35TH ROLEX MONTEREY HISTORIC AUTOMOBILE RACES

Photo by Karol Andrews

The largest Formula Junior field ever seen in North America, of 78 cars, forgathered in hot sunshine as the “Featured Marque” for this year’s Historics. Monterey IS Steve and Debby Earle, and last year he had set the plans for three separate FJ grids; the early Italian front engine’s, the 1959-60 grid, and finally the 61-63, and this was the format on the day... Not all quite like the European scene , as most T56s seem to have disc brakes, and the winning Huffaker Engineering BMC Mk 1 bore little resemblance to the Monson Monaco winning car , with discs on all four wheels , a wide track, and an awesome BMC engine  , but both the Monterey Tec Inspectors , and East Coast 18 guru, JR Mitchell were wielding copies of the newly published FJHRA FJ Technical Regulations, and there was a clear message here, and from the Australian contingent , that, with some refining, there lies the basis for worldwide agreement.

Several of the FJs had already been on the track for a week, with the “ Pre Historics” last weekend, including the European and Australian contingents, the latter, all in their embroidered bright yellow  FJ shirts and hats ,comprising Roger and Margaret Ealand [ 18], Bill Hemming [Elfin] and David and Annie Reid [ sadly, at the last minute, sans T 59 ], while Don and Jeanette Thallon [ who “had enough shirts and hats already”] made up the Antipodean party with the MRC 22.The European container had arrived on the East Coast and disgorged its 6 cars into the care of the Donovan Team. These were  the Lola Mk 2 of David Pratley, Jac Nelleman’s Volpini 006,the Jolus of John and Elli Tweedale [ with former owner Dick ( with Judy) Buckingham also down from Seattle for the weekend], Chris M Drake ( with Angie ) with the Elva 300,expatriate Jaguar executive , BJ Colaric [ who had done so much to coordinate the US logistics for the “ tour”, in conjunction with Col “Bob”s handling of all the shipping arrangements ], with the familiar red Elva 100 ,and Gordon Wright, with Leslie and the girls, and the blue Stanguellini –still smoking, and indeed on one occasion called in for “inspection”, but otherwise enjoying a trouble free run. Also under the Donovan umbrella was the grey Lola Mk 5A of Art Hebert  In addition, drivers of UK origin included Ford chief designer and 2004 Ken Miles Trophy winner, David Woodhouse in the black Dolphin International, Mark Gillies driving Mary Smith’s very original BT6, Tony Hart in the “22” bought at auction last year, and built on a NZ replica chassis back in the 70s, and part of Tupper Robinson’s four car team,  Robin Longdon [ with Sue ]driving Tupper’s original Lotus 20, and Duncan [ with Mair] in the Scorpion 500-07, with BMC engine as original equipment. Tupper had his familiar Bandini, as raced at Monaco and Pau, while Tupper’s newly purchased and restored Elva 100 was in the hands of period FJ Cooper driver Charlie Barns. Also familiar to European eyes were Ned Spieker [ with Carol, and Norman and Candice Thersby in attendance ] in both the BT2/6 and the Lola Mk 2,Roy Walzer in his US based Cooper T 67, Murray Smith with his newly purchased Cooper T 59 [ ex Bob Woodward ] Chris Locke , in his 27 [heading next for Goodwood], Nick Colyvas, hitching a last minute ride in a T 56, Allan Patterson with his red Elva recently shipped back from UK [ and Jim Smith giving much assistance], and still with Angouleme stickers ,and Jimmy and Karol Andrews, with their T52 Cooper [ and T 59 ]. Dave Zurlinden will also be heading for Goodwood shortly, and was prominent in his beautifully presented, and fast! BT2.

