By Jake Grubb

In the furious decade that elapsed from the mid 1960s to the mid 1970s at the Indianapolis 500, quantum changes in racecar design, engine developments, tire technologies and many other core fundamentals changed at a dizzying pace.

After the incredible feat of the 1962 Forbes Weinberger Homes Special Watson Indy Roadster, which ran all 200 laps of four consecutive Indy 500s (1962, ’63, ’64 and ’65) — and did so competitively — the onslaught of rear engine Indy Car design and aviation-inspired aerodynamic body designs rocketed the cars to uncanny speeds that elevated dramatically each year. In that time period, lap speeds rocketed from 150mph averages to nearly 200 mph averages! A then-unthinkable progression! It is this time period that defined a new trajectory in Indy Car performance, one that ultimately reached a point where boundaries for speeds and innovations in safety began to eclipse the arms race for outright performance. These push-pull dynamics continue to define Indy Cars and Indy 500 track speeds to this day.

By the early 1960s, new rear-engine racecar designs from Europe made our once proud USA Indy roadsters look aged and even slightly inefficient. By contrast, British open wheel racecars such as Lotus models were strikingly small, lightweight, low, modern and fast looking. These represented the leading edge of open-wheel racecar design. Against this new reality, the 1962 A.J. Watson Weinberger Homes Special was a late-in-life Indy roadster that stood tall against the onslaught of the rear-engine newcomers, making them prove themselves until the dog days of 1965.

Chicagoan Bill Forbes, an Indy Car owner since the late 1950s, ordered one of the three new A.J. Watson roasters built for the 1962 racing season. Although his car was never destined to win a championship race, it was to have one of the longest and most colorful careers of any of the famous Watson Indy-style roadsters. This car fought the battles of the transition from front-engine Indy roadsters to rear-engine Indy Cars like no other.

Forbes and his chief mechanic Dave Laycock chose 1956 USAC champion Clark “Shorty” Templeman to drive their new car. Templeman, who qualified for his first Indy 500 in 1955 had three previous starts at the Speedway, all ending in mechanical failure. He qualified the new Forbes roadster as car number 4 in 6th starting position for the 1962 Indy 500. During the race, while running well in the top ten he spun into the wall. Yet despite a seven-minute pit stop to repair a broken sway bar he completed the race with an 11th place finish, completing all 200 laps!

Ten days later Templeman started the Milwaukee 100-miler in 17th position and spun on the 84th lap, finishing a disappointing 16th. Forbes and Templeman parted company after the race and Forbes hired Jim McElreath as the team’s new driver. Shortly thereafter Templeman sadly died in a Midget car crash at the Marion County, Ohio, Fairgrounds in August 1962.

Driver Jim McElreath, an IMCA and USAC sprint car veteran from Arlington Texas took over the Forbes ride in mid-1962 at the August Milwaukee 200-miler. After qualifying 15th McElreath drove a strong race and finished in 5th position, hinting at good things to come.

Returning to Indy in May 1963, McElreath put the Forbes Roadster [as car number 8] on the outside of the second row for the car’s second consecutive year, challenging all comers including the new rear-engine Indy Cars. British racecar builder Colin Chapman brought his Lotus rear-engine design to the Speedway in 1963 in hopes of defeating the dominant Offenhauser-engine roadsters. Battling with Parnelli Jones late in the race, Lotus’ pilot Jimmy Clark was set to end the Offy’s reign. But after a heated battle the Scotsman couldn’t quite prevail and Jones took the victory.

During the race McElreath ran as high as 2nd on several occasions but spun twice, once in the pits while avoiding contact with another car, and then finally finished a strong 6th.

For Indianapolis 1964, now facing a tidal wave of rear-engine racecars from Europe and the USA, the Forbes roadster yet again took-on the Indy 500 (this time as car number 18) with another respected Texas driver, Lloyd Ruby at the wheel. Of the 33 Indy 500 starters, twelve were of rear-engine design, a third of the total field. Jimmy Clark, Dan Gurney and Bob Marshman were fastest in their Lotus Fords but incredibly, Lloyd Ruby started 7th in the Forbes roadster and drove to a steady 3rd-place finish, his career-best at Indy. AJ Foyt took the checkered flag and drank from the traditional milk bottle of victory, but it was to be the final win for a front-engine roadster at the Indy 500.

Bill Forbes sold the car in February 1965 to Sid Weinberger and Frank Wilseck, who campaigned it through the 1965 season as the Weinberger Homes Special, car number 76. They contracted Gordon Johncock, a Super-Modified hot-shot from Hastings Michigan as the driver.

At the 49th Indy 500 on May 31st, 1965, after logging an estimated 700 miles in practice, “Gordy” Johncock qualified the Weinberger Homes Special at 155.012 mph (20th position), and finished an impressive 5th place in an Indy 500 field dominated by 27 rear-engine cars that year. Johncock and the Weinberger were one of only six Indy roadsters in the event. They held their own but sung their swan song as Britain’s Jimmy Clark won the 1965 Indy 500 in a Lotus 38; the first victory at Indy for a rear-engine car. A front-engine roadster never won again.

Epilogue

In May 1968, Frank “Sunny” Deak of South Bend Indiana bought the roadster from Weinberger and Wilseck and converted it to a pavement Sprint Car. With Ray Wright of Elkhart Indiana driving, the car scored top-five finishes in non-consecutive California events between May and September 1968. Deak then sold the car, but bought it back in 1972. He owned the Weinberger for almost nine more years until he sold it again, this time in 1981 to collector Bob McConnell of Urbanna, Ohio. McConnell and Steve Miller of Mexico, New York elected to restore the car as it appeared in its final year at the Indy 500 in 1965.

In 1993 McConnell elected to sell the partially-restored Weinberger to Jack Layton, who then proceeded to complete its superlative 10-point restoration. In 1994 the car achieved certification as an entrant for judging by the American Association of Classic Automobiles, a rare and special honor.

Incredibly, the Weinberger Homes Special is the only A.J. Watson Offy roadster to have completed four consecutive Indianapolis 500 events — 1962, 1963, 1964 and 1965 — all 800 laps, all 2000 miles!

On April 27, 1997 Jack Layton sold the car to Tom Malloy, who now displays this venerable A.J. Watson classic Indy roadster at vintage racing and concours events throughout the USA.

By 1963, A.J. Watson was itchy. Generally re-garded as the most experienced, most successful designer/builder of Indianapolis-type racecars in the USA, Watson had reluctantly concluded that the reign of his renowned front-engine roadster racecars was in its final chapter. Among his many outstanding accomplishments, Watson’s cars had won five Indianapolis 500s!

The early 1960s presented definitive clarity that rear-engine-configured cars could achieve superior cornering speeds over front-engine cars, yet with less power and far less weight. USA veteran builders of front-engine racecars saw this first-hand. A.J. Watson was watching these developments like a hawk taking aim at a stampede of rabbits. He was studying, and he would act.

In early 1963 Watson went to his drawing board and set out to make a new breed of masterpiece – a rear-engine Indy car that would have a larger displacement, yet slim-line motor to challenge its British counterparts, creating a racecar with superior handling and spectacular power. This promised to be a potent combination.

