Well, another year has gone by and another Historics at Laguna Seca. Its getting odd, the classes are getting bunched up in a effort to get more Mustangs and Camaro's on the track. What used to be a really good pre-pre-war (WWI) class and pre-war (WWII) class is now bunched up, 3 1907 Nationals, model T's and other pre-WWI cars racing with purebred pre-war (WWII) cars and street cars. Its not a fun race anymore, at least not to me who loves to see the pre-1920 cars slowly run around the track at their topspeed. I miss the Historics from decades ago where it really was historics.
Needless to say a 9 Le Mans is outclassed against Bugatti's and ERA's but such is historic racing in America, one token race and on to the Mustang's.
33 9 Sports
And I can't attach a video to this forum (why not ? have to look into that) so here is a link to the video, its a 1 minute long video and yes, the Singer is the last car so you have to watch it all This is the cool down lap, so its in the order they finished, the other 1907 Nationals were after the Singer, the big blue car just before the Singer is the 1st National, so the Singer did not come in last.
The Singer looks great Mike, and I agree that it is a pity if vintage cars become just a token to history amongst the muscle cars.
Its a shame that the whole world is obsessed with speed and its attendant intolerance on the road. When we take our Junior or even the Series One out we have been tailgated by lorries and lads in hatchbacks who have no understanding that our power, brakes, steering and road holding are not up to modern standards. Fortunately in the Fens we have many small roads and even the Junior can outrun most tractors!
Don't know if you saw my article last year in NASOC News about Ron Stauber's running Green Wings at Monterey.
Nancy and I were there to see Ron, his son and the car, mainly, but also to visit with other vintage racing friends, particularly the Sunbeam contingent, Buck Triple with the Hollywood Sports Car Tiger and Tom Sakai with his yellow racing Tiger. As a bonus, Dan Walters of C(alifornia) A(ssociation) of T(iger Owners) was in the Sunbeam pits as well. Dan is an avid autocrosser and has done a great deal of research upgrading the suspension in his Tiger for performance driving.
While Mike Rambour's comments are correct, there's nothing that can replace my experience of driving in on Saturday morning just in time to see the Group 1 race. My now-wife (as of last week end) Nancy, then my girlfriend, watched the race with me and exclaimed about Green Wings "That's the most beautiful car out there," not knowing that the car she was complimenting was Ron's Singer! (That all changed at the wedding when she rode to the aisle and to the reception in our 1935 Le Mans Coupé) Both were great feelings.
The same trend that Mike mentions seems to be appearing on the East Coast in vintage racing. There's a great turnout when the Can Am and Trans Am big block cars run. The VSCCA works to encourage prewar cars as much as possible, but it's important to place some of the responsi-bility on owners: as early cars are becoming, or have already become, Very Valuable, I find some of their keepers to be less inclined to race their cars at all. If owners won't enter their cars, race promoters are stuck: it becomes increasingly hard to assemble a field of great and varied prewar cars, like those we have seen in years past.
There's one more strand in this weave, I think: people love and relate most strongly to the cars that were in primacy or at least in circulation when they were adolescents. That's adding pressure to the prospect of fielding great classes of early cars for vintage racing.
There are some exceptions to this, those cars with unshakable mystique: Bugatti, Ferrari, Alfa Romeo, ERA, Fiat, Bentley ( Unfortunate, in my mind, as would love to race a 1920s Bentley or a V12 Lagonda from the mid '30s.) At my peak I stood 6'7" tall, but I am shrinking: now down to 6'5 and change. At this rate, I may at 90 be able to fit into a Type 35 Bugatti, but I still won't be able to afford one.
With all those factors in mind, talk with your friends who have early cars. Encourage them to race: tease the hell out of them by telling them the Brits don't stand for any of this "racing at eight-tenths" hogwash; they go full hammer and tongs with cars so rare we've never heard of them 'over here'. We ought to respond, unless we want to go back to writing capitalize with an 's' not a 'z' and start flying the Union Jack again...
or we could do and attend our vintage racing events in the UK. Believe me, it is rewarding. They know how to do it right.
My first time to the Historics was in 1974, I was driving down the 101 from San Francisco and a Bugatti was in front of me on the freeway, he WAS DRIVING the Bugatti. Then a pre-war Bentley passed me and the Bugatti, then a whole bunch of Ferrari's, including a GTO. Ok, when they got off the freeway in Salinas to go to Monterey, I had to get off the freeway also. I was driving my FIAT 124 Spider in those days. They went up the track at Laguna Seca that I didn't know existed and the cars were preparing for the next days first ever Historics at Laguna Seca. I found a hotel and stayed the night. Up to that point I had never even seen a Bugatti in real life and here I was hearing one run at speed on the track...pure paradise. Next year, I was there again with my then girlfriend, now wife of 40 years and we have never missed a race. In those days, we would go to the races on Saturday and when the big blocks came out on Sunday we would go to the Pebble Beach Concours which is where I saw my first every Singer Le Mans and fell in love (that Pebble Beach winning Le Mans is now down under), I would see the LM a few times at different concours over the next 2 or so years and then never again.
Then the Historics changed things around and big blocks started taking over and the pre-war races started getting bunched up, first into 3, then 2 and now 1 race. Pebble Beach started getting really expensive and my wife and I just go there for the Saturday races now, come home at the end of the day, have not been to Pebble Beach in 30 years, but I often drive up for the Pebble Beach Rally on Thursday before the show and see the cars that will be in the Concours driving on the road, that is my view is much better than sitting on the lawn. In 2000, Ferrari and Dino owners groups got together, so I showed my Dino at Concorso Italiano and then got to drive the Laguna Seca racetrack in my Dino, slow, really slow as it was a Dino parade lap, but that Corkscrew turn which makes Laguna Seca famous is one of those WOW turns to actually drive.
Too bad I didn't know you were there last year, we could have met, I never miss the races.
Mike Rambour. Site Administrator
1953 Singer 4ADT (sold), 1934 Singer 9 Le Mans, 1934 Singer 1 1/2 4-Seater Sports (sold), 2009 BMW K1300GT
This is the cool down lap, so its in the order they finished, the other 1907 Nationals were after the Singer, the big blue car just before the Singer is the 1st National, so the Singer did not come in last.