Monterey Historic Automobile Races

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races presented by Toyota (or simply Monterey Historics) is an annual event held at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Monterey, California. Its purpose is to provide an event for historic race cars to compete in. It takes place over the course of one weekend every mid-August and will be taking place on August 15-17 this year. It was first established by Steve Earle in 1974 as the Monterey Historic Automobile Races, who organized the meeting for his friends to race their cars at Laguna Seca.^[1] Over the years, the event would eventually acquire sponsorships from Rolex and Chrysler, eventually dropping the Chrysler sponsorship for Toyota. The Monterey Historics is considered one of the top historic automobile racing events. A few years ago, Speed Channel broadcasted highlights of previous races. The event is affiliated with the smaller Wine Country Classic held at Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California, the Coronado Classic Speed Festival held at Naval Base Coronado in Coronado, California, and the Rolex Lime Rock Vintage Festival held at Lime Rock Park in Lakeville, Connecticut. In 2008, HD Theater televised highlights of the event as part of its Ultimate Car Show program.

1 Participants
2 Anniversaries
3 Amateur Status
4 Races
5 Featured Marques
6 Marque Representation
7 Rules and Format
8 Differences from sister events
9 References
10 External links

[edit] Participants

Though many participants are locals, some celebrities do participate. Vic Edelbrock, Jr. and family are regulars. Various professional road racers have also participated, such as Carroll Shelby, Bobby Rahal, Parnelli Jones, and Stirling Moss.

[edit] Anniversaries

The event commemorated its tenth anniversary in 1985 by selecting Alfa Romeo, its first featured marque, to be featured for the second time, the first occurrence in the event's history. The event chose Corvette as the featured marque for 2002 in commemoration of the car's fiftieth anniversary, making it the first model rather than manufacturer to be featured. The event celebrated its 25th anniversary in 1998. The event will be celebrating its 35th anniversary in 2008 by featuring its first marque, Alfa Romeo, for the third time.

[edit] Amateur Status

Because it is an amateur event, guests are allowed to visit the paddock and view all the cars before the races begin. The only reward the participants receive is the pleasure to share their prized racing automobiles with the public.

[edit] Races

Many different types of races are featured.

Prewar sports racing and touring cars
Prewar Grand Prix cars
1947-60 sports racing cars (divided into separate races and occassionally combined with the production cars)
1947-66 production cars (divided into separate races)
1955-63 Formula cars (often Formula 2, Formula Jr., etc)
Historic Trans-Am cars (five liter class only)
1965-72 FIA Manufacturer's Championship cars
Historic Can Am cars
1966-77 Formula One cars
1969-81 IMSA GT Championship cars

Some races are divided by displacement. The most common are the classes that mostly feature cars with more than two or 2.5 liters and those that feature less than two to 2.5 liters. One year, they added an all-Bugatti race known as the Bugatti Grand Prix, which was odd as Bugatti has not been the featured marque since 1977. The next occurrence of this was in 2004 where an all-Ferrari race was held, this time featuring the featured marque.

[edit] Featured Marques

In 1975 Alfa Romeo became the first featured marque of the event, and the tradition has continued ever since.

1976-Jaguar First

1977- Bugatti First

1978- Mercedes First

1979- Bentley

1980- Morris Garages

1981- Cunningham . Also the first specialty marque.

1982- Porsche

1983- Ford First production

1984- Ferrari

1985- Alfa Romeo Done for the event's 10th anniversary.

1986- Mercedes

1987- Chevrolet

1988- Maserati

1989- Aston Martin

1990- Allard First discontinued marque

1991- Fangio Cars of historic racer Juan Manuel Fangio, first tribute to a person rather than a marque

1992- Jaguar

1993- Miller

1994- Ferrari

1995- Lotus

1996- BMW

1997- Shelby

1998- Porsche

1999- Auto Union

2000- Maserati

2001- Bentley

2002- Corvette First tribute to a specific car rather than its marque. Done for the car's 50th anniversary.

2003- Ford

2004- Ferrari First marque to be featured for a third time

2005- Chaparral Historic Chaparral race cars

2006- Cooper

2007- Indy Roadsters- First tribute to nonspecific racecars

2008- Alfa Romeo Featured a third time for the event's 35th anniversary

[edit] Marque Representation

*If the Corvette is counted as a model of Chevrolet rather than a marque in itself.

^If the Bugatti Grand Prix is counted as a second marque representation.

[edit] Rules and Format

Because of the high value of many of the cars used, the Historics have established the unusual rule of removing your from the race if you have contact with other cars or drive off of the track. Also, the regulation on what class each driver is in is very loose and drivers will occasionally be moved to a class that would normally not have such a car. This is often due to the car being slower or faster regardless of their displacement or year.

Each race usually lasts thirty minutes long and the scheduling is formatted in roughly chronological order.

[edit] Differences from sister events

The Monterey Historics differ from Coronado in that the Coronado Festival is the only event to offer the two liter class for the Trans Am race. It differs from the Wine Country Classic in that the Wine Country Classic is one day rather than two days like Monterey, and the Wine Country Classic has featured historic Grand National and Strictly Stock Series cars. It differs from the Rolex Vintage Festival in that the Vintage Festival is the only event outside California and the only one not offering a Trans Am race.