Every year in August the scenic Monterey Peninsula becomes a paradise for car enthusiasts. Started in 1974 to help bolster the Pebble Beach Concours de Elegance Steve Earl began what is now the centerpiece of the happenings this exciting week of car enthusiast activities. The week begins with a little known vintage-racing event called the "Pre-Historics" at the track. This event draws few spectators but many of the entrants for the Monterey Historic Automobile Races the following weekend. Over the course of the week car enthusiasts from all over the globe start making their way to the Monterey Peninsula. As the event weekend nears there are events all over the Peninsula including the Concours Italiano in Carmel Valley, the Pebble Beach Concours vintage car parade, several major automobile auctions, the Pebble Beach Concours de Elegance, and the centerpiece of the weekend, The Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile races. This is the event I covered and will try best to describe in this article and accompanying photographs.

Every year an automaker is selected as Featured Marque for the event. This year Bentley was featured marque and the factory's display offerings didn't disappoint (though it would have been nice to see the 2001 Le Mans third place car running demonstration laps instead of bolted to a static display). The racing was excellent and the weather was spectacular.

Each day seven races of ten laps each were run. On Saturday the older cars ran which included a group of pre-war Bentley Le Mans cars and the highlight of the day was a vintage F1 race for F1 cars from the 1966 - 1983 seasons. On Sunday the focus was on sports cars, mostly from the 1950s - 1960s along with 1965 - 1971 World Championship Sports Cars and a huge 33-car field of 1966 - 1972 Trans Am cars in the final race. This Trans Am race reunited John Morton with a BRE Datsun 510 and featured a great battle between the eventual winner George Follmer in an (ex-Penske) AMC Javelin and Parnelli Jones in a Mustang Boss 302.

There was also a showcase of cars on static display that were driven by US racing legend Phil Hill. Phil Hill also had a gallery of beautiful photography located next to the legendary photographer Jesse Alexander's tent. Phil Hill ran demonstration laps in a 1961 Ferrari F1 car, which was a thrilling combination. On Sunday the demonstration lap period during lunch belonged to the new raceway benefactor, Mazda. They rolled out their 1991 Le Mans winning car and let it unwind around the hilly course for a good half hour or so.

For a full report of race results we suggest a visit to http://www.montereyhistoric.com/results_index.html for those who are curious. There are world famous vintage racing events all over the world including Coys, Goodwood Festival of Speed, etc. but the weekend in Monterey in late August is one not to be missed if you ever have a chance to get there. I'll let my photographs speak for my experiences of the weekend as I feel they speak louder than any words I could write.