Rolex Moments in Time at the Monterey Historic Automobile Races

The Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races is one of the best events that takes place during the Concours weekend on the Monterey Peninsula. Sure the Tour D’Elegance allows the classics to putter around the country side and stop for lunch in Carmel and the Concorso Italiano allows you to look cool standing next to your Lamborghini with a drink that matches the paint scheme, but only the Historic Races allows these classic cars the ability to stretch their legs and do what they were made to do. On the third weekend in August, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca fills with the smells of burnt rubber and spent gasses while the surrounding hills are filled with a symphony from bygone eras of racing history. The sponsor, Rolex, ensures that fans come back time and time again for their Moment in Time dispay, which honors six different historic racing cars and highlights their most significant achievements.

While last year’s star of the show was the infamous black and gold John Player’s Special, Mario Andretti’s Lotus built Formula 1 Championship winning race car that introduced ground effects and revolutionized racing forever. This year the museum quality exhibit will be displaying some of the greatest endurance racing sports cars from the 1960s and 1970s. Like the 1977 Le Mans winning 1976 Porsche 936/81, which also took a second place in 1978 and 12th in 1981 at the race twice around the clock at Le Sarthe. This very rare racecar is only noe of three Porsche 936 cars that were built and is the only one to compete in five of the famous 24 Hour races by notable Porsche racing driver Hurley Haywood amongst many others.

Celebrating the legendary Porsche 917’s 40th anniversary, the exhibit featured a 550+ HP example from 1970 wearing the fashionable Gulf livery that was made popular by the actor Steve McQueen. The Porsche is lined up alongside the Ferrari 512S that challenged it that season. This particular blue and orange 917K was driven by Mexican driver Pedro Rodriguez in the 1970 1000 km race at Spa, Belgium, and is the sister car to Brian Redman and Jo Siffert’s race winning Gulf. The Ferrari 512S was once piloted by Jacky Ickx during the opening round of the World Championship season at Daytona and then went on to race at Monza and in the Targa Florio where it finished 2nd and 3rd, respectively.