Vol 1 Issue 4

PETER BROCK figures if the Monterey "Week" gets any more compacted, they'll have to add extra hours to the days and more days to the month GAYLE and PETER BROCK and TOM STRONGMAN multi-team the cameras

If you were fortunate enough to have gone to Laguna Seca in '60s and seen Jim Hall's Chaparrals race in the Can- Am series, then this was the year to go back and experience them again. If you missed that opportunity, then for sure, this was a chance in a lifetime to see what all the excitement was about, because the all-white raiders from Midland, Texas were the featured marque at this year's Monterey Historics.

Hall brought six of his most important race cars; the famed Can-Am 2 roadster, which won 22 of the 39 races it entered, the 2D, a morphed coupe version of the Can-Am 2, designed for the European endurance races, the legendary 2E winged Can-Am racer, which superseded the 2s, and the fabulous, winged 2F endurance racer coupe, a derivative of the 2E roadster. Hall's wild, whale-like 2H, a car despised by racer John Surtees because he never felt comfortable in it, and the notorious 2J "sucker car", with a separate snowmobile engine to drive the vacuum fans that kept it attached to the road surface at speeds unthinkable in those days, rounded out the five road racers. Hall's Indy 500 winning 2K was the only car in the group not finished in white, as the cost of racing had risen so far by the time Hall developed the openwheeled racer that Pennzoil put up the dollars for it to run at the Speedway.

Each of Hall's cars was innovative, controversial and fast, so quick in most cases that narrow-minded race organizers banned them soon after their initial appearances. In addition to the race cars Hall also had world-class drivers Vic Elford and Phil Hill around to showcase the cars they once drove. Hall, of course, drove the cars as well and it was great to see them out on the track again where they gained fame for some of the most advanced concepts, ever, in racing.

Not to be outdone Mercedes arrived with the 300 SLR roadster used by Stirling Moss and Denis Jenkinson to win the Mille Miglia in 1955. Moss was on hand to demonstrate its speed, although his "co-driver" for this particular event was car-guy extraordinaire Jay Leno. Notice that both were circulating sans helmets so they could be easily recognized. Nice touch.

In addition to Chaparral, this year's featured racers at Laguna Seca were the wonderful "specials" of the late '50s and early '60s, cars largely conceived and designed by individuals who believed that American V-8 power and ingenuity could out perform the fastest exotics from Europe. Times-Mirror Grand Prix winner Billy Krause was coaxed out of retirement by car owner Ernie Nagamatsu to drive Ol'Yeller II, one of the famed Buick-powered, "junkyard specials" that Krause drove so successfully for designerbuilder Max Balchowsky back in the late '50's. Once he had had time to test the car (after a forty year layoff), Krause immediately got caught up in the program and began offering suggestions how best to set the car up for Laguna's undulating circuit. "I know we're not supposed to be going flat out around here," commented Krause before the race, "but I'm still a racer...I don't know any other way to drive."

Krause's race, 5A on Saturday, was filled with potent machinery from the era including two exotic, Reventlowbuilt Scarabs which ended up 1-2, driven by Don Knowles and Brian Redman. "I don't know if I could have stayed with the Scarabs the way we did back when I raced Ol' Yeller for Max in '50s. These Chevy engines have had continued development, so they're far beyond what Max did with the Buicks," said Krause. "It laid down on me there at the end, but it sure was fun while it lasted" The three fastest cars with equivalent performance from that era, the Lister-Chevys of John Mozart and John Harden, plus the Devin SS of Tom Hollfelder, gave Krause a good race until the end finishing just behind the two Scarabs.

Another well-known racer from that storied era was John Morton, who, unlike most of his contemporaries, has continued his career as a professional driver. The ex-Nissan IMSA-works driver was scheduled to drive two of the weekend's most interesting racers, which also had the most diversity in power. First was the 1953 Porsche Spyder, 550-01, from the Collier Collection in Florida, which delivered a whopping 40 hp from its pushrod, VW-derived, 1300 cc engine. The second was the mysterious and long-lost, 600+ HP, "McLeagle" Can-Am racer, a McLaren roadster once owned by Dan Gurney that never really jelled in its initial development.

Both of these cars had been rebuilt by renowned California restoration specialist Joey Cavaglieri, who entrusted them to Morton on the basis of their long held mutual respect. "He's one of the few guys in the world I could give each of these cars to and know that it would be returned without a scratch," laughed Cavaglieri. "John and I have known each other since we were kids, racing the BREDatsun 510s in the '70s Trans-Am 2.5 series. Nobody takes better care of equipment than John." Morton took the point in the dark blue racer on lap one and easily held it for five laps until the input shaft failed…the same component that let him down last year on the final lap when Morton was in the lead, driving Larry Bowman's Daytona Cobra Coupe. "I'm going to have to have these specially made for next year," mused a disappointed Morton after the race.