The “home” teams came from far and wide, although with a strong, local, California base. However, JR was looking after some East coast cars, while, what seemed like the whole Texas FJ community, had made the trip with a strong front engined bias, including the green  Elva  100s of Lon McKinstry and Steve Foster ,Ugo Piccagli with a newly acquired Gemini Mk II # 1025, and Jim Yule with both Elva 100 and BMC Mk2 [ with Ford engine ], and the very effective 18 of Bruce Revennhaugh, who has also just bought Lotus 18 F1 909, unused for many years, from Nick Mason.:real period history was , however , unsurpassed by JC Kilburn driving the same black Taraschi BT-058 that he drove back in period, one of three Taraschis and seven front engined Stanguellinis in attendance, including that of Carla Marvin, one of only two lady FJ drivers, although she broke the crank in the “ Pre Historics”. Also from the east came John Kieley’s Gemini Mk II, and the controversial Stanguellini’s [front engined, and Delfino]] of Laurence Auriana, for Joe Colasacco. The front engine car had the engine partially stripped and measured by the Tec Team, and was confirmed as 1100 capacity

There were certainly some oddities too, the most famous being the unique Bourgeault of Simon Favre , the only FJ from the works of Nadeau Bourgeault [ although there were a few later single-seaters, and some sports-racers, two of which were lost in one of the infamous California forest fires ]; others included the Miller-Crosley, front engine US FJ rules, car of Chuck Wade that was on E-bay during the last year : sadly this was to suffer a holed block in practice ;also two F IV cars , the Le Grand Mk 1.08 with BMW engine for Jerry Burr, and the  Quantum –SAAB of Edmond Stoops. Phil Binks was making the debut of his newly restored Dolphin Club, Myles Winbigler had a green Sadler, while Henry Ruthven II had a second, immaculate Bandini, # 054.  Impressive, but more mainstream, were the other 27s of Phillip Ribbs [blue #”01”] and Danny Baker [green # 36] and another original, orange, BT6, of Reg Howell as well as Pete Ball’s Lola 5A, “the red car”. Of the rest , there was an imposing array of BMC Mk 1s,  Lotus 18, 20, and 22s, including the ex-Ned Spieker 22-F3-40 of Philip Trenholme, and Cooper T56 and T 59s. There were THREE Elva 200s entered, but none showed

Wednesday was blazing hot, and a quick visit to the track preceded sign-on back at Seaside. This was one of the few hiccups of the weekend, but the delay allowed a quick visit to the Automobilia sale room. Ferret Fotographics [alias Ted Walker] and Lawrence Edscer were in attendance and doing good honest business, while Duncan managed to pick up a few period FJ programmes for the “Magnum Opus”. That evening there followed an extravaganza at the Monterey Jet Centre – Mair was seen sampling the various executive jets on offer!!.

Next morning, Thursday, all the novice drivers were at the track early for a 90 minute session at the Barber Racing School – our instructor was a Villeneuve. This was followed by the first chance on the track, with half an hour behind the instructor’s car in groups of 4 or 5. it was all very organised, with the lead car dropping to the rear of the group after each tour…unfortunately for Duncan, the Scorpion was straight out of the box, unrun, after a two + year restoration, so there was quite a lot of acclimatisation required for both car and driver….result: Duncan was given his personal tutor but car/ driver still struggled to keep up!! The later session was enlivened by a McLaren Can-am having a demo lap at the same time as the school runs, and weaving its way along the top straight right and left of the groups… the black flag came out pretty quick !!

Thursday afternoon was photocall time – All the FJ’s drove reverse direction up to the Corkscrew to turn 4 for a mass picture, which was to feature the next morning, full colour, on the front page of the ‘Monterey Herald’. Certainly it was the largest number of FJ’s ever taken in one photo.

Photo by Karol Andrews

Thursday night was the track party, with plenty of food and drink, and Steve Earle addressed everyone for a welcome, and then called Duncan up on stage to say a few words, where he thanked Steve for taking hold of Duncan’s idea and bringing the Jubilee FJ’s to Monterey.

Friday was practice day, and the three FJ groups came out in separate sessions. One of the peculiarities of US Historic racing is that, not unusually, no times are published, but it was clear amongst the “Italian” cars that Joe Colasacco was significantly fastest, from William Cotter [Taraschi], the dark red Stanguellini of Larry McKenna, and the blue one of Bill Gelles, and with Jac Nelleman in the Volpini next up, but sadly, he broke the crank, while Tupper exploded his rotor arm, although he was to find a spare.

