Monterey Motorsports Reunion
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History Meets the Future at Monterey
Bill Sessa Reports on the 50th Anniversary Year
The Rolex Motorsports Reunion in Monterey may be one of the oldest and well-known celebrations of historic racing on the planet. In fact, the 2024 event reached a historic milestone of its own at the drop of the first green flag as it celebrated its 50th running, 19 years older than the famed Goodwood Festival of Speed. But this historic weekend began with an electrifying look at the future. For the last three years, Laguna Seca has included a Goodwood-style ‘hillclimb’ reverse run up the track from the start/finish line through turns 11, 10 and 9 to the Corkscrew, the track’s famous turns 8a and b.
As it did at Goodwood two years ago, the Speirling, a single seat, electric powered hyper-track car, obliterated the track record for the Hillclimb as Americans got their first look at the 1,000hp machine from McMurty Automotive in Gloucester, UK. With Formula One and Indy Car driver Max Chilton at the wheel, the Speirling was in a class of its own, completing the short run in reverse direction up the back of the track in 21.968 seconds, a full eight seconds faster than a petrol-powered ‘67 Ford Falcon and 2022 Ferrari.
After demonstration runs on Saturday, curious fans crowded around a tent to get a closer look at the only two versions of the car that currently exist. The car’s creator, Thomas Yates, spent five years working in Formula One for Mercedes. He said designing the car, powered by two electric drive motors at the rear wheels and two fans that create downforce on the front wheels, “is an opportunity to walk away from the rulebook and see what we can do”.
In addition to Laguna Seca, the Speirling was put on display at other high-end events around Monterey, including The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, which annually hosts the debut of million-dollar hyper-cars, to build interest for the 100 cars that McMurty will build for public sale.
The unique nature of this weekend is why McMurty was here courting buyers. The third week of August on the Monterey Peninsula offers a buffet of automotive gluttony known as Car Week, stuffed with events to please the palate of every autophile. There are preening beauty contests for Ferrari, Porsche and BMW aficionados, while a whimsical Concours de Lemons crowns the “ugliest car” as a fun-loving antidote to the solemnity of the prestigious Pebble Beach Concours. Bids fly and hammers bang down at auctions that brought in more than $100 million in sales this year.
But Car Week, as we know it now, would never have become the must-do event of the summer without the racing. The first races on the Monterey Peninsula were modest affairs, featuring racers such as Phil Hill, who won in 1950 driving a modern XK120 through the Del Monte Forest at Pebble Beach over a field of MGs and Corvettes. Seven years later Carroll Shelby would win the last race through the forest before the event was moved to the safer environment of the Laguna Seca road course.
The Pebble Beach Concours still honours that tradition. This year, more than half of the cars that would be featured on the lawn on Sunday drove through the forest on the Thursday before, symbolically crossing over the original start/finish line of the old racecourse.
This year’s Rolex Motorsports Reunion drew 400 entries, compared to 61 that attended the first “Historics” in 1974. The field ranged from the Ragtime era of the 1920s to historic Formula One and included IMSA GT and GTP, Trans Am and production classes in various ages and engine displacements. The largest group, 1955-67 SCCA Small Displacement Production Cars, attracted 40 entries while most classes had between two and three dozen entries. After Wednesday practice and Thursday qualifying, each class raced on Saturday and Sunday making for a busy weekend of 26 races.
Read Bill Sessa’s full report in the October issue of Historic Motor Racing News…
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