Monterey Car Week – COVID-19 Plan B
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Three factors have made August in Monterey a long standing Warnes family tradition. The first, of course, is Car Week; second is escaping Fresno’s notorious scorching heat; and third is the beautiful and intriguing Monterey environs. Upon learning that most of this year’s car events (car shows, vintage car races and myriad auctions) were being cancelled, I asked Julie if she still wanted to spend this August in the Monterey area. Her response was quite brief and succinct – so here we are.
Allards racing at Laguna Seca are pitted with the “California Road Racing Hot Rods,” an array post-WWII sports racers which includes several one-off , home-made ‘hot rod’ specials that were set up for road racing against the European sports cars from that era. Many of these specials were inspired by Allard* and together they gave the the sophisticated European iron some strong competition – and they still do.
While the cancellation of this year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion came as no surprise to us, we subsequently learned that the County of Monterey Health Department had approved Weather Tech Raceway Laguna Seca’s reopening plan for private track rentals with strict health and safety protocols. Following private track rental guidelines, a “Driver Appreciation Weekend” was created for August 8 & 9.
The Monterey Sports Car Road Racers, the Del Monte Trophy Racing Group (www.dmtrg.com), and several members of that group have chosen to befriend us in recent years. While the Driver Appreciation Weekend was not open to spectators or the general public, Colin and I welcomed the opportunity to serve as crew members for the 1952 Streets Manning Special and the 1949 Baldwin Mercury Special.
The sole Allard in this year’s ‘non-event’ was John Mote’s blue, Buick-powered 1950 K2 – the car that Alan Moss (first Allard distributor on the West Coast, and founder of Moss Motors) purchased in New York and drove across the country to Los Angeles. It was good to see John and his crew again. His Allard was sporting a new Buick engine of undisclosed displacement and a few other enhancements this year. It ran quite well in Saturday’s practice and race. However, the fresh engine began to show some teething issues on Sunday, so they prudently decided to bow out of that day’s activities.
This year’s relatively ‘low key’ activities brought back fond memories of 1978 when Julie and I were on a mini-vacation to Monterey, and heard about some guys racing vintage sports cars out at Laguna Seca. Seeing, hearing and smelling these vintage classic racing around this 9-turn track (it has since been extended to its current 11-turn configuration) was truly something to behold. It set the hook for the Warnes family’s ‘Christmas in August’ ritual for the next 40+ years.
We welcomed the chance to play a part in this year’s activities, and we share all our hopes that things will return to some form of normal in 2021.
*Note: The Allard J2 inspired a number a number of sports racing specials. The reasons varied, many took inspiration of the J2’s simplicity, while others scoffed at the poor handling Allards and were determined they could do it better.