Next out were the remaining pre 61 cars, with Dan Marvin in the “works Huffaker” BMC Mk 1 significantly the fastest, ahead of Jimmy Domingos in his T52. Jimmy is a driving instructor here at Laguna Seca, so this is sure to be part of the story, but it gives hope to the T52s back in Europe and NZ that a T 52 CAN beat ALL the 18s!!! Bruce Revennaugh led the latter, from Marc Nichols in USA’s sole remaining Kieft FJ, and Roger Ealand, and the yellow “new Australian” coloured 18 of Mike Taradash. Myles Winbigler may walk with a stick, but he sure peddled the 948cc Sadler with a heavy right foot, nonetheless Duncan struggled round slowly in the Scorpion, exuding oil from front and rear, with occasional gears, and uncertain dials, so Jac Nelleman went out in the warm up, but only to add low oil pressure, and a misfire [ coil] to the problems, without any significant reduction in lap times: at least it had not been all the driver !!

Late in the afternoon came the faster FJ’s, and with Art Hebert, Jo Colasacco and Danny Baker all seeming on about equal performance, the omens were good for the Saturday race. Sadly DonThallon called it a halt with no oil pressure in the MRC, but a spare motor was in the box, so a late night session was the order of the day, made no more pleasant for Don , accompanied by a dose of “Tequilas’” stomach!!. Back on track, David Zurlinden was showing that he will be a force at Goodwood, with fourth spot in the BT2, ahead of Mark Gillies, the versatile Jimmy Domingos, this time in a T 59, and the two Brabham’s , of Ned Spieker and Reg Howell. David Woodhouse was way down the order, seemingly with acute handling problems, and in the following warm up, executed a lurid spin coming out of Turn 4, but miraculously survived unscathed… more miraculous was that no one hit him ! John Tweedale also ran into problems, at the Corkscrew, and bent a radius arm, but at least he was fit for another day, which is more than can be said for poor David Pratley, who all but wrote off the Mk 2 at the same place on his second lap at the earlier “Pre Historics” and was to take no further part in the tour, at least, track wise.

Friday night was a party to remember. Ned Spieker and Carol kindly invited the ENTIRE Formula Junior contingent – some 78 drivers and partners – to their house in Carmel [where Duncan and Mair were also staying as guests]. Many of the US drivers met each other socially for the first time!!; but it was also a great chance for the three Continents to mingle. All drivers signed one of the Formula Junior posters that Dr Mark Green so well organised, and this was presented to Ned, with thanks to Carol and himself, and Ned’s wonderful P/A, Ellen Baker. A few were missing because of the “rival” Rolex dinner, where Murray Smith and Andrew Marriott were interviewing the Event Celebrity, Mario Andretti on stage, but it was nonetheless a full and remarkable turnout. Pablo Gonzalez, who races a Stanguellini, is truly Mexican, and I do hope we meet up again.

Saturday was race day for the early cars, and with three broken cranks, Bill Weed having added his Stanguellini to the club, it was just ten glorious Italian cars on the grid. Joe Colasacco had the measure of it, but William Cotter (Taraschi) held on well for many laps. The race was certainly enlivened by a stirling drive by Tupper Robinson from the back of the grid. After getting by Pablo Gonzalez, he cut down the advantage of Bill Gelles in the blue Stanguellini, but just could not get there by the flag. Larry McKenna ran a good race to third, ahead of Gelles.

Dan Marvin runs current Formula cars, and he drove a walkaway in the disc braked BMC Mk 1, from the remarkable Cooper T52 of Jimmy Domingos. Texan, Bruce Revennaugh led the 18s, from that delightful blue Kieft of Marc Nichols, who doubles up historic racer, and part time fireman. Roger Ealand drove a great race in the red 18, with Taradash’s yellow version behind, and Ned leading the rest of the front engined cars, with BJ holding up the glory of the UK resident visitors. Phil Binks was an excellent and popular 8th overall in the early Dolphin. With oil pressure around 20, Duncan never expected to see the flag, but after trying to keep Alan Patterson in sight, at least held it all together for a much enjoyed race at the back. Alan, however, exceeded himself, and put Steve Foster and Charlie Barns all behind him, and had finally displaced the Bourgeault by the line.

