mark & Andrew
