Laguna Seca, 8th - 16th of August
After another eventful classic car year 2015 it is time to finalize
last year’s reports with the annual race meeting at the famous
desert track in California during the Monterey Car Week that
never made it on our website due to the many following events.
Although the week in August is most famous for the Concours
and the insane auction records of the last years the racing part is
of no less importance. The Pebble Beach Concours this year
featured the races through the forest at the 17-miles Drive which
came to an end when the permanent track in the hills between
Monterey and Salinas was opened in 1957, since then a lot of
important race series mastered the famous corkscrew.
Over the last years the historic races became one of the most
important events for the operating SCRAMP (Sports Car Racing
Association of the Monterey Peninsula), this year the Motorsport
Reunion attracted more than 65.000 visitors during the weekend.
One week after the Pre-Reunion at the same place 15 different
race groups were lined up in the paddock to feature more than
550 cars on the races on Saturday and Sunday following the
practice session the days before. Due to the action packed week
with a lot of activities we were only able to attend the Saturday
races of the A-Groups but fortunately a lot of the cars could be
already seen during the pre-historics.
Many race groups are regulars in Laguna Seca including the
Sports- and GT-Car classes of the different decades, but also the
FIA/IMSA and Trans-Am races. But apart of them there are
always special themes and anniversaries to be celebrated, this
year the 50th anniversary of the Shelby GT350. After ending his
racing career including the sole Le Mans victory of Aston Martin
in 1959 Carroll Shelby started to modify sports cars resulting in
the legendary Shelby Cobra. After competing with the Ferrari 250
GT in the Sports Car Races of the early 1960s Shelby went on to
modify the Ford Mustang, the most famous pony car. In 1965
Shelby introduced the Shelby GT350 that was extensively raced.
This week in 2015 no less than 38 cars were entered in a
Shelby-only race making it a remarkable sight seeing all of the
coming down the corkscrew together, further important early
examples were displayed in the paddocks by the Ford Heritage
Display.
Also a special race was dedicated to the Formula 5000 whose
last appearance in Laguna Seca was exactly 40 years ago when
Mario Andretti won this race. Originally intended as a cheaper
American version of the Formula 1 the Formula 5000 featured
engines with a capacity of 5 Litre in Lola, Lotus or McLaren
chassis to name a few. Rarely seen on many race meetings the
owners of these rare races did not miss the chance to come back
to their origin making this one of the biggest race groups, both on
the pre-reunion and the actual Reunion.
Unfortunately the F1 group was not running during the first
weekend, after very small race groups in the previous years they
were just featured during the Saturday races at the end of the
day. As raced in between 1967 and 1984 the 3 litre cars included
a sole Ferrari 312 T2 as well as examples of today´s rivals from
Williams and McLaren but also marques from the past like
Hesketh, Surtees Tyrrell, Wolf or Shadow.
Other cars of particular interest were the fire spitting Mazda IMSA
racers, several Porsche 956/962 and 935 to preview the action a
few weeks later at the Porsche Rennsport Reunion.
We have compiled a massive gallery with more than 600 images
sorted by races and race numbers to give an overview of the
action on the track. Next year’s Historic Races will celebrate 100
years of BMW so one could expect a lot of 328, M1 and 3.0 CSL
Batmobiles.
… Download Entry list >>>
Report & images … Peter Singhof
www.ClassicCarPhotography.de
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