Ladies and Gentlemen,
The Monterey Historic races were a real delight. Both Saturday and Sunday had a lot going on. I took pictures and will post some of them once I get the CD back from the developer!
Bentley, as you can read in 'sticanddice's' post, was the featured marquee this year. It was a site to see them parade around the whole circuit with their owners, some dressed in clothing of the periods of their cars, and to see their display (pics later).
However there were two more racing events that stole my breath:
First was the group including the Cobras, Ferraris, XKE, some Mustang GT350's and Corvettes. There was the Blue Cobra, #?, in first that was passed by the red Ferrari. The Red Ferrari stayed in first place over the blue Cobra until about the middle of the race when a red #22 (I think) Cobra 427S/C, driven by Mac Archer (sp.?) came up through the pack, passed the blue Cobra and began to dog the rear of the first place Ferrari, about 4-5 car lengths back. They stayed this way with the Cobra passing at least once, then loosing its first place to the Ferrari for a second, through the subsequent turns.
As the two raced down through the corkscrew and through turns 9 and 10, virtually side by side, the Cobra held to the left of the Ferrari. As the two reached the last turn, 11, the Cobra stayed inside the Ferrari, braked late, smoked the tires and entered the turn slower. The two came out of turn 11 side by side. The Ferrari stabilized first, accelerated and began to pull ahead of the Cobra as the two headed for the checkered flag. Then as the Ferrari had moved about 30% up on the Cobra, and looked as if it would pull ahead for the win, Mac Archer's red Cobra seemed to explode with speed and simply shoot ahead of the Ferrari to a substantial lead as it passed the checkered in 1st place! OH WOW!! I'm still celebrating!
Later that day, I went to the paddock and found the car. The mechanic was there; so we talked about the previous day's race. He was busy, but was proud of the outcome...no kidding! As I walked away, past the Edlebrock Cars, I looked at two gentlemen talking near one of Edlebrock's cars. The fellow looked like Parnelli Jones. But I thought, "NO WAY", Parnelli wouldn't come to this venue. I told a friend and fellow CC member, John Brooks, and we even speculated as to whether or not Parnelli was alive or well enough to be at an event like this.
Later the next day, during the last featured race of the Trans AM cars, as the driver's names were announced, I heard the names of George Follmer and.....yep....Parnelli Jones! YESSSS! Parnelli drove an aggressive race in an orange Boss 302 Mustang, #15, and came in second to an AMC Javeline driven by Follmer. It was a site to see the two of them race together. After the race we walked down to the paddock again, found Parnelli (I saw his name sewn on his racing suit) and I complemented him on how enjoyable it was to watch him race. His reply was simply "thank you." Now that I have met and talked to one of my racing heroes, life seems more complete!
I wish all of you who wanted to be there could have seen this spectacle. There are other Historics throughout the world like this one; so I hope all of you other Cobra-compulsives like myself, will go to at least one. I suggest checking the schedule to find when the Cobras, or other cars of interest to you, are running. Sometimes it's on Saturday while other times it's on Sunday, normally in the 2 to 4 PM time window.
All the best, folks!
