When The Ghosts Of Motorsports’ Past Come Out To Play
Vintage Feels

Another year, another Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. And yet, the gathering at Laguna Seca never gets old.

It’s a rare weekend of the year where manufacturers, engineers, drivers, and spectators alike all get to bask in the nostalgic glory of their younger years at the race track. Maybe even this race track, watching some of these exact cars scream past. For those of us who weren’t quite around when these cars were designed and built, RMMR provides a unique opportunity to experience them as they were meant to be experienced: at speed.

Every day at this event is a special one, a collective roar from motorsports past — a roar heard around the world.

2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_001_5437

Cars from every corner of the United States turn up, and attendees arrive from around the globe. It’s tradition now, and a vibrant source of motorsport folklore.

2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_019_4236
2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_014_4170

During this weekend there are more stories in the Laguna Seca paddock than you could fit in an encyclopedia, and there are plenty of wise old voices that are quick to share a few. Or several. Dozens of stories, even.

It makes sense, too, as many of these very cars raced this storied course in decades past. And even better, some of the drivers at the event actually raced here when it really mattered.

2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_005_3957

This is the holy grail of historic racing in America, and I wouldn’t miss it for anything. You can feel it on your skin; you can taste it in the air. The atmosphere is thick with the history of these cars, their owners, and their accomplishments. It’s a serious ordeal, and it’s a genuine privilege to experience these cars up close, year in and year out.

2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_034_5463
2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_003_3942

It’s one thing to see these giants of motorsport in a museum, but it’s just that much more awe-inspiring to hear them wound up on a race track. I’m not exaggerating when I say you can feel the downshifts, the flat-out acceleration, and the raucous backfire inside your chest cavity.

2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_008_4141
2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_011_4188

As I touched on in my visit to Impeccable Inc.— where this Duracell-liveried ’91 Trans Am champ resides — this is all even more amazing when you consider the collective hours invested into maintaining these racing machines from bygone eras. If you actually run the numbers on restoring the cars present at this event, it comes to roughly one million man-hours, probably more. Dollars-wise, I don’t even want to know.

2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_018_4728
2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_020_5115

But what I do know is that there’s nothing like a vintage race weekend, especially at the usually sound-regulated WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca road course. The track has been under threat of wealthy noise-adverse neighbors for a long time, and this is the exact reason that dozens of other circuits around the globe have had to shut their doors for good.

2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_023_4997
2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_017_4457

It boggles my mind that some people wouldn’t want to hear the glorious howl that pumps out of long-tube headers on a giant V8, but they do exist. I’m far from the first person to point this out, and I’m sure I’ve said it here before, but what kind of dense individual would you have to be to move next to a race track and then complain about all that wonderful noise?

2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_029_5250

All I can hope is that the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion and the traditions surrounding it never die. I doubt they ever will, and although it’s a bit hard to imagine what I might be doing in the year 2050, I wouldn’t be at all surprised if I found myself at Laguna Seca once again.

Right here at the bottom of the Corkscrew, admiring the racing heroes of 2020 as they fly past, obsolete internal combustions at wide open throttle, dancing about with a dash of oversteer. See you there?

Trevor Yale Ryan
Instagram: tyrphoto

Laguna Seca Forever
2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_006_4134
2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_016_4386
2019-Rolex-Monterey-Motorsport-Reunion-Vintage-Racing_Trevor-Ryan-Speedhunters_033_5437
ADVERTISEMENT

Comments



Comments are closed.

14 comments

by Oldest
by Best by Newest by Oldest
1

Staggeringly good photos, Trevor! It really doesn't get any better.

2

Beautiful pictures and an AWESOME write-up, Trevor! Seeing the stars & stripes Corvette takes me back to when I wanted it for my Tyco H/O scale slot car track back in the late '70s! Take care man!

3

Thanks Antonio! Yeah that is a wicked looking car. Couldn't get enough of it.

4

agreed. for me, it was the Mazda's and the Olds. i remember being captivated by their futuristic look as a kid.

5

EPIC photography!

6
Jay Soh Tsu Chung

I’m not exaggerating when I say you can feel the downshifts, the flat-out acceleration, and the raucous backfire inside your chest cavity.



Best to experience this in person. B-)

7

Sadly, I think that it is more the fault of realtors trying to make money on cheap land by understating (or not disclosing even) the amount of noise that will come from the track

8

That's a good point, never thought of that. Still, I'd research where I move, which is why I don't live adjacent to a train track for example. I just feel they have no right to complain.

9

Oh, I agree, but sadly money will win out if enough people complain... It's like the people near me that move in by a Naval Air Station, and complain about the jet noise... Only difference is that the govt. isn't gonna pack it up and leave.

10

Weirdly the government owns this track, too. Trouble is that means the taxpayers and homeowners have a lot of leverage on them.

11

I never knew what that red cast was on my old photo prints. I assumed it had to do with getting your film processed at the same place you buy your ice cream. Turns out it was just expired film. Neat!

12

Did they not invite the audis out to play cuz they are still sore about it? Or did the audi drivers complain that the tracks were too rough for them to drive on?

13

I think the words "dense individual" needs to be in bold. My thoughts exactly. If you don't like planes don't move under a flight path, if you can't swim. don't jump in the sea etc etc.

14

Looks like you dug out a vintage photo book and scanned it amazing!

OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS