HomeNews and EventsMonterey week, Goodwood Festival announce features

Monterey week, Goodwood Festival announce features

Our weekly roundup of car show and vintage racing news and notes

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WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca and the Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance each will feature the centennial of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in August 2022. 

“Complementing the four Le Mans-specific race groups will be an impressive Le Mans Legends Heritage display, presented by Motul, featuring a century of winners and significant cars that have competed in the French classic,” the track reports in a news release. “These cars may no longer race, yet they represent the best of the legendary 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

The display, the track adds, is being curated by Ellen Bireley, who worked for three decades at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum. She also curated the historic Indy Car display at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion in 2021.

“Over the years, I have had the opportunity to get to know a wide range of owners and caretakers of these wonderful collections and help share their significance to the racing world,” she is quoted in the track’s announcement. “I even help supplement and gather historical information on their cars. I enjoy what I do, as it’s like putting together a great work of art when all the pieces come together.”

Among the cars to be featured at the track are:

1929 Bentley Old Number One: Built in 1929, Old Number One was the second Speed Six, and was done so specifically as a race car. It won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1929 and 1930. The car was originally fitted with an open four-seat fabric body by Vanden Plas to meet 1929 Le Mans requirements, but later in the same year a second shell was constructed by Vanden Plas for Brooklands racing. The bodies were changed as needed.

1966 Ford GT40 that led the 1-2-3 sweep at Le mans in 1966. While the GT40s of McLaren/Amon and Miles/Hulme crossed the finish line at basically the same time, the Automobile Club de l’Ouest determined that the #2 McLaren/Amon entry would take the checkered flag because it covered more distance in 24 hours since it began the race 8 meters (26.5 feet) behind the Miles/Hulme car on pit row. 

1979 Porsche 935 K3 was the first rear-engine car (700-horsepower twin-turbocharged) to win at Le Mans, and claimed the fifth of what would grow to 19 victories in the race by Porsche. It was entered by the Whittington brothers, Don and Bill and was co-driven by Klaus Ludwig.

Goodwood celebrates ‘The Innovators’

Goodwood Festival of Speed photo by Drew Gibson

“The Innovators — Masterminds of Motorsports” will be the theme for the 2022 Goodwood Festival of Speed, scheduled for June 23-26 in England.

“This year’s Festival theme… allows us to celebrate some of the greatest achievements in history, while also highlighting the event’s evolving focus on future technology,” the Duke of Richmond is quoted in the announcement. “Just as race-inspired innovations such as four-valve engines, monocoque chassis and turbocharging have shaped the past and present of the cars we drive in the real world, so electrification, autonomy and other new technologies – the development of which is accelerated by the white heat of competition – will have a profound effect on the future of personal mobility. 

“The Festival of Speed is the only place in the world to bring all these stories together in one place, celebrating the past, present and future in a uniquely immersive, dynamic way.”

The announcement noted that the Festival’s focus will be “on the 

human stories of engineering ingenuity that have been ever-present throughout the sport’s history, and (will) shine a light on the future, as motorsport’s visionaries play an essential role in pioneering new technologies that will impact the next generation of motion and mobility.

“We are at a pivotal moment in the evolution of mobility,” the announcement continued, “with electrification, autonomy, personal flight and many other developments set to have a profound impact on the way we lead our lives.”

Dream Machines show canceled

The Coastside Adult Day Health Center, both organizers and beneficiary of the Pacific Coast Dream Machines Show scheduled for April 24 at Half Moon Bay Airport, has announced the show’s cancelation. But this time it’s not because of the pandemic. 

Rather, it’s because, “San Mateo County Airport officials notified organizers that a substantial portion of the airport field, in the heart of the events major attractions area, was under cultivation and actively being farmed and therefore not available to the show.”

Except for pandemic restrictions, the show has been held for 30 years.

Coast to Copper Blossom Trail rally

Organizers of the Concours at Pasadera and Monterey Motorsports have announced a new driving tour, the Coast to Copper Blossom Trail Run scheduled for March 17-20. The event is open to 60 cars (applications accepted until February 15) and the route goes from Pebble Beach to Copper Valley in the Sierra Foothills and on to Yosemite National Park and back.

Bugatti returns to Austrian ice race

Sixty-two years after Bugatti first competed in ice racing in Austria, the brand returned recently to the Flugplatz in Zell airport for events held this year without spectators because of the ongoing pandemic.

Called ICEolated because of the lack of spectators, the event which typically draws more than 10,000 visitors featured a Bugatti Type 35 Grand Prix car and employed the Bugatti Baby II as the event’s safety car.

One of the highlights of the event is skijoring, with cars pulling skiers around the circuit. The sport traces its history to a time when horses were used to pull skiers.

Larry Edsall
Larry Edsall
A former daily newspaper sports editor, Larry Edsall spent a dozen years as an editor at AutoWeek magazine before making the transition to writing for the web and becoming the author of more than 15 automotive books. In addition to being founding editor at ClassicCars.com, Larry has written for The New York Times and The Detroit News and was an adjunct honors professor at the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University.

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