With the 1964 Indianapolis 500 shaping up to be the defining duel between traditional roadster-style front-engine cars and the dawning era of rear-engine cars, thirteen A.J. Watson-designed cars were to qualify for the event. Of those, eleven were roadsters. Two were Watson rear-engine Indy prototypes. One of those two was the “Leader Card Racers Kaiser Aluminum Special” on these pages. It was powered by an innovative Ford double-overhead-cam V8 engine. (The sister car to the Kaiser Aluminum Special was powered by a traditional Offenhauser engine, so that on-track performance could be compared).

At the Indianapolis 500 for 1964, for the first time in history the front row grid of qualifiers for an Indy 500 was made-up exclusively of rear-engine cars. Scotland’s Jimmy Clark qualified on the pole in a Lotus 34 (158.828 mph); Bobby Marshman qualified 2nd, also in a Lotus (157.867 mph); and Rodger Ward qualified 3rd in the A.J. Watson Leader Card Kaiser Ford (156.406 mph). The race of a new Indy 500 era was on.

After the green flag on race day, nothing went as expected. Although pole-sitter Jim Clark led for fourteen early laps, a Dunlop tire failure violently destroyed his Lotus’ suspension, but he averted contact with the wall. Bobby Marshman in the second Lotus then took over 1st and stretched his lead to a prodigious 90-seconds, but ultimately his “low” driving line through Turn 1 caused the bottom of the car to contact pavement, ending up in a broken gearbox and oil plug. Follow-up leader Parnelli Jones’ retirement (due to an oil fire) left the race to a charging A.J. Foyt and a chasing Rodger Ward in the rear-engine Watson-Ford to challenge for the ’64 Indy 500 win.

Although Ward was turning the fastest lap times, as the race wore on A.J. Foyt’s front-engine Roadster necessitated only two more pit stops for fuel, against Ward’s need for four stops. Why? Veteran 3-time Indy winner Ward, who calculated that his Ford engine would run cooler on alcohol, had converted his engine to run Alcohol (vs gasoline) the night before the 500. Reason: 1) He had apprehensions (as did other drivers) about the danger of gasoline operation in a rear-engine car; 2) Ford’s new V8 4-cam race engines had failures in pre-race testing with gasoline, but ran dependably on alcohol, and with 3-mph faster lap speeds. But a casualty of Wards’ late-night pre-race switch from gasoline to alcohol was Ward’s failure to re-position a fuel metering valve that determined rich vs lean mixture, which led to radically increased fuel use during the 500-mile race, forcing more pit stops than his competitors. Ward would later reflect; “the car was good enough to win but the fault was mine. I set-up the jetting too rich, which caused additional fuel stops.”

Ultimately, only two rear-engine cars finished the ’64 Indy 500, belying their ultimate dominance, as later illustrated by Jim Clark’s runaway win just one year later in the 1965 Indy 500. But the 1964 race was one of tradition, with A.J. Foyt winning his 3rd Indianapolis 500 in a front-engine Sheraton-Thompson A.J. Watson-built roadster.

The actual Rodger Ward-driven A.J. Watson Leader Card Racers Kaiser Aluminum Ford V8 Special on these pages was restored by Ron Ward and A.J. Watson himself, to its 1964 Indy livery, with documentations notarized by Rodger Ward. On August 15th 1998, the car became a part of the Malloy Foundation, Inc. private collection.

In 2014, the year of A.J. Watson’s passing, Malloy Foundation chief fabricator Marc Hart and team completed an exacting restoration of the car to its 1964 Indy 500 racing specification. This work was based on extensive historical research, aided by detailed photographs of the Watson Kaiser Aluminum Special that were taken just one week before its 1964 Indy 500 debut. The authentic photos were kindly made available by the Indianapolis Museum, from their archives.

Few Indianapolis 500 racecars are top-ten competitors. Still fewer are front-of-the-pack runners for more than two seasons, due to technology advances that relentlessly drive Indy Car speeds and efficiencies as time advances. But for a racecar to be “a factor” in Indy Car racing for half a decade is virtually unthinkable.

But the 1973 McLaren M24B broke all conventional norms. Eight years after it was originally introduced, this car placed 3rd in the 1981 Indianapolis 500, a race that featured the most controversial Indy finish in history!

Originally a derivative of McLaren’s highly successful M16 and M23 Formula 1 cars of the early and mid-1970s, the M24B was specifically modified by the McLaren works team for USAC Indy racing. After McLaren’s 1974 Indy 500 win with American driver Johnny Rutherford in a 1973 McLaren M16/D, McLaren added engineering improvements and rebranded its stable of M16D cars to the designation of M24. Rutherford ran chassis #003, shown here, successfully on the USAC Indy Car circut throughout 1977. With further improvements and running as an M24B with Rutherford at the 1978 and 1979 Indy 500s, results were solid but not stellar.

Although McLaren departed Indy Car racing as of the 1980 racing season, Hong Kong real estate magnate Teddy Yip Jr.’s Theodore Racing purchased the McLaren M24B, chassis #003 for entry into the 1981 Indy 500. Young up-and-coming Australian driver Vern Schuppan, known for his racing successes in Asia with the Theodore team, would be the driver, with sponsorship from well known racing and hotel entrepreneur Jim Trueman, founder of Red Roof Inns.

Powered by a freshened Ford DFV engine, Schuppan qualified 18th in a star-studded field of 33 drivers and cars, however surprised veterans, spectators and media alike with his steady climb throughout the race to 3rd place, which he held solidly in the final laps to finish behind Bobby Unser and Mario Andretti, both Indy legends.

Although the famous “who’s the winner” controversy of the 1981 Indianapolis 500 overshadowed Schuppan’s driving feat, his Indianapolis accomplishment in the 8-year-old McLaren M24B was herculean. Some, in fact, would say historic.

In August of 2000, Tom Malloy purchased the McLaren Indy M-24B, chassis #003 from Vernon John Schuppan. The car has been restored to its 1981 Indy 500 3rd-place-finish livery and race trim, and is now part of the Malloy Foundation, Inc. collection. And as Tom Malloy fondly reminds; “regardless of the ’81 Indy winner controversy, I have the winning car.” The Malloy Foundation is the proud owner of the first three finishers!

By Jake Grubb

Shocking the eyes and ears of thrilled Indianapolis 500 spectators, the explosive roar of the supercharged Novi engines pushing their cars to full power on Indianapolis Motor Speedway’s brick surface was an experience unmatched, both before and since. And even though they never won an Indy 500, the Novis’ innovative technologies revolutionized race engine design.

Ironically, the extraordinary Novi engine that powers the rare 1935 Miller-Ford Indianapolis car on these pages did not exist when the car was originally designed by Harry Miller and Preston Tucker for Henry Ford in late 1934. Initially conceived and built under the auspices of automotive genius Harry Miller, this car was one of a stable of ten identical racecars built by Miller and automotive entrepreneur Preston Tucker for Henry Ford, specifically to compete as a Ford entry in the 1935 Indianapolis 500. It was initially powered by Ford’s new flathead V8 engine, which was purposed for use as an Indy showcase, demonstrating the prowess of Ford’s new high-performance motorcars to an expectant public.

But it didn’t work out that way. Although all ten cars were completed for the 1935 Indy 500, they weren’t fully race ready due to insufficient preparation time. Only four of the highly-promoted Miller-Ford racecars were able to qualify for the ‘35 Indy 500 and Henry Ford was furious with the results. All of the cars were vexed with steering boxes mounted too close to the exhaust manifold, which produced heat that caused the steering gears to seize.

Enraged, Henry Ford Locked these extraordinary racecars away in storage. Perhaps with further development and testing, the Miller-Ford Indy Cars would have enjoyed more victorious careers.

In the meantime, by the close of the 1930s, several of the Miller-Fords had migrated to the garages of racing privateers, including Lew Welch, who acquired the Miller Ford Indy Car shown on these pages. Welch replaced the V8 Ford engine with a 270 cubic inch Offenhauser engine, enabling the car to quality and race in the 1938 and 1939 Indy 500, with 6th place and 4th place finishes, respectively!

Like Henry Ford, however, Lew Welch wanted to win the Indianapolis 500 outright, thus he embarked upon a search for a more powerful engine solution. Welch teamed up with race engine expert “Bud” Winfield, who conceived a new and innovative engine for the aging ’35 Miller racecar design. Welch and Winfield then brought on Fred Offenhauser and Leo Goosen, the two men responsible for the already renowned Offenhauser race engine. The magical chemistry of this talented team, led forward by the engine building artistry of Leo Goosen produced an invention like no other; a double overhead cam, supercharged race engine producing over 450 horsepower, yet reasonably compact and lightweight, that would ultimately prove dependable while powering the Miller racecars to new horizons and stunningly high speeds.

Originally named the “Winfield” engine (later changed to “NOVI” because manufacture was in Novi, Michigan), the engine was fitted into the aging 1935 Miller Ford racecar and entered into the 1941 Indianapolis 500. Sponsored by one Robert Bowes, owner of the “Seal Fast” company, the car’s driver was veteran Ralph Hepburn, who quickly found that the Novi engine’s massive power made the car a nearly untamable beast. The V8 caused the tires to spin, burn and smoke if too much power was applied. Part of the problem was that the engine was heavier than the one it replaced, thus upsetting the balance of the front wheel drive Miller Ford chassis. This made the car impossible to drive to full capacity and it negatively affected its handling ability. To help solve the problem, a wooden block was placed on the firewall to limit the travel of the throttle.

Newly branded as the Bowes Seal Fast Special, driver Ralph Hepburn not only qualified the car for the 1941 Indy 500, but ran a safe and conservative race to a 4th place finish. The whole Novi package became legendary, with a notorious reputation for being perilously powerful. And sadly, drivers Ralph Hepburn (in 1948) and Chet Miller (in 1953) both died in practice piloting these legendary racecars. The Bowes Seal Fast Miller-Ford Novi is living history of extraordinary yet dangerous Indy Car innovation.

The fascinating lineage of the Don Lee Special is a true-life story that blends the austere world of 1940s circle track racing with the splendor of the Hollywood Golden years. Replete with the likes of motion picture icons Clark Gable and Barbara Stanwyck, the Don Lee Special itself becomes a movie star on the Big Screen alongside Gable, Stanwyck and a who’s-who of other colorful actors who spin the tale of a bare-knuckle arrogant race driver who meets his match in a truth-telling female newspaper reporter. Clark Gable, the male movie star of the age and classic beauty Barbara Stanwyck effervesce with the Don Lee Special racecar to create a highly compelling on-screen alchemy, capped with authentic film footage of racing at the Indianapolis 500 with Gable’s character Mike Brannan driving [stunt double, of course].

Importantly, the Don Lee Special was much more than a “movie car;” it was the real deal. A then-state-of-the-art 1948 Kurtis-Kraft KK2000, it was painted for the 1950 movie to look like the Wolfe Special as a resemblance to the car that was used the in the film’s real-life racing sequences. (The actual Wolfe Special, coincidentally, was the car that driver Rex Mays was tragically killed in). The purpose of the movie-version Don Lee Special paint job was to enable MGM cameramen to match “To Please a Lady” movie footage of the Don Lee car to authentic racing footage of the Wolfe Special from the 1948 Indy 500.

Serendipitously, racecar builder Frank Kurtis had begun his career as an apprentice at Don Lee’s Coach and Body Works enterprise, which explains a close professional linkage that existed between the two men. Therefore in later years son Tommy Lee’s Don Lee Special, built by Frank Kurtis, spared no costs in its creation. The Kurtis Kraft 2000 chassis was fitted with a 270 cubic-inch 4-cylinder D.O.H.C. Offenhauser engine.

Top speed was clocked at 130 MPH. Driven by Mack Hellings, it finished 5th in the Indianapolis 500 of 1948 (127.968 mph qualifying speed) and 8th in the Indy 500 of 1949 (123.280 mph qualifying speed). The car continued to be raced until 1959, including at California’s renowned Ascot Park. In one of its last events at Ascot, with Jim Hurtibise driving, “Herk” and the Don Lee Special won the heat race, the Semi-Main, the Trophy Dash and the Main Event; a Clean Sweep and also the fastest time!

From 1955 to 1963, the name “A.J. Watson” signified a mastery of Indy Car design and development that set a new bar for the finest and fastest Indy Cars of the “roadster” era. The superior performance of Watson front-engine oval track racecars superseded the previous late-1940s-to-early-1950s dominance of Kurtis-Kraft roadsters, and remained supreme until the full impact of European-style rear-engine cars took effect in the 1963-65 time period. Watson’s storied achievements were most visible at the legendary Indianapolis 500, where his cars won six times, loaded the grid and finished up front in countless instances.

One A.J. Watson Indy Roadster, the 1958 McNamara Chiropractic Special, changed the course of Indianapolis racing history, even though prevented from completing the first lap of its inaugural Indy 500.

After joining forces with ambitious race team owner John Zink in early 1955, Watson and Zink won the 1955 Indy 500 and also the USAC Indy Car Championship that same year. After winning Indy again in 1956 with a new A.J. Watson car, the Zink team was also successful the following year but missed a win in ’57. Determined to win the Indianapolis 500 again for 1958, John Zink had Watson design and build two top-flight cars for two of the best drivers in the game, Ed Elysian and Jimmy Reece.

Simultaneously, A.J. Watson struck a special arrangement with John Zink to build his own Indy Car with his own resources, on his own private time. As history records it, Zink was okay with this scenario as long as it didn’t interrupt the race preparation schedule and winning objectives of the John Zink Indy Car team objectives.

In late April 1958, after the build of A.J.’s new independent Indy roadster was completed, the car was transported to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, on the off-chance that it might find a buyer for the 1958 Indy 500. Sure enough, A.J. found an interested party in one Lee Elkins, shortly before the beginning of qualifying for the 1958 Indy 500 in mid-May. Elkins, owner of the McNamara Freight Company of Kalamazoo, Michigan, purchased the new Watson Indy car with no engine. But after quickly acquiring a competitive Offenhauser power-plant and adding the special skills of his McNamara crew chief Floyd Trevis, the new Watson roadster was rapidly assembled and race prepped. It was then handed over to veteran driver Dick Rathmann, who shocked competitors by qualifying the car on the pole at 145.974 mph for the 1958 Indianapolis 500!

