The Monterey Peninsula heavy marine layer finally made it to Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca for Day Four of the Rolex Motorsports Monterey Reunion. The previous three days the world-famous road circuit dodged the bullet. Sunday morning the fog was low and thick enough to delay the morning warm-ups for an hour. Then, the cars had laps behind the Pace Car, for track acclimation.
The Sunday schedule calls for eight more races for the Group B Cars, followed by the Prize Giving ceremonies in the paddock.
The crowd is typically smaller on Sundays, at least in the morning, as many drivers/participants and fans head over to Pebble Beach for the Concours D’Elegance. They make their way back to Laguna Seca for the afternoon races and ceremonies.
Mother Nature likes Formula One and the sun shone on Race Group 3B for the Historic F1 cars. The Speed Trap sign atop the Start-Finish stand records the speed of the cars after they come charging down the front straight and up over the Turn One hill. DAN MARVIN in PHIL REILLY’s 1974 Brabham BT-44 turned a 148 mph for that Turn One sector. Marvin won the Historic Formula One Race which ran with the inaugural USGP F1 race at Circuit of the Americas last November, and was accorded all the pomp and circumstance that goes with Formula One including the podium anthems, flags and champagne.
Race Group 5B is for 1947-1955 Sports Racing and GT Cars. JAMES ALDER of Reno NV drives his 1952 Jaguar XK 120 OTS to and from the races – no trailer. His logbook has 111 races, at least 17 of which have been at the Laguna Seca historic events. Alder first saw the car in March 1982 and “just had to have it.” He scraped together the funding and bought it. Originally he thought of it as an investment car, but 38 years later, he’s still racing it. Once the car was invited to the prestigious Australian Shannons Historic Car Races at Phillip Island, near Melbourne. They shipped his car to and from, so this was one race he didn’t commute.