Well, actually it was just part of Friday and most of Saturday, then I had to come home for my regular babysitting gig… But it was a good chunk of the weekend… This was actually two weeks ago, but I’ve been pretty busy.

I don’t know what it is about racing historic cars… I mean, I’m not a race fan… I can tell the difference between a Formula 1 car and a stock car, but that’s probably about it. I wouldn’t recognize say Michael Schumacher or Daryl Waltrip or some other race driver if I saw them on the street…

But for some reason, antique (as in 40+ year old) cars tearing around a track fascinate me. Heck, my big secret is that I can hardly be considered a car guy… Which is a little bizarre since I spent a year and a half as the President of a car club, a job I would have had longer if we hadn’t moved!

Yet I headed down to Monterey CA to spend a weekend at the Mazda Raceway at Laguna Seca to watch the races… and enjoyed it immensely. You can find lots of pictures from the weekend over in the Photo Gallery.

Part of why I went down there, and probably a large part of why I enjoyed it so much was the company. I spent a bit of time with Todd and his wife at the track helping Todd cover the event for White Roof Radio. One of the reasons Todd was out there (ok the main reason) was to take delivery of his brand new, limited edition MINI Cooper S John Cooper Works GP.

I also have to give a special thanks to Todd’s wife who gave up her seat to allow me to ride with Todd when he got to take a few parade laps on the track.  I really appreciated the chance to go along on the ride, especially since I had never ridden on a track before. :D
Thanks to Todd and White Roof Radio I had press credentials for the event, the best part about that was that I could pretty much go anywhere I wanted, like next to Pit Road

Or even alongside the track ON Pitt Road.

That’s $1.6 MILLION in automobiles there. Those are $400,000 Mercedes McLaren SLR tearing around the track just feet away from me. One of those cars was being driven by Jay Leno.

But what amazed me more than anything else as I wandering through the paddock though were the cars. In specific was how meticulously many of these cars were restored, many of them could have come straight out of an automotive museum.

This Falls Eight is a good example, it looked just gorgeous, and at some point over the weekend it was tearing around the track. The car itself probably was worth what I make over 3 or 4 years and it’s owner was risking it by pushing it to its limits on a racetrack.

Then there was this guy waiting to drive a Cooper Formula 1 car. For some reason he just epitomizes my image of the historic auto racer. He’s got this cool, collected, confident look on his face.

Finally, check this out:

It’s a Vespa!