According to mechanic Bob DeBishop who witnessed subsequent events, Rathmann’s qualifying success with the new McNamara car was met with goading and needling from Zink’s fastest driver, Ed Elisian. Owing to Elisian’s taunts, practice sessions preceding 1958 Indy qualifying reportedly became duels between Elisian and Rathmann, with Elisian setting fastest single-lap time but Rathmann producing the best 4-lap time, capturing the pole position.

John Zink was angered because for A.J. Watson’s independent project car to qualify on the Indy 500 pole was an embarrassment to Zink and his team, who had intended to dominate. Worse, Ed Elisian continued to needle driver Dick Rathmann all the way to race day, insisting that he would lead the first lap.

The start of the 1958 Indy 500 saw Rathmann in the McNamara lead into Turn 1 and through Turn 2, but with the field charging down the long backstretch Elisian pulled alongside Rathmann on the inside and gained a slight lead. Determined to be top-dog on the first lap, Elisian overpowered into Turn 3, losing control and spinning into Rathmann which slammed the McNamara into the wall and knocked out both front-running Zink team cars. This tragically triggered a 16-car chain reaction of collisions behind Elisian, causing Jerry Unser to go over the wall, several smash-ups and driver Pat O’Connor’s car to rollover and explode into flames, killing him instantly.

Miraculously, all fifteen other drivers survived, some with injuries, including Rathmann, but the McNamara car was virtually torn in half. Its illustrious Indy pole-setting accomplishment was forever star-crossed by a reckless act on the first lap of the 1958 Indianapolis 500. The pile-up ruined the chances of John Zink’s 2nd and 3rd place qualifying cars (Ed Elisian and Jimmy Reece), both top-flight drivers in state-of-the-art Watson roadsters.

Blaming the mishap on the competitiveness of A.J. Watson’s part-time Indy Car project [the McNamara] Zink was enraged and severed his relationship with Watson. Soon after, A.J. Watson teamed-up with veteran Bob Wilke who formed Leader Card Racers in early 1959. Ironically, the Watson-Wilke relationship produced a 1959 Indy 500 win, three more Indianapolis victories, a USAC Indy Car Championship and countless racing successes over the next ten years. Looking back, it was the A.J. Watson McNamara Chiropractic Special that inadvertently forged what became the juggernaut of Watson/Wilkie and thus launched the dominance of A.J. Watson Indy roadsters for the next half-decade.

Epilogue

Incredibly, the multi-car first lap accident at Indy ‘58 was only the beginning for the McNamara Special. The car was revived for the 1959 Indy 500, carrying driver Dick Rathmann to 4th in qualifying, but a pit fire during the race dropped the car to 20th in that year’s final results. For 1960, new owner Jim Robbins entered the car as the #97, painted in silver livery. Driver Rathmann achieved a 4th-place qualifying position again for the 1960 Indy 500, only to drop out of the race with a brake line failure. In 1961 came a 6th-place qualifying spot and 13th-place finishing position, once again with driver Dick Rathmann. Robbins campaigned the car one more time in 1962, this time as #91 with maroon and white-trim livery. Veteran driver Jim Hurtubise qualified the car 29th and finished a highly respectable 13th in the Indy 500 at a time when newer rear-engine cars were becoming dominant. 

In ’62 Jim Robbins sold the #91 to Jack Conley, a super-modified and USAC Champ Car driver, who converted the car into a Modified class racecar. In this configuration the car was soldiered on for nearly ten more years, until it was retired in 1971.

In 1981, Jack Layton from Torch Lakes and Howell, Michigan, purchased this venerable racecar and restored it to its original 1958 silver livery. Later, in 1990 Jack repainted the car to the specification of its 1959 Indy 500 color scheme, the maroon and gold McNamara Chiropractic livery. In the 1992-1993 period Layton sold the car to Lowell Blossom of Charlevoix, Michigan.

In January 2005, Tom Malloy purchased the Watson McNamara Special, chassis #4 roadster from Lowell Blossom and undertook its complete restoration, retaining its 1959 Indy 500 colors of maroon and gold, as the #73 McNamara Chiropractic Special.

Courtesy The MALLOY Book, by Jake Grubb and Tom Malloy

themalloybook.com

By Jake Grubb

In a countdown to Saturday October 11^th 2025, racers, enthusiasts, racing teams, racing organizations, racecar builders, motorsports journalists and media, car manufacturers and countless makers of automotive specialty products and services await the official rebirth of Willow Springs International Raceway, arguably America’s oldest permanent road race circuit.

The racetrack that legendary driver Ken Miles was so active in developing in the ‘50s, the testbed for the Shelby Cobra and Ford’s GT40s that won Le Mans in ’66 and ’67, the original home track for club road racing of so many types; SCCA, vintage, Porsche Club, Shelby Club, Ferrari Club, BMW club, Ford Mustang club, Alfa Romeo Owner’s Club and countless other organizations and events over the decades – had fallen into disrepair in recent years, especially with the health decline and ultimate passing of 63-year track owner Bill Huth at age 91 in 2015.

After the Huth family elected to put the track and all of its sibling facilities up for sale in June of 2024, CrossHarbor Capital Partners purchased Willow Springs International Motorsports Park [Willow Springs Raceway inclusive] in May 2025, in collaboration with Singer Vehicle Design, Wurz Design, Hart Howerton and Sonoma Raceway. Plans for renovation of the Willow Springs main racetrack (“Big Willow”) and additional tracks; “Streets of Willow,” “Horse Thief Mile,” “The Speedway at Willow Springs,” “Walt James Stadium, the “Willow Springs Karting Track” and “The Playpen” were soon announced.

With Phase 1 renovations to “Big Willow” now nearly complete, October 11^th 2025 has been set as the official date for the celebration of Willow Springs Reimagined, to take place at the facility’s main raceway location in Rosamond, California. Tickets to this very special event are currently on sale and can be purchased online or on site at the Petersen Automotive Museum, as well as online at: www.willowspringsraceway.com

While the happenings at Willow Springs Reimagined on October 11^th will pay respectful homage to the legacy of Willow Springs International Raceway’s illustrious history, the thrust of the day’s doings will focus on the thrilling upcoming race events, fascinating cars, dedicated drivers, innovative companies and relevant motorsports activities that will shape Willow Springs’ new era, today and moving forward into an exciting future. A sampling of October 11^th’s offerings will include:

• World Class performance cars, old and new.
• Live on-track racecar demonstrations, at speed.

• A car collectors’ corral consisting of over 50 ultra-rare automobiles from wide-ranging eras; supercars, racecars and touring cars, all from notable private car collections. This extraordinary selection of cars will present visitors with an intimate “real-live” look at incredible vehicles that are rarely seen in the automotive world as we know it on a daily basis.

