What are the Monterey Historics?

["Buchholz, Steven" <Steven.Buchholz@kla-tencor.com>]

Well, given the fact that even Ned Ritchie is telling me that he is not
familiar with what goes on at the Monterey Historic Races I thought I would
put together a short description of the events of the weekend from my
experience and provide a few links that interested parties can try
navigating to learn more for themselves.  

I've been attending the Historic Races at Laguna Seca since the early '80s,
but I haven't gone every year.  Over the years I've seen the races grow from
being a wonderfully cozy event where you almost had the track to yourself to
one where it attracts the largest crowds in the history of the track (which
is what the head of marketing for Laguna Seca told me happened last year
with Porsche as the featured marque).  The Historic Races provides a way for
fans of just about any era in on-track motorsports to be able to watch their
old favorites out on the track and get a more complete experience than they
would get by looking at the cars in a museum.  Every year a marque or theme
is chosen for the event ... usually this is some automotive manufacturer,
but people like Juan Manuel Fangio and Carroll Shelby have been honored as
well.  While the focus is on that one theme, there will be cars and races
from every age and category in attendance.  While it is very enjoyable
simply to watch the cars doing what they were designed to do on the winding
circuit that is Laguna Seca's claim to fame, I get just as many goosebumps
just walking around in the paddock.  The thing that is great is the fact
that the cars are now owned by people who love the cars for what they are
means that in many cases you can walk up to the car and talk to the owner
about what it is like to own and drive the car and just shoot the breeze if
you'd like.  My best memory from last year was standing 4 feet away from the
back end of a 917 with the rear cowl removed ... looking at 12 nicely
finished velocity stacks.  Apparently they were having problems with the
dual ignition system (funny seeing 24 spark plug wires!) so they were firing
the engine and blipping the throttle tying to figure out what was wrong.  It
appeared to be a fairly simple system so I was half tempted to offer my
assistance, but they seemed to be under a bit of pressure, so I bit my
tongue and whipped out the camcorder ... You never know what you'll see or
what you'll get to do while you're there ... I've seen MBZ 300SLR's there
pretty regularly, once there was a Ford RS200 there ... of course last year
I got my first opportunity to see a roadgoing version of a Sport Quattro.
Another popular racing series is the Mustang/Camaro battles from the 60s and
70s.  The official event starts with practice laps on Friday, with the races
from different categories happening on Saturday and Sunday.  The recognition
of the featured marque usually happens around lunchtime each day.  

This year will be slightly different than any meeting in the past ... there
are actually two features for the event, the 25th anniversary retrospective
will be the focus on Saturday and Auto-Union is to be the featured marque on
Sunday.  There are rumours to the effect that Audi will bring a significant
number of cars from Ingolstadt, and that one or more of the famous Audi
drivers will be present.  There are also rumblings that Audi will have the
North American debut of a new car at the event ... and based on where this
is occurring you might tend to think it would be a car with a sporting
intent ...

Here are a few links that apply to the historic races at Laguna Seca ...

>From the Historics Online Website: ( http://www.historiconline.com/ )
	
http://www.historiconline.com/article/display.cfm?article_id=30
<http://www.historiconline.com/article/display.cfm?article_id=30> 
	
http://www.historiconline.com/article/display.cfm?article_id=29
<http://www.historiconline.com/article/display.cfm?article_id=29> 
	
http://www.historiconline.com/article/display.cfm?article_id=12
<http://www.historiconline.com/article/display.cfm?article_id=12> 
>From Laguna Seca's Website: ( http://www.laguna-seca.com/ )
		http://www.laguna-seca.com/hist.htm
<http://www.laguna-seca.com/hist.htm>  
>From the QCUSA Website: (http://www.quattroclubusa.org/ )
		http://www.quattroclubusa.org/quarterly/features/monterey/ 

I would imagine that there are websites dedicated to the Pebble Beach
Concourse as well, but frankly I've never had much desire to learn much more
about them.  That said, the Pebble Beach concourse provides a wonderful
opportunity to see a number of wonderfully restored old cars.  In the past
on several occasions Audi has brought the Avus Quattro to the concourse for
display as well.  The Pebble Beach Concourse d'Elegance occurs on Sunday at
the same time as the track events are in progress at the racetrack.  Most
years this means that the crowds at Laguna Seca are much lighter on Sunday
than they are on Saturday, but the possible issue for Auto-Union fans is
that given the fact that the activities related to Auto-Union at the
Historics are only happening on Sunday ... I truly hope that Audi will put
all of the show cars in the tent at the track.  [I have a sneaking suspicion
that the fact that the Auto-Union stuff was scheduled for Sunday was done
because the Earle's knew that Audi would not be nearly the same sort of draw
as Porsche or BMW were.]

In addition to these event there are other related events that have grown
over the years simply because the Historics provide a connecting point for
automotive racing fans.  Perhaps the biggest such event is the Concourse
Italiano ... which was originally focused on some of those red cars from the
southern parts of Europe, but which has grown into an event that includes
the BMW fans "Coupefest."  

The other thing that is attractive about the Historics is the fact that they
are held on the Monterey peninsula, which means that there are things for
people who could give a hoot about cars can do.  I won't go into a lot of
detail on this, I believe that there are links on some of the pages I listed
above about this.  As Monterey is in the middle of the coastal mountains
there is also no shortage of fun roads on which to drive.  

I think I'll leave it at this for now.  I hope that it does provide a bit
more information about what sorts of things will be happening there this
coming August.  If anyone has any questions, feel free to ask ... or if
anyone can post information about events that may be of interest that I did
not I think that would be great as well!

Steve Buchholz
San Jose, CA (USA)