Click image above for huge high-res gallery of the AB team's pics from the track
The 35th Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races presented by Toyota at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca is a long title for a spectacular event. Saturday was actually day two of the Historics, which will conclude on Sunday. While the races are exciting and the action very real, the results are slightly less important here than just witnessing the spectacle. The sounds alone are worth a trip to Laguna Seca in August. Saturday's action featured the Toyota Race of Legends, with several other classes having their day in the sun as well.
We had photographers all around the track capturing glimpses of the action, so make sure to click through the gallery to see what you are missing. After witnessing Mario Andretti throw the checkered flag for the Legends and then completing what seemed like dozens of "demo" laps in his old Lotus F1 car, we thought we knew what makes this event so special. And then we saw Patrick Dempsey getting some demo laps in an old Chrysler, and we had to rethink our theory. Okay, Dempsey is probably a bit more maligned here than he deserves, but he does seem to be featured here a lot lately. Personally we were happy to see the Keno twins of Antiques Roadshow fame just as much.
Look through the gallery and you will see some of these encounters and dozenz of pics of the great cars you practically trip over in the open paddock. It's just sick how many of the greatest cars from throughout automotive history are here and being driven as they should be. Saturday's classes included the finals for Pre-1940 Sports and Touring Cars, 1925-1950 Racing Cars and Indy Roadsters, 1950-1960 Sports Racing Cars, 1966-1972 Historic Trans-Am Cars, 1966-1974 Historic Can-Am Cars and 1964-1975 FIA Sports Racing Cars. We also got to see some of the cars that will be running Sunday as their owners tweaked them for the final day of competition. If you make it out to the track on Sunday you'll likely catch the featured Alfa Romeos as well as 1955-1966 Production Sports Cars, 1967-1978 Historic F-1 Cars, and 1972-1983 Historic IMSA Cars. If you can't find something you like in those groups, you're not trying.
Press release after the jump with results and quotes from Saturday.
When pulled over while under the influence and driving his 1980 Porsche on Laguna Seca Raceway last Sunday around 5:20 PM, John Patrick Krukar told police that he was lost and trying to find his hotel. Well seriously, what would you say? The situation is actually more serious than it sounds, as authorities found Krukar's 5-month-old son riding shotgun in the car with him. The intoxicated man had reportedly reached speeds of up to 90 mph on the track, which had just seen a big weekend of racing including the final round of the 2007 ALMS Series. Krukar, however, is no Dindo Capello. Local police actually implied that this type of thing has happened before, Laguna Seca being so large and apparently difficult to lock down. They booked Krukar on driving under the influence with the added bonus penalty of having a child under 14 in the car at the time. His son was also taken into Child Protective Services, which sounds like the best thing for this involuntary co-driver.
Click above image to view more photos of the 2007 Cadillac CTS-V race car
Andy Pilgrim won his second race of 2007 this past weekend to secure Cadillac a Manufacturers Championship of the SCCA Speed World Challenge. Pilgrim started second in the race behind polesitter and points leader Randy Pobst, but took the lead on lap 21 eventually won by just under two seconds. Fellow team drivers Lawson Aschenbach and Ron Fellows finished sixth and seventh, respectively. Cadillac finished the season with 71 points followed by Porsche with 60, Chevrolet with 50, and Dodge with 24.
After the race, Cadillac announced that this would be the brand's last season in the series, at least for a while. "With the second-generation CTS-V still a year away from its introduction, we'll close this chapter of Cadillac in racing and explore future opportunities to showcase the performance of the Cadillac portfolio," he said. They referred to the current car as the "first generation", so we can only hope that this means that a second generation will follow.
Cadillac ends its dominant four-year run in the Speed World Challenge as the most successful team during that time. CTS-V drivers racked up twelve wins, the most of any manufacturer, as well as two manufacturer championships.
For the last race of the ALMS season at Laguna Seca, the P1, P2, and GT1 championships had already been wrapped up since Petit Le Mans. Still, the Audi team was out to better the Penske camp for the second race in a row after a close victory at Petit Le Mans. GT2 was the most exciting class, with the driver, team, and manufacturer championships all up for grabs. Risi Competizione came in as a heavy favorite, needing only to finish 70 percent of the race to clinch the team title.
Spoiler Alert: Follow the jump to read what went down.
We have been tracking the progress of Bad Boy Vette's new livery for the C6R in its final race of the ALMS season with great anticipation. The finished product was finally revealed last night at a pre-race party in Monterey hosted by BBV. The new graphics look downright menacing, with the "Take No Prisoners" skull featured prominently on the hood and sides. A handful of photos have been posted on the web site, and hopefully more are to come. Both C6Rs will hit the track at Laguna Seca today for practice sessions, and they can be seen live on Speed TV on Saturday, October 20 at 2:30pm PDT. Now if only there were some other GT1 contenders to scare off...