• Fun stuff and good eats, including food trucks, an interactive kids’ zone, special branded merchandise, a live in-progress motorsports podcast and notable personalities and special guests.
• Worthy Beneficiaries

Representatives from the East Kern Family Resource Center and Lost Angels Career Center will be present at the event, as a thank you to Willow Springs Reimagined ticket sales donations to their respective causes, and to communicate their missions to interested visitors. Topical automotive companies and brands will be present and on display, including:

• The extraordinary Petersen Automotive Museum
• Shelby American
• Singer Vehicle Design

• Czinger (automotive performance redefined)
• Caterham (British sportscar tradition reborn)
• Hot Wheels (life-size “Twin Mill” & “Bone Shaker”)
• Harbinger (state-of-the-art utility truck solutions)
• Porsche Santa Clarita (with ultra Porsche performance models)
• ICON 4×4 (classic sport trucks, reimagined)
• FAT International (racing culture in a new world)
• DirtFish (branded apparel)
• And more…

The Magic of “Big Willow”

Amazingly, the classic track layout of Willow Springs’ main Raceway (“Big Willow”) has remained intact since its original construction in 1952-’53. What was originally planned as an “Indianapolis Motor Speedway West” in the very early 1950s gave way to the reality that the available land for the track was situated on essentially the side of a large natural desert butte. Utilizing what was effectively a low-lying hillside topography which ultimately disallowed the creation of a 2.5 mile rectangular flat track to be patterned after Indy, the constructors opted to architect a 2.5-mile roadrace track that conformed with the natural offering of the available land. Hence, they came up with a track made-up of angles, bends, turns, undulations and straightaways that delivered a clockwise challenge of white-knuckle fast twists and turns that tested the full capabilities of every driver and type of racecar.

Soon, the track became an ideal and well-used venue for racing, track days and testing for competitions of wide-ranging car types and clubs, as well as driving schools, a go-to road test “laboratory” for car manufacturers and automotive support products such as tires, suspension systems, engine performance and dependability proving grounds’ and much more – all of which is ongoing today and expected to further burgeon under the track’s new ownership.

A brisk drive or ride around “Big Willow” at moderate speed provides an impactful experience to anyone of any age – and for those who have the opportunity to race on this unique racetrack, there is nothing else quite like it.

A Lap Around “Big Willow”

From the main straightaway start-finish line, approaching the first left turn, Turn-1 [“Castrol Corner”] is a slightly uphill nearly 90-degree fast bend, followed by a flat-out secondary straightaway that feeds into the slightly decreasing elevation Turn-2, requiring a millisecond throttle modulation of the driver as he/she makes a pre-turn decision whether to hold the inside-line through the dip or go outside around the dip – with pedal-to-metal on either route, then continuing on the carousel-like uphill Turn-2 [Rabbit’s ear] at high speed.

Turn-3 is at first an illusion due to the impulse to quickly turn left and head sharply uphill – but a smart driver waits a patient second before turning in, using the banked area on the mid-outside of Turn 3 for maximum grip and a burst of acceleration up through the late-apex of Turn-3 to Turn-4 [the Omega], a double-apex top-of-the hill roundabout that launches the driver downhill to Turn 5.

The quick downhill to Turn-5, roller-coaster-like, deposits the driver into a decision whether to take it inside and drift to the outside banked area as preparation for Turn-6, or gut-check-it straight downward to the banked outside of Turn-5 and hold on tight. Either way, the Turn-6 rise instantly follows and provides a sterling opportunity to do a max-throttle super-launch off of the Turn-6 mini-hill [Monroe Bridge] in a full blast toward Turn-7 [Repass Pass]. By Turn-7 (hardly a turn but a key kink) the driver is at top speed, blazing toward what becomes Turn-8 [The Sweeper] where fast drivers assert that the driver dare not “lift a throttle toe” in order to maintain peak speed and earn a top lap time.

Entry to a looming Turn-9 redefines the driver’s tolerance for speed, requiring eagle-eye judgement and teeth-chattering bravery around this horseshoe bend, testing every impulse to hit the brake pedal beforehand. But fast drivers might simply touch the brake pedal with a “stability tap,” setting-up this daunting turn by going wide around the “outer rim,” then squeezing the throttle to the floor through the dip at the apex, followed by an all-out burst down the main straightaway to the start-finish line. Then on to lap 2!

by John Dickinson
Special Photography by Albert Wong
Support Photography by Ben Kuhl

A star-studded IROC field marked the first time all seven generations of IROC cars have competed at the same time, against each other in the extraordinary multi-year history of the International Race of Champions.

In a stunning IROC surprise at Weathertech Laguna Seca Raceway on August 16^th 2025, Trans AM driver Tomy Drissi powered his 2006 Pontiac Firebird to victory in a rarest-of-rare field of authentic IROC cars and legendary IROC drivers in the IROC Series Unser Family Cup trophy race. It was an historic event made truly legendary – in the time-etched moments of August 16^th 2025 that cemented this impressive win. Drissi’s accomplishment now officially resides in the racing record books for the world racing community to behold.

The full IROC field for this event was a rolling museum of motorsport history, featuring champions and iconic drivers from NASCAR, INDYCAR, IMSA, F1 and more, from their respective decades of fame. The extraordinary field of drivers included such notables as four-time NASCAR Cup Champion Jeff Gordon (4^th place in a 2001 IROC Pontiac Firebird), multi-year Porsche factory driver Patrick Long (6^th place, 1977 IROC Chevrolet Camaro), Danny Sullivan (7^th place, 1984 Dodge Avenger), Bobby Labonte in 8^th place (2001 IROC Pontiac Firebird), former international Formula 1 driver Jenson Button (24th place, 1996 Pontiac Firebird), multi-year endurance driving champion Scott Pruett (11th place, 1990 Dodge Daytona) and many other notables such as: currently active driver and McLaren Formula 1 team CEO Zak Brown, former NASCAR champions Mark Martin and Bill Elliott, former IMSA driver Bruce Canepa and many other renowned competitors.

Christened the “IROC Series Unser Family Cup” at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion, this spectacular and hard-fought race event marked the first time the International Race of Champions series has competed at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca since 2002. And it was the first-ever appearance of all seven generations of IROC cars in one field, competing head-to-head against each other!

Tomy Drissi’s claim of the top spot on the podium was accomplished against a field of 25 other luminous drivers, fending off such fellow podium finishers as IndyCar champion Dario Franchitti in a 2006 IROC Pontiac Firebird and former NASCAR champion Kurt Busch, who notched 3^rd place in a 2003 IROC Pontiac Firebird. Lap times of the first five finishers were less than a second apart!

Interestingly, driver Tomy Drissi does not fit the profile of a past pro legend. After beginning his racing career in the 1990s as a self-financed sportsman-level racer, Tomy bought an operating race shop with his own funds and gradually worked his way from sportsman to professional racer over two decades, ultimately establishing himself in pro Trans Am. He accomplished this under the principal sponsorship of his own Hollywood-feature-film marketing company, having continued this path through various iterations of Trans Am throughout the 2000s. Recent successes in both TA-1 pro Trans Am and vintage sportsman Trans Am have been aided by new sponsorship with Trench Shoring Company (respected support sponsor to the Gnassi IndyCar team).

