Monterey 2010: Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion puts vintage racers back on track

This year's Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion was actually the first one ever run, as there was a name change to go along with last year's change in management. The former Historics are now the Reunion, but name change aside, the event was still the same old week of wheel-to-wheel racing action. Now we know that you can see that kind of action on any given Saturday or Sunday, but the players are usually much, much newer.

Classic and vintage race cars from every era of motorsports are what make this such a wonderful event. There are literally hundreds of your favorite old race cars running in the nearly twenty classes of racing action. Legendary race cars like Ferrari SWBs and Lotus 23s, Porsche 962s and Trans Am Mustangs, Cobras and Vettes as well as F1 cars, Can-Am racers, NASCAR, Indy cars, and so on and so on. The classes take you from the under 1500 cc Minis up to the 1,000-horsepower 917Ks, with almost everything imaginable in between.

We were out there for hours and hours watching, listening to, feeling, smelling and enjoying these vintage racers, and we've assembled a sizable gallery to help convey what that was like. Click any image below to see our massive high-res gallery.

Photos Copyright ©2010 Drew Phillips / AOL