The fog wreaked a little havoc Sunday morning for the tight schedule of Day Four of the Role Monterey Motorsports Reunion at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Each day the fog was thicker until Sunday when the schedule fell an hour behind due to lack of track visibility. But all’s well that ends well. By 11 am, the sun broke through – as it did every day, and the long lunch break helped ease up the schedule … and only seven groups were slated to run Sunday.
Ed Archer of Hayward epitomizes the spirit of the Tin Pan Alley Gang which has its own lane in the paddock. The spritely senior is always dressed in his period outfit, including dust coat and cap when it’s chilly. For years he drove his Group 1A 1915 Ford T to and from the races on the Bay Area freeways. In 1989 he bought an authentic Chevrolet transporter which he now uses – on the freeways. He gets all kinds of cheers and thumbs up from fellow commuters stuck in the post-race traffic.Group 1A is for Pre 1940 Sports Racing/Touring Cars & 1927-1951 Racing Cars. It’s all Archer says he can do to stay out of the way of the faster cars, but he certainly has fun. He was lapped three times, but still finished twenty-fifth of 41 racers, with everything intact.
At the other end of the spectrum are Sunday’s Historic Formula One Cars. They have a race within a race, as many of the competitors are part of the FIA Masters Series, which has its own set of gleaming trophies. For Sunday’s morning race, Charles Nearburg of TX has the pole in his No.27 1980 Williams FW007 B. There is another 1980 Williams FW07, driven by Zak Brown (the business mogul, not the musician). As the F1 cars retain their original livery and numbers, one has to be keen-eyed to see the miniscule 1 in front of Brown’s car number. The experienced flaggers – and even their crews – use their helmet designs to distinguish the two in traffic. Nearburg has a mostly yellow helmet, while Brown’s has reds and blues.
Nearburg won the morning race. Dan Marvin of Berkeley CA finished second after starting fifth, driving No.82 1974 Brabham BT44. The Zoom Zoom monitor clocked him at 140 mph going into Turn One.
The Reunion brings out all kinds of fans including celebrities and professional/retired racers. Among the crowds this weekend taking in the event live and in person are Scott Pruett, Tom Gloy, Dario Franchitti, and Marino Franchitti. And that includes the TV crew as well. Among the talent for the TV show which will air later this fall are Fox Sports TV broadcaster Mike Joy, who raced Saturday in the Historic Trans-Am Race in No.89 1966 Ford Mustang; Justin Bell, retired sports car driver, who did the Pit Lane commentary on Joy’s Trans-Am race; and Ralph Shaheen. The Reunion broadcast will be in 22 September 2016 on CBS Sports at 8pm. Meanwhile, it is being streamed live on automobilemag.com.