This unique event was part of a special showcase that was organized by IROC co-owner Ray Evernham (former Rick Hendrick NASCAR team manager for Jeff Gordon), bringing together legendary racing machinery from the series’ original 1974 Porsche 911 Carrera RSR to the final Pontiac Firebird thunder-cars of the mid-2000s. Serving as event Grand Marshal was two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr., whose highly accomplished racing family has deep roots in IROC history.

On Friday August 15th, following the qualifying race, the full field of IROC cars formed a colorful serpentine parade from WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca along Monterey’s scenic public roads to The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering at The Quail Lodge, as a special presentation. “The field of drivers today was incredible,” Ray Evernham enthused. “We had Indy 500 winners and champions, Daytona 500 winners and champions, and IROC champions. IROC has been such a huge part of the history of motorsports and now to have all seven generations of these cars on track together for the first time was pure magic for fans and participants alike.”

For the full list of race results from this epic IROC event, as well as all of the weekend’s results from each and every race and race group, please visit: https://www.race-monitor.com/Results/Session/8474039. In the meantime, please enjoy the richness of the wonderful photographs that document this incredible racing event, presented here on www.racingvintagecars.com.

2025 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion:
Daily Featured Race Groups
Report & Photos by Ben Kuhl

Every August, WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca welcomes race fans of all vintages to celebrate. Whatever your favorite flavor of racing may be, The Reunion will have something for you. The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion is where history roars, where engineering meets memory and where legends are truly driven — and displayed. The following are the featured run groups for 2025, each one a star in motion.

Juan Manuel Fangio Cup – Grand Prix Cars (1922–1955)
A salute to the originators. These machines are long-limbed, pre-war gladiators and early postwar projectiles, marking the transition from cigar-bodied crafts to the svelte forms of the mid-century. Every start is a symphony of open pipes, and every corner feels like a sketch in speed.

Featured Car: 1954 Lancia D50A. Being driven by Charles Nearburg, an innovative Grand Prix contender designed by Vittorio Jano, the Lancia D50A was notable for its stressed-member engine and side-mounted fuel tanks that improved weight distribution. Although plagued by reliability issues, it was raced with distinction by legends like Alberto Ascari and Juan Manuel Fangio against Bugatti’s Mercedes and Maserati’s.

Mario Andretti Trophy – Formula 1 (1966–1985)
This is the golden spine of F1, spanning the dangerous late ’60s, the Cosworth thunder of the ’70s, and into the turbocharged excess of the early ’80s. Every car here was once aimed at immortality on tracks like Monaco and Monza. They carry the weight of champions—and the dreams of drivers and designers alike who created the stories still told today at every Grand Prix race.

Featured Car: 1979 Shadow DN9B, originally driven Elio de Angelis. Known as a dark horse even in its day, this sleek black rocket sports can be identified by the very 70s roaring lion that adds a striking image to an already impressive car. The boldness of the Shadow-designed cars still resonates today.

Scott Pruett Legends of Endurance – Sports Cars (1991–2011)
A field of howling prototypes and snarling GT machines from the high-aero era of endurance. These are the last analog warriors before modern hybrid silence. Think Sebring at night, headlights cutting through brake dust, and names like Audi, Corvette and Panoz.

Featured Car: 1997 Panoz GTR. The Panoz GTR was an American-built GT1-class beast known for its unique front-engine layout—unusual in a field dominated by mid-engine machines. With a robust V8 powerplant and a chassis designed for endurance racing, it combined raw power with reliability.

Parnelli Jones Trophy: Trans-Am (1966–1972)
The “pony car” wars, alive and uncaged. Fire-breathing Mustangs, Camaros, Javelins and ’Cudas duel in a V8 thunderstorm, carrying liveries once backed by Detroit’s biggest marques. Road courses have rarely sounded so American.

Featured Car: 1970 Plymouth Barracuda, Dan Gurney AAR spec. Wearing its factory blue and nose cone like a badge of defiance, this car sat dormant for decades before a SoCal restorer brought it back, one panel at a time to be driven now by Bill Ockerlund.

Ken Miles Sixties GT Trophy: GT & Production Cars (1955–1967)
A gentleman’s grid with grit under the fingernails. Shelby Cobras, Ferrari 275 GTBs, and Jaguar E-Types drift through the turns in proper fashion—tails-out, engines redlined and roaring with dual exhausts. This is a personal favorite, as it means a guaranteed large field of beautiful looking and intoxicating sounds from flag to flag.

Featured Car: The ’64 Corvette was a refined version of the revolutionary Sting Ray, blending American muscle with sportscar handling. Under the hood, small-block V8s offered serious grunt, while independent rear suspension—introduced just a year prior—gave it the agility to match. In SCCA and FIA GT racing it was a force in B-Production and GT classes, often driven by privateers and car-dealer-backed teams.

Hurley Haywood Trophy: IMSA GTP / GTO / Group C (1981–1991)
Tech-rich machines that blurred the lines between prototype and production-based racers. Turbocharged, high-downforce and massively fast—these were the dinosaurs nearing extinction just as digital timing was born.

Featured Car: 1988 Chevrolet Camaro, campaigned by Mike Gagen. In period Porterfield livery, it’s loud, aggressive and authentic to its SCCA roots. Gagen remains hands-on, tuning the car himself and sharing stories from Riverside Raceway to Laguna Seca, keeping the spirit of American road racing alive as a true steward of the sport.

Peter Gregg Trophy: FIA / IMSA GT Cars (1973–1981)
The breed of metal that told factories where it hurt: Detroit-threatening GT cars from Porsche, Ferrari, BMW and Nissan slugging it out in endurance fights. Think long headlights, leather seats removed and race numbers so big they could wear their own trophy.

Featured Car: 1976 Dekon Monza – Built by Horst Kwech and Lee Dykstra, the Dekon Monza was Chevrolet’s answer to the Porsche domination in IMSA GT racing. With a tube-frame chassis, wide fenders and a snarling small-block V8, it was brutal, loud, and fast. Backed by Chevrolet and campaigned by racers like Al Holbert and Michael Keyser, the Monza became a giant killer in the GT ranks.

Jim Hall Cup: USRRC Sports Racing Cars (1963–1968)
A school of pioneers from the United States Road Racing Championship era; a sharp turn from elegant GT into brutal specials like Chaparral and Lola. Known for innovation: movable wings, automatic stays and bold engineering.

Featured Car: 1969 Elden Mk7 Sturgis. Originally developed by Elden Racing Cars in the UK, the Mk7 Sports Racer was a lightweight, low-slung machine built for club-level sports car racing. With cycle fenders, a mid-mounted engine and minimalist bodywork, it epitomized the “giant killer” spirit of British club racing. The Sturgiss car is a rare survivor—one of very few Mk7 sports racers built—and it maintains a unique footprint in vintage paddocks.

Dan Gurney Trophy: Saloon Cars (1955–1972)
Stock-bodied racers racing hard—where sedans and coupes meant business. These cars were home-track heroes turned international competitors, often packed with class equity and racing underdog pride.

Featured Car: 1965 Austin Mini Cooper S. Driven in-period by local Californian Herbert Heidt, now restored with original Nuffield-era wheels and rally heritage—still small in stature, big in bite.

