Sequence>>the Lucky #13 Jag

On Saturday afternoon at Laguna Seca I was hiking up the hill to shoot at the Corkscrew as the cars 1955-1962 GT class were fighting it out on track. I decided to stop for a few moments to capture some of the action right at the apex of the high speed Rainey Curve.

One of my favorite cars running in this class was this '59 Jaguar MK1 Sedan, so I decided to train my lens on it as a group of cars came through the curve.

As I tried to set up the shot in my viewfinder, something went wrong. The big Jag was very sideways, and by the time I managed to fire the shutter the front end was pointing directly at me – inches away from slamming into a concrete wall.

I was sure I was about to see the irreplacable Jaguar get heavily damaged right before my eyes, but somehow it avoided contact with the wall as it came through the sand.

But the driver was not out of the water yet. As the car rolled back onto the track in a huge dusty cloud, an Alfa Roadster was coming up on it fast. Were things about to get worse?

Fortunatley the Alfa cleared the spinning Jag, and by this time the rest of the traffic had slowed up behind.

You could hardly see the car with all the sand in the air, but it had survived.

Even more amazing was that instead of pulling into the pitlane right down the road, the Jaguar kept right on racing like nothing had happened.

Thanks to some skillful driving and more than a little luck, a potentially dangerous and very pricey vintage racing accident became nothing more than an exciting photo sequence.

-Mike Garrett

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1

:O i bet the guy behind the wheel was a little 'clenched'....! LOL



great recovery though to say the least!

2

mmm, what a pretty old girl! Nice driving, I'd hate to see her nudge the wall.



J

3

I love cars which have straight exhaust pipes coming out the rear (as visible in the last pic) as opposed to a stub of a pipe sticking out of a huge drum of a silencer.

4

The third pic looks like a worried Jag.

5

i bet he had a poker face after that spin

6

Epic butt clench moment!

7

Side + Rear exhaust pipes?

8

I put the side exhaust on in the mid 2000' as I loved the look and the sound. Always had to figure out where the sound mike was to time a throttle lift otherwise I would get binged for sound.......

9

Reverse-Entry Historic Jag FTW! :-D

10

Even though there is a lot of history on the line here, I bet the old girl was happy to be out on the track again. Respect to the driver to toe the line once again because museum pieces are the equivalent of MacArthur-ian fade away. More of these beauties should be let loose upon the tarmac, not only for the pure joy of a glorious memory made real, but also to inspire the lackluster masses to what the automobile once was and could still be.

11

Fair play. I have had the fortune to drive my dad's one of these, and they are a big old gal, well caught

12

I love the MKII... But you have to admit that running mini-lites is a little bit of wishfull thinking on those guys vs the smaller cars they raced with in period.



As for the side pipes and rear pipes... I am betting those side pipes are a muffler bypass used for tracks with no sound restrictions, the tail pipes are for the street or tracks like Laguna Seca that limit the volume of car exhausts.

13

historic jag reverse corkscrew dorifuto!!!!! 4x the win

14

Continuing where I left off yesterday, let's jump into the second part of my journey around the paddock and static display areas at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. Up above you can see the tail end of the beautiful Bob Sharp-prepared Datsun

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