MONTEREY >> Another chapter celebrating Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca’s 60th anniversary was successfully penned over the weekend.
The track’s long, rich history is filled with an inventory of colorful personalities and jaw-dropping automobiles that make it a global icon in motor racing. The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion that ended Sunday added to the track’s lore.
“What a wonderful weekend we’ve had for our 60th anniversary,” said Gill Campbell senior vice president of event operations. “The cars are spectacular. On behalf of the raceway, I want to thank all the participants for their many hours and dollars spent in restoring their wonderful racing machines to their original period-in-time.”
Pete Lovely, overall winner in the inaugural 1957 event, did it with a car that was born in Maranello, Italy, just 10 years earlier.
“Pete was an amazing person, not just as a race driver,” said Martin Rudow, author of the racing biography, “Lovely.”
Originally from Montana, Lovely lived the bulk of his life in the Seattle Area. His career traversed from the dirt track roadsters in America to the highest level in European motorsports — Formula One.
“Pete was the last privateer in Formula One and raced against the best the world had to offer,” Rudow added. “He competed in Trans-Am, Can-Am, and Formula 5000. He won national road racing championships and became a king in Historic racing circles.”
Rudow himself is a privateer publisher. He’s traveled across the country looking for the lost or forgotten road race tracks in America. His website, rspracingmemories.com, is where you’ll find historical information about racing and Lovely’s book.
“The first time my dad and I found him in an old run-down shop in Seattle, he crawled out from under a car and talked to my dad, for what I thought was an hour, about racing,” he said.
You can’t separate Bernard Juchli and the Hagemann Special. He’s driven the car for 23 of its 40 years at these historic races. The one-of-a-kind car is a 1955 Jaguar and is valued at over $1 million.
“In the last 40 years, this car has raced in Monterey for 39 historic events,” Juchli said. “The body was hand-built by Jack Hagemann, who I consider one of the best aluminum body fabricators in the world.”
Juchli, chief mechanic for Jay Leno, also races sidecar motorcycles. He and his partner have won the national motorcycle sidecar title two straight years and are currently No. 1 in 2017.
Formula Jr. hit the world stage in 1958 and had a remarkable run through 1963. The little car that could, with its one-liter engine, displaced the half-liter powered Formula Three cars as the next level into Formula One for a brief period-of-time.
“Formula Junior became a world-wide phenomenon in a very short period of time,” said Duncan Rabagliati, Formula Junior Historic Racing Association chairman. “It garnered world-wide acceptance as an international formula in just six years.”
Jim Clark, John Surtees, Jochen Rindt, Mike Hailwood, Graf Wolfgang von Trips, Lorenzo Bandini, Peter Revson, and Howden Ganley were amongst the stars whose careers moved from Formula Junior to Formula One. These former Formula Junior drivers raced from Estonia to Australia, Macao to Cuba, with hundreds of cars competing regularly across North America.
“In 1975, Formula Junior was the first past formula to be revived as an historic series,” Rabagliati added. “We are now on our Diamond Jubilee World Tour of Formula Junior. We started in South Africa in January.”
Mazda Raceway is the first stop of their second leg on the North American part of the tour.
“I’ve been coming to Monterey for nearly 30 years,” New Zealander Neil Tolich said. “This is my first race in this American-made Formula Junior. It was originally driven by Sam Posy, and I’ve been told they’re really looking forward to seeing the car again.”
The Jocko Maggiacomo design was built in 1959. It has a Fiat front suspension and an American sprint car rear suspension. Powdered by a 1.1-liter Fiat engine, it’s a cross between an Italian front engine formula car and an early style midget/dirt champ car.
Their first leg included races at Indianapolis, Mosport in Canada, Mid-Ohio and Schenley Park in Pittsburg. Their remaining events are at Lime Rock in Connecticut, followed by Watkins Glen and Road America in Elkhart Lake.
“We’ve already raced in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and North America,” Rabagliati said. “We’ll continue the tour with stops in Scandinavia and the Baltic states, before our grand celebration in 2018 at the Silverstone Classic.”
Scotsman Mark Shaw drives a 1963 Brabham BT6. It’s one of last models constructed before the series ended.
“This is my first time racing here since 1994,” Shaw said. “In ’94, I competed in the Barber-Saab pro-series. I raced against Juan Pablo Montoya and Jochen Rindt. I’ve always wanted to drive the old cars. And since I’m old now, I thought I’d enjoy it.”
He just recently purchased the car. This is only his third race. The Scottish real estate developer will return for one more race in North America.
“My last race in the U.S. will be at Watkins Glen,” Shaw said. “We’ll send it home and continue improvements on the car and hope to return next year for a full season.”
The final chapter of the weekend closed with Dr. Lee Talbot, 87, and his 1967 Ginetta G4 sports racer receiving the Spirit of Monterey Award.
It is the most prestigious award of the event, given to a driver or entrant who excels in the spirit of the weekend.
“I want to express my appreciation for all of you who have organized this magnificent show,” Talbot said. “It’s a fantastic show and a fantastic group of people and cars.”
Talbot was also presented an engraved stainless steel 18k Gold Daytona Cosmograph by Rolex representative Mounia Mechbal. Talbot also received a portrait of the 1957 winning Ferrari by Bill Patterson.