Peak time Sunday afternoon was the 38 car grid “late” FJ race. Nick Colyvas joined at the back in the blue T 56, after only the warm up. First time round following the pace car exit, it was the grey Lola of Art Hebert from Danny Baker, the blue BT2 of David Zurlinden, the Stanguellini, and Jimmy Domingos. Lap 2 and Colasacco had slipped by the Brabham, but John Burnham’s T 59 had stopped out on track, and the pace car was called out while John was towed in... at that point there were some antics, the rope broke, the T59 crossed right over the track, ahead of the field, but with the race again green, the T 59 joined right in again !!

Photo by Allan Rosenberg [Chris Locke and Ddan Chapman]

Reg Howell [ BT6] had held ahead of Mark Gillies similar car till then, and soon after, Ned Spieker who had been following, succumbed to both Patrick Moran in the ex-David Stevenson 22,and Doug Mockett in his familiar T 56. Pete Ball had a great dice; firstly with Chris Drake, and then Roy Walzer, who climbed from 16th on lap 4 to finish 11th, taking Chris Locke’s 27 on the last lap. Nick Colyvas worked his way steadily through the field for an excellent 18th in the elderly T 56, two behind Murray Smith, much enjoying his first FJ race in the T 59, while Don Thallon, frustrated at not being up front, but nonetheless delighted to finish with the re-engined MRC, AND with full oil pressure, just one spot ahead of Robin Longdon in Tupper’s 20.

So far from home, it was a surprise to see many familiar faces. Horst Bruning, now President of FIVA, but more familiar to us in a Lola Mk 2 was having a round of successful meetings, and presiding over the “best unrestored car” at the Pebble Beach extravaganza, while Monaco’s Jean Sage was one of the Judges. Thanks to David Woodhouse, and the Ford PR machine , Duncan and Mair attended for the first few hours on Sunday, and eyed the mouth watering array of machinery : Toby and Daniel Ward, now part owners of “Motion Works”, were there with five Veterans, Duncan Dayton was admiring the array , Allards are now in a different league from hithertofore, and there was a beautiful example, Joe Freeman , now an Indy car Team owner, but still with a Cooper 500, which brought him to Wool Road a decade or more ago, and a trip in the Grenfell V8, which is still etched in his memory, Malcolm Barber of Bonham’s ( nee Brooks) who wielded the gavel at Duncan’s auction at Olympia, while back at the track we met Jurgen and Karoline Ernst, who have just acquired the Hans Braun Stanguellini, Kommissariat Egon Hofer and his wife from Salzburg, who own an OSCA FJ, and will long be remembered for the Huffaker Indy Car that they used to bring to the OldTimer GP and run in FISA events. John Watson was there too, running in the Celebrity race

The meeting finished with a prize giving on the roof of the restaurant where we had all enjoyed the Free hospitality lunches and breakfast throughout the weekend...thanks to Rolex and Mazda. Steve gave away the prizes, which do NOT go to the winners, with William Cotter, Phil Binks, and Jo Colasacco taking the FJ spoils. It was a point to note that the prize giving, which did not start till well after 5.30 was held to a packed house. Thereafter the European and Aussie cars were loaded away for their trip back east, and we meet up again at Lime rock CT in just 10 days…

Appropriately, as it is also Lola’s Golden Jubilee Year, Ned Spieker leads Clive Wilson by one point for the Topham Trophy, both in Lola Mk 2s.

Already there is excited talk about the Jubilee Finale in South Africa, with two Australian, and at least 3 European containers making the voyage. The Safaris and Wine tours are already at the booking stage!!!

Results sheets;

• Front-Engined early Italian
• 1959-60
• 1961-63

DCPR