Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion: The Golden Years
Before there was the Lime Rock Historic Festival (1983), the Monaco Historic Grand Prix (1997), Goodwood Revival (1998), Silverstone Classic (2001) and the Le Mans Classic (2002) there was the Monterey Historic Automobile Races, first held in 1974. The event was renamed in 2010, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, and this year the event celebrated 50 years of racing at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca.
Founded by Steve Earle, the first event in 1974 featured 66 entries which has grown to more than 400 for the 2024 golden celebration of historic racing at the legendary circuit. Over the last five decades, major brands have been the event’s featured marques such as Ferrari, Porsche, Bentley, Jaguar, Corvette and BMW just to name a few. Recently, the event has grown to include the Pre-Reunion event, held the week leading up to the main event, that includes more vintage racing and a hillclimb competition up to the world famous Corkscrew. Describing it as a living history week of Motorsport is a major understatement. It is so much more, and in recent decades its seen additional displays and demonstration laps from cars making the rounds during Monterey Car Week from The Quail to the Pebble Beach Concours, Concorso Italiano and others.
Earlier this year there was some buzz on social media and in conversations we had with other historic race fans, wondering (some questioning) what this year would bring without featuring a single manufacturer marque? Whatever questions or doubts anyone had about the lineup quickly dissipated as this year’s event featured a massive display of iconic cars, each one representing a Motorsport milestone and marque from the last half-century. The headlining Motul Golden Anniversary Display paid homage to the Reunions/Historics of the past, bringing back lots of memories. There were lots of ooohs and ahhhs as seasoned attendees and newcomers alike marveled at the selection of motorsports history thoughtfully and openly displayed before them. The display wasn’t just focused on the cars that represented history, but also the icons of motorsports that drove them. Looking across the display the names of both machine and driver brought back our own memories of triumph and lore from real world racing and also memorable moments from Reunions past. The assemblage of cars included, the 1956 Maserati 250F, originally raced by Stirling Moss, a 1963 Chaparral 2 that recorded 22 wins in 39 races and the 1990 Mercedes-Benz C11 driven by Michael Schumacher at Le Mans.
The racing action of the Reunion was divided into thirteen racing groups spanning 120 years of motorsport history, from the Ragtime Racers group representing the 1920 and earlier pre-war vehicles to the Scott Pruett Legends of Endurance Cup highlighting cars from 1991-2011 IMSA ALMS, Grand AM and FIA race cars. As always, the reunion brings out a living history of motorsports that can be seen, touched (only with permission of course), and smelled.
In addition to the heritage display and the historic racing groups the Reunion had more on the menu in the form of special guests and drivers as well as demonstration laps of the latest automotive technological marvels.
This year amongst these notables was 2009 Formula 1 World Champion Jenson Button driving his ‘52 Jaguar C-Type, once owned by Juan Manuel Fangio. Sir (yeah, he’s been knighted) Jenson was accessible to fans as his team support and car were in the paddock next to the other regulars of the Reunion without pretense or studio lights. Just a racer enjoying the pure art of driving historic machinery around in anger.
From 1952 we now take you to the current day. McMurtry Automotive was on hand to showcase some demonstration laps in the McMurtry Speirling (X2 actually), which earlier in the week set the top time in the aforementioned Laguna Seca hill climb event. The same record-breaking car wowed fans at the Goodwood Festival of speed just a few weeks ago. These things have a staggering 0-60 mph time of blink and you missed it (1.4s)! While the team was not pushing for a track record, it was clear from the laps we witnessed that in the right hands, it would likely demolish the lap record Laguna Seca. Silent but deadly.
As if all the paddock displays, and racing weren’t enough, there was also a lot to see on the “lagoon” side of the raceway campus. This area, traditionally devoted to to food/drink and swag vendors, car club corrals, and parking again featured a Bring a Trailer “Alumni Gathering,” that this year celebrated BaT’s 10 year anniversary. This online auction’s community of users and followers continues to bring the heat to the Reunion with literally hundreds of examples of cars that have traversed BaT’s virtual auction block. Seldom have we seen such a diverse field of cars ranging from ultra exotic to rare but mundane with a sprinkling of just plain janky. We wish them a happy 10th birthday and will celebrate it wit some pics from their party and some of Laguna Seca’s parking lots and club corrals.
Even after decades of doing it we continue to advocate that if a sojourn to Monterey Car Week is limited by budget time and/or resources, the solid choice for the best use of your precious time and treasure is the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Yes, Pebble Beach has the tour and the Concours, The Quail has the flash and the hype cars, but the Reunion kinda does a little of those things, AND it ties that all together with the connection to motorsport. Historic racing, and events like this one offer an unparalalled opportunity to get close to the cars that may have sparked your love of the automobile in the first place, and also gives you the opportunity to see them do what they do best, go fast and look amazing. What more could you ask for?
As always, we’ve included a mega gallery below to show in pictures what our lousy writing couldn’t describe with our limited abilities and attempts to be clever.
-The Loud Pedal
Mega Gallery:
