Now comes the Monterey Historics!

The Prequel to the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races, the aptly named Pre-Historics, are now history

I'm updating laprecord.com with extensive coverage... about 3/4 of the photos are posted. I'll post the rest & add commentary tomorrow, Monday evening

The Historics are next week, with preliminaries happening Thursday

The Concorso Italiano, The Quail, The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, in addition to the Historics at Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca, highlight a week with events large & small too numerous to list...

laprecord.com will be covering the races & perhaps a small event or two. We'd need a small army to cover all the events!

A couple more... you'll have to go to laprecord.com for more in a couple days

More goodies

Something special

I'll be doing a major update of laprecord.com for this event this weekend, not to mention the Rolex Monterey Historics the following week

Stay tuned!

Mind you, the event hasn't even started yet, in fact, not all the cars have arrived!

And this is just a sampling, there are many, many more world-class, GREAT cars here!

Stay tuned to laprecord.com for developments

A laprecord.com scoop!

This David Piper 917 has just been restored, this weekend being its debut

This is the first race meeting for my new Canon 5D mkll

Because it is a full frame sensor, it adds a whole new dimension to all my lenses, most especially wide angle shots

These photos are just a sampling of the cars that will be participating in the Pre Historics at Mazda Raceway, Laguna Seca this weekend

It would be a remarkable field for any event

Amazing

You cannot believe the cars that are arriving for the Prehistorics

Best field ever & only half of them are here yet!

w00t!

Automotive overdose starts today!

We'll be covering the Pre-Historics & The Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races, the finest vintage racing on the planet

The Pre-Historics are this weekend, the Historics next

Access to the track for competitors opens this afternoon as they unload & set up in the paddock

Film at 11:00 on laprecord.com

COME ON DOWN!... if you can't, next best thing is to check it out here

Peter Bryant, gone but not forgotten

I'm headed to the LA area tomorrow to attend Peter Bryant's life celebration at Riverside on Saturday.

Peter was one of those unique characters in racing, whose stories, impersonations & other antics always made him a blast to be around.

He was a first rate race car designer & his book "Can Am Challenger" is an excellent read

We miss you Peter

Rare 1967 photos

Rare 1967 period photos on the way...

I'm looking forward to receiving a large collection of negatives to scan from the Washington DC Region of the SCCA. A few of them will appear on www.laprecord.com in a future edition. They should be here Monday or Tues, I'm psyched!

Monterey Gearhead Heaven

The Monterey Pre-Historics & Historics are on the horizon...

Automotive overdose in Monterey extends for nearly a month now, the frenzy peaking on the weekend of August 14-16 with the Monterey Historics, The Concorso Italiano, The Quail, The Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance, various sundry auctions, club events & who knows what

A couple years ago I went to a Ferrari club event at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca mid-week after the Historics & there was a P4 and a P3/4 Ferrari as well as the Penske 512 there just for starters. Not bad for a couple of track days at a little club event

Only in Monterey

Y'all come!

Scarab overdue correction

Don Breslauer is an old friend & teammate of mine and a go-to guy for quality restorations of premium vintage cars

He recently restored a Scarab formula 1 car, so he knows whereof he speaks & offers this correction to a feature I posted on www.laprecord.com in a previous edition

"The Scarab F1 cars you posted look very cool with the transporter and all. One item you should realize is that the engines in them are not desmodromic Reventlow, but Offy. Same designer but more available with more reliability. The only two Desmo engines that exist are, one at the Collier museum in Naples Florida on a stand, and the other installed in GP2 that I restored now for sale in San Diego is up and running. They were a great idea that NEVER worked, a complete failure, TOO BAD!"

Thanks for the correction Don, sorry for the delay in setting the record straight

Mac Tilton followed up with these comments

"As you say, some of these events are getting foggy now. This one stays in my mind as it does for Tony. It was our first big time series win. I also won my first national there in 1960 driving my Cooper FIII Norton. It was a fun track and as close to getting 10 lbs ... in a 5 lb bag. Where else could you watch cars going in four directions in the same line of sight?

... It brings back great memories from a simpler time"

and

"Thank you for bring the Marlboro Posey photos to my attention as I have none for my scrapbook. We were so overshadowed by the big name Alan Mann Cortina drivers that we thought we would never get credit. As the result of the exchange of addresses I have contacted Sam Posey who often drove for me"

Mac Tilton on "The Great Race" in 1966

Many of you will know that Mac Tilton, founder of Tilton Engineering, was Tony "a2z's" Crew Chief in his 1968 Trans Am Championship season

Tony forwarded this e-mail to me from Mac

"The 1966 trans Am from the 12 hours of Marlboro brought back many memories. This was the race that the GTA I built for Harry the Greek and codriven by Sam Posey and Paul Richards won the under 2ltr. class an hour after the finish. Sir John Whitmore was given the victory and received all the publicity but when the laps were counted we won by a lap. Sams half brother was our score keeper and went on to do many major races before computers took over. Wish I have some photos from that race. We received very little notice because the Cortina's we (sic) supposed to win from the start"

The laprecord Blog

I thought I would try to make my website, laprecord.com a bit more interactive

As an experiment I thought attaching a blog to the site would be an easier way to get feedback from the site than e-mail

I especially hope that I get some response to the period photos that I post from time to time. In many cases I don't know who the people in the photos are & I hope to hear from some of them

The current period feature is "The Great Race" the 1966 Marlboro 12 hour Trans Am race. All the photos in the feature are by the late Bill Dobbins and are reproduced with permission from the Washington D.C. Region of the SCCA. The WDCR retains the rights to the images & unauthorized use is prohibited

Marlboro Speedway was the home of the WDCR from 1955 to 1969. At the end of the 1969 season, the track was closed & Summit Point was opened which still serves as the WDCR's home track. If you raced at Marlboro, there is a good chance you will see photos of your younger incarnation here at some point

We also cover current motorsports events, vintage and otherwise. The photographs for these events are mostly mine, but guest photographers contribute from time to time. I always enjoy hearing from the owners as they all have a story to tell

Stay tuned for The Monterey Historics as well as the prequel, The Monterey Pre-Historics