John Morton Trophy: Small Displacement Production Cars (1950s–1960s)
European machinery with soup‑cooling headers: Alfa Romeos, MGs, early Ferraris, Triumphs—lightweight and nimble. This group is about finesse over force, handling over horsepower.

Featured Car: 1958 Porsche 550 Spyder. Noted in race results and awarded the Rolex Group award, this car belongs to Francisco Guzman. Its aluminum body still echoes the whine of its racer-mechanics and chassis number worn with the pride of originally.

Briggs S. Cunningham Trophy: Front‑Engine Sports Racers & American Specials (1947–1960)
The raw American take on European elegance: burly V8s, drum brakes and rear-hinged hoods on chassis’ built from backyard shops to upscale U.S. manufacturers. These were racing’s rebels.

Featured Car: 1959 Sadler-Meyer Special. Driven to victory in this very event by Nick Price in 2024, it remains faithful to its bone-stock lines, with Buick-derived power and foolproof simplicity.

Pedro Rodriguez Trophy: FIA Manufacturers’ Championship (1961–1975)
Endurance GT machines nominated by their factories for world titles: Ford GT40s, Chevy Corvettes, Chevron prototypes. These cars defined the era of constructor glory—and mechanical heartbreak.

Featured Car: 1969 Chevron B16. Piloted by Ethan Shippert in recent Reunion races, it wears Gray Gregory’s markings and bridges LMP styling with GT sensibilities, all wrapped in symmetry and speed.

Ragtime Racers Exhibition
Less about classification, more about pageantry: ragtime-era inspired racing interpretations, tribute liveries and playful machines that echo the jitters of the early track days.

Featured Story: Rick Rawlins races a 1920 Ford board-track replica—complete with wooden fenders and stripped-down bodywork—earning cheers and nods as he rips around the Corkscrew.

Formula Fun with Formula 1
The Mario Andretti Trophy isn’t just a race—it’s an opera of intent. These cars were lightning rods of innovation: six-wheel Tyrrells, flat-12 Ferraris, turbocharged Brabhams. Some carry the scars of tragedy; others were driven by champions who lived to become legends. Expect to see a Lotus 79 with its ground-effects skirts intact, a Ferrari 312T4 with Niki Lauda’s setup notes still in the dash, and even a Ligier JS11 whose blue livery still whispers “Vive la France.”

Each is a singular star in a constellation of speed, united only by sheer nerve and the men who once danced them through SPA’s Eau Rouge.

IROC (Unser Family Cup, 1973–2006)
This year marks a first: all seven generations of the iconic IROC series take the stage. Originally built to prove which driver—not which car—was best, IROC stripped away excuses. Equal cars, different talents. You’ll see Porsches that once slid sideways under Foyt, Firebirds that traded paint with Earnhardt and even Dodge Avengers that carried NASCAR royalty into the mid-’90s.

The cars are joined by the men who made them famous: Jeff Gordon, Al Unser Jr., Ricky Rudd and more. Al Jr. serves as grand marshal, a fitting tribute to his family’s massive legacy throughout IndyCars, Stock Cars, IROC glory and Pike’s Peak legend. This isn’t just a demonstration—it’s a resurrection.

Featured Car: 1974 Porsche Carrera RSR IROC, originally campaigned in the first IROC season. It wears its #7 livery proudly, still breathing fire through its open exhaust and marking the dawn of something wild.

The Story of Laguna Seca starts with a loss…
In 1956, racer Ernie McAfee was killed while competing in the Pebble Beach Road Races. He was driving a Ferrari 121 LM, fast and unforgiving, when it left the narrow tree-lined course and struck a pine in the Del Monte Forest. His death was a reckoning—one of those moments when the danger that all racers accept comes to becomes a tangible reality.

The Pebble Beach races were shut down. And from that silence, something new emerged: Laguna Seca—a place not just carved for speed, but for survival. A proper road course, built on land borrowed from U.S. Fort Ord, where soldiers once drilled and marched. What was once a seasonal lake—”Laguna Seca,” the dry lagoon—would now hold the weight of a sport learning how to grow up without forgetting where it started.

Today, every August, the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion beckons the past to come forward like an old radio signal—half static, half song. Cars from every era arrive not just to chase points or podiums, but to keep something alive. Noise, yes—but also names: Shadow. Tyrrell. Ferrari. McLaren. Offenhausers whine and Cosworths scream. It’s not just nostalgia for a time past, not to repeat again but a yearly communion with what was and still is–in vintage racing.

The Formula 1 cars arrive like time travelers with unfinished business—Lotus, Brabham, McLaren, Tyrrell, Ferrari—cars from an era when danger was as much a part of the pursuit as talent. If you had a poster of a racecar on your wall growing up, chances are it was one of these.

These aren’t the clinically perfect machines of today. These are cigarette-and condom-liveried, high-revving relics of  much more raw eras in time and technologies—H-pattern gearboxes, tires that defined the meaning of slicks, aluminum wings, punctuated by the unmistakable bark of a Cosworth DFV at full song. From 1966 to 1985, this was F1 at its most daring.

Laguna remembers them well.

It harks back to ground effects cars that clung to the track like they were welded to it, sucking themselves into the pavement, until they suddenly weren’t. It remembers the teams of “also rans” who strove to tackle the titans of the sport with wild and substance-fueled ideas that didn’t quite always work. And it remembers the men—the likes of Villeneuve, Hunt, Andretti—who wrestled, danced with, and coaxed these magnificent machines around the fastest and most memorable GP circuits the world had to offer.

Watching them now is like unlocking a vault sealed in adrenaline and castor oil. The curves of the bodies, the way that with just a flick of a wrist they darted down the Corkscrew with a healthy dose of power—it’s not just racing, it’s theater. And for a few laps, these fighters of a past era are alive again, springing forth from static black-and-white magazine photos to fully present in technicolor.

Then there’s Trans-Am—red, white, blue racing. Boss 302s. AMC Javelins. Fire-breathing Camaros and Mopars that served as the racing equivalent of a western saloon brawl. Laguna Seca bore witness to Penske blue and Sunoco yellow, thundering through the turns with Mark Donohue at the helm, calm as a surgeon while chaos clung to his mirrors. Laguna carries the echoes of bygone eras—the muscle, the grit, where top-flight racers from around the sporting world came together in power-heavy, fire-breathing production cars.

You can feel it walking the paddock: the smell of fuel mixed with sea air, the old liveries sun-faded and proud. Crews tighten bolts on cars older than many of the fans. Mechanics tend to systems in a religious manner. Fathers point to tailpipes and tell their sons, “I saw this one at Riverside, ’70, sliding through the esses.”

There are corners that remember the line of a driver long gone. Places where something happened—a spin, a pass, a failure so pure it became beautiful. Turn 6, where the compression used to snap suspensions. Turn 2, wide as a promise.

This isn’t about speed anymore. Not really. It’s about memory. Legacy. A place where machines now come not solely to win, but to testify their defiance to the laws of time.