On Wednesday, we told you that the Corvette Racing C6.Rs would be sporting a new Bad Boy Vettes livery for the ALMS finale at Laguna Seca next weekend. Yesterday, BBV shot us a few pics of the #4 car in progress, and no surprise -- we like what we see. The final product will be unveiled at a big shindig on Wednesday, and when the cars ultimately take to the track, they'll look as every bit as menacing as they sound. Skulls on race cars are like, totally underrated. The little Michelin man on the front fender just wet himself out of fear.
The one and only time U.S. shores were blessed with Japan's premier motorsports event, Super GT, the folks over at Paramax were behind the scenes. Since then they've organized a number of events under the GT LIVE banner, as well as creating the XDL U.S. Stunt Riding Championship. Now, they've partnered with Subaru of America to bring more attention to one of the most entertaining and intense forms of motorsport around: Time Attack.
The Subaru Tsukuba Challenge will determine the quickest unlimited AWD-class Subaru team here in the States, and after running two qualifying events in the U.S. (Miller Motorsports Park and Virginia International Raceway), three teams will be picked to duke it out at Laguna Seca on November 10th. The fastest team will be sent to Japan to be the U.S. representative in a race at the famed Tsukuba circuit. Even cooler: Eiji "Tarzan" Yamada has been hired as a hot shoe for the teams.
Speed's got the skinny (more here too), and although the first event has already taken place and the second is coming up this weekend, you can still make it to the finals next month in Monterey.
Continuing our video wrap-ups from this year's Pebble Beach extravaganza, here is a clip of some of the track action from Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca during the Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races presented by Toyota. We'll just shorten that to the Monterey Historics from now on, unless the Rolex and Toyota folks are looking in. We actually covered the races in two posts a couple of weeks ago. Part one covered Saturday's main action, while part two showed some of the events earlier in the week. The tape starts with some vintage open-wheel racers from old GP cars to the featured Indy Roadsters of the mid- to late-'50s. You'll also catch some of the most famous sports and GT racers of the mid '60s, like the Ferrari 250 LM and GTO, Shelby GT350 and Corvette pictured above. Not a lot of coverage, but we were juggling still cams and video cams so it was a bit difficult. The thrill of seeing these iconic race cars from throughout history is something that is hard to impart. Hopefully this gives you at least a little taste. The YouTube clip is after the jump.
It's easy to write off a new model when clever ad campaigns and the PR machine work overtime to convince you that it's God's gift to tarmac. In the case of the new CTS, a hard sell is completely unnecessary. Eschewing the hype and the art-and-science drivel, you're left with a striking exterior and the driving dynamics to match. Surprised? We were. And after a day of merciless flogging though the undulating hills of the Pacific coast, followed by a two-hour all-out assault on Laguna Seca, we came away with a newfound respect for not only Caddy's 2008 sports sedan, but the automaker as a whole.
The track action at Laguna Seca can be so overwhelming that we figured we'd break up the galleries a bit. This post will feature nothing but on-track competition and a couple of ambiance shots from Saturday's sessions. Seven classes ran then and another seven will be heading out on Sunday. There are completely different cars in each set, so we'll try to get somebody out there for Sunday's racing as well. Rather than trying to cover every car in every group at every corner, we picked about 60 favorite shots from about 4 or 5 groups. Click away.
This was the 34th Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races, and Toyota was back as title sponsor. We missed most of their demonstration runs but can honestly say they are great hosts. Lexus pace cars and free survival packs for everybody that wanted them were a nice touch. As we told you before, Indy cars from 1957's Roadster era were highlighted because Laguna Seca is also celebrating its 50th anniversary of operations. The Race of Legends was also run Saturday and after some fender-banging close action, it came down to the wire and Derek Bell eked it out over a hard-charging Bobby Rahal. Emerson Fittipaldi was third. The most notable thing about the race besides the fact that Vic Elford got punted into the kitty litter at turn 11, is that $25,000 will go to a charity in Bell's name as the champion. Unfortunately, we didn't get any good pics of that because the media center decided to serve lunch at that time. But it looked thrilling on the monitors.
Gallery: Pebble Beach Week 2007: The Monterey Historics at Laguna Seca
lo.jpg)
First Drive: 2009 Honda Fit Sport
Officially Official: Honda unveils updated 2009 Civic
Facelifted 2009 Honda Civic sedan gets scantastic reveal
Monterey 2008: Bugatti Veyron 16.4 Grand Sport
Infiniti G37 Convertible revealed ahead of L.A.![First Drive: 2009 Corvette ZR1 [w/VIDEO]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2008/08/zr1-1st-drive-1280-46_opt_thumbnail.jpg)
First Drive: 2009 Corvette ZR1 [w/VIDEO]
First Drive: 2008 Range Rover Sport
Woodward 2008: Monday morning recap
VIDEO: Corvette ZR1 does epic burnouts, we have proof