From behind the lens, Laguna Seca is a photographer’s paradise. As long as you mind the light—sun at your back, eye to the flow—you can make magic at almost any corner. The elevation changes, and the variations of backgrounds make for an always engaging subject for the photographer worth his salt—it all conspires to make you see history beyond just capturing it.

I wake up early when I’m here without the need for an alarm clock. I make my coffee by the tent, feel the morning chill roll down the hills, and hope the thick Monterey marine layer buggers off. Then I walk the paddock with a quiet kind of purpose. Out of general camping, around the outside of Rainey Curve, over the bridge by the Corkscrew, and down the hill.

When I step onto the track edge, camera in hand, I’m not just a photographer—I’m a witness. These cars, these people, this place… it all swirls together in the frame. You catch a glimpse of a Chaparral lifting a wheel through Turn 4 and it’s 1967 again. You see the nose of a Z/28 dive into Turn 11, front tire clawing at the pavement, and for just a second, after I’ve gotten all my shots I take a moment to just sit and appreciate the history in front of me.

There are moments—rare ones—when it all aligns: the light, the car, the corner, the memory. Click. You don’t just capture speed. You capture memories.

And what’s strange, what’s beautiful, is that you’re not chasing the past. You’re moving with it. Living alongside it. The Rolex Reunion isn’t about reenactment. It’s not a museum on wheels. These cars are alive—moving, breathing, bleeding horsepower into the air.

I’ve raced here too—Formula Ford, light and nimble, no power to hide behind. And I do believe seeing the track as a driver supplies special aids to a photographer. It’s smooth, yes. It flows. But it’s never easy. There’s no stretch of asphalt long enough to catch your breath. Just enough time to glance at your gauges and tell myself, “don’t be such a wuss this lap.”

Turn 1 is blind—a hump over the hill that dares you to keep your foot flat on the gas pedal. You can’t see what’s next but you know the track is there. Then Turn 2 comes fast and hard—big braking zone, wide as a runway, but if you miss your mark, it’ll humble you quickly.

Turn 5 never quite feels right—camber shifts beneath you, like the track’s second-guessing itself mid-corner. It asks for trust, not technique.

And Turn 6? That’s where you have to be brave. Chuck it in. A “breathe and squeeze,” as master racer Jim Pace would always say in his onboard lap tours.

Then there’s the Corkscrew—famous, feared, and still a bit ridiculous. First time through, I puckered so hard I think I left an imprint on the seat. They always tell you to “look for the tree.” What they don’t say is… there’s a whole damn forest up there. Which tree? The green one? Thanks, pal. Brake in a straight line, turn left, turn right, and stay there.

But Rainey Curve—that’s where it all comes together. Fast, committed, honest. There’s no faking it there. You either give it what it asks, or it gives you a reason to try again. I missed my turn-in there once and never repeated that again.

And when you’re in rhythm—when every shift clicks, every apex greets you like an old friend—you realize: this track doesn’t fight you. It tests you. It offers itself fully, but only to those who offer something back. Whether it’s a camera or a car, Laguna doesn’t want tourists. It wants pilgrims dedicated to the love of vintage racing beauty.

I’ve seen this place from behind the lens and behind the helmet, through the quiet of a foggy morning and the nervous focus of a qualifying lap. And in both cases, the feeling is the same:

This event is an occasion to celebrate and remember.

A chance to steal time away from the day-to-day and remember with perfect detail the reasons why we love racing to begin with. Why we still tell the stories of those who came before us.

The sun slips behind the ridgeline slowly out here, as though it wants to linger. The paddock quiets. The last torque wrench clicks. A kid mechanic counts lug nuts like his life depends on it. Somewhere, someone lights a camp stove. The stories of the day’s conquests flow.

I pack up the camera and begin my trek away from the Paul Newman media center through the paddock, back up the inside of the Corkscrew, over the bridge, along the outside of Rainey Curve toward my tent, eager to look through the thousands of photos from the day.

Laguna doesn’t end when the cars go silent. It hums on—in the hills, in the photos, in the muscle memory of every driver who ever rolled into Turn 2 a little too hot (we’ve all done it at least once).

“Even now, long after the last car is loaded and the last campsite breaks down, the hills still echo. Not with noise—but with knowing. The track remembers.”

Exactly six decades ago at this writing, Graham Hill, Jim Clark, Jack Brabham, Jackie Stewart, Bruce McLaren, Lorenzo Bandini, Jochen Rindt and a virtuoso field of other legends-to-be were scorching SPA’s death-defying Eau Rouge at speeds we could scarcely process even today. No ground effects, no “aero,” no slicks, virtually no car or track safety technologies. Just raw white-knuckle horsepower, ultra-light Formula 1 racecars, uncannily brave drivers and stratospheric lap times in a Grand Prix race with weather variances between dry, damp and sopping wet. Sun, clouds, drizzle, full rain, drizzle and a little sun again. A maddening riddle for drivers, engineers, hot pit mechanics, media and, of course, spectators who were punished by the radical weather swings over a long day at the races that delivered a marathon of surprises.

As the green flag flew, the two BRMs of Graham Hill and Jackie Stewart lurched into the lead toward SPA’s devilish downhill Eau Rouge curve, with Jim Clark hot on their tail-pipes and Graham Hill, Jack Brabham,  Jo Siffert and Bruce McLaren close behind. As they neared the Eau Rouge bridge, Graham Hill held his braking until unbelievably late, giving Clark all he could handle and smartly passing “new boy” Jackie Stewart in the process. This group was followed by a serpentine column led by Richie Ginther and John Surtees, who raced side-by-side as the cars disappeared into the Arden woods, with rain drops appearing on the drivers’ windscreens as the needle-and-thread La Source hairpin loomed.

In an all-too-common rain-afflicted scenario, driver positions changed feverishly during the onset of showers, with Jo Bonnier, Jo Siffert, Dan Gurney and Dickie Attwood beginning to gain ground. Meantime, even though Jim Clark in his Lotus-Climax appeared smoothly fast with a cat-like hint of cautiousness, he had moved definitively into the lead and pulled out a 7-second gain on Graham Hill and the “front pod” of drivers, with calculated gains at every corner. “Rain feel” was a particular skill of Jimmy Clark, which he many times used as a speed weapon over the entirety of his career.

It was oft-said that SPA in the rain was no place to go motor racing, especially with intermittent rain bursts that make one fast curve semi-dri and another fully wet, with weather conditions changing the track surface from lap to lap. On this challenging weather day, drivers were struggling to establish dependable grip, even on the straightaways where wheelspin under full throttle caused their cars to virtually “float” from left to right at extremely high speeds. This made precision slip-streaming tactics nearly impossible due to the huge rooster-tails blasting from the cars’ rear wheels, thus passing at high speeds was an exercise in pure faith.

By mid-point in the race the rain had taken its toll. Dan Gurney, Jo Siffert, Lorenzo Bandini, Lucien Bianchi, Jochen Rindt and Ronnie Bucknum in the factory Honda, although pressing forward regardless, were incrementally losing ground to the leaders every lap, despite all-out maximum efforts. Old pro Jack Brabham was gaining pace slightly and Jackie Stewart was maintaining a solid 2^nd place, hanging on at 45-seconds behind leader Jimmy Clark.