2012 Monterey Historic

michael-king

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Just saw the first results through for saturdays racing:

Steve Alcala in the Sebring Alpine in Group 4A:
29th of 40 cars.. not bad going for probably one of the most period correct cars in the group! he managed 8 laps and beat a couple of alfas and lotus sports cars.

The tiger boys in Group 7A seem to be not quite as competitive as previous years:
position : 13 Tom Sakai 9 laps (after a 14th grid start)
position : 14 Stephen Sorenson 9 laps (after a 19th grid start)

position 33: DNF John Morton 2 laps (after a 5th grid start)

hopefully better luck for sunday

http://www.laguna-seca.com/race-results/race-results-rolex-monterey-motorsports-reunion

Also nice to see Aussie Driver (amd local to me) John Bowe in a corvette in group 7a finshed second (qualified pole) ... John wrote an article on Sunbeam Tigers for a local magazine this year and said how much he liked the car and how it would be a good companion to his E-type.. i spoke to him at the Aussie Gp about the article .. maybe we need to get him into one! perhaps a racer... Dave Stone.. you need a guest driverr for the HSC 55 car for next year?
 
Saturday Part 2

Results above are for the morning Race and set starting positions for the afternoon.

Steve's Alpine continued on pace in his group but I am not sure of his final position.

The Tiger's? Mixed.

After morning troubles the Sports Car Forum 74 made the grid but started near the back and John Morton finished easily in 9th spot. Passing over 20 cars on the way.

From 13th Tom Sakai drove a smooth fast race and improved to 10th.

Steve Sorenson had passed Tom and moved from 14th to 7th or 8th quickly when the fire went out. Probable fuel pump failure but unknown reason for DNF.

Yes I have pictures and I will post them but way too tired now think about it. :confused:

Be patient please.

Rick
 
Thanks for the udates.. the results were not up for the later session. Great to hear John was on form, puitty there always seesm to be a small issue that drops the SCF car back from where it could finish. Glad to hear tom was running well. Is steves tiger the red one with white hardtop that has raced there before?

Given there were no cobras this year in the &a class i was hjoping we might see a tiger podium.. lets keep our finsgers crossed for the LM Tiger at the goodwood RACTT which will also be sans-cobra and the Monster tiger in the fordwater trophy.. it will be against stiff comp in that group.

Looking forward to pics.. and maybe some video? :D
 
Spent the weekend in Monterey--it was good to see the Tigers and Alpine in the pits and on the track.
 
Spent the weekend in Monterey--it was good to see the Tigers and Alpine in the pits and on the track.

everyone who says they spent time at the event.. must post video or photos... so start posting... you're not shy of that :cool:
 
Michael,

Actually the format at Monterey now is to race twice in the same day. All racers have a practice/qualify session on both Thursday and Friday. Then half race on Saturday and the other half race on Sunday.

The Sunbeams all raced on Saturday. As others have pointed out, the results you posted were for the morning qualifying race. The grid for the main (afternoon) race was set by using the finishing order in the qualifying race.

In the qualifying race our 74 Tiger had the left rear wheel knock-off loosen a bit. Fortunately John felt it and brought it safely to the pits before any catastrophic damage was done. We did discover that it bent all the drive pins on that wheel. I didn't have any spares at the track. I decided racing it was impossible and told John we'd have to withdraw from the afternoon race. Actually I was mainly worried about how to get it into the trailer.

Then CAT member Jack Hubka looked at the pins and said, "I think I can straighten these. I just need some nuts, thread chaser or dies and some heat." I figured it was impossible and, to humor him, I gave him the bent pins and told him to go ahead. I went off to watch the Cobra race while he worked. By the time I got back my wife and Tiger racer Tom Sakai and his daughter, Toshi, had joined Jack's crew.

Later, while I was sitting in the pits, crying in my imaginary beer, when I saw Tom and Toshi, lug an Oxy-Aceltalyne kit into our pits they'd borrowed from someone. Soon the team was using the tongue on Tom's trailer as an anvil. Tom was tenacious.

About an hour before the start of our main race they presented me with one very straight drive pin, and I quickly saw that their perserverance had paid off. I then started putting the car together. Phil Cohen pitched in to help me.

About 15 minutes before race time I was optimistic enough to spread the word to locate John. He arrived promptly and made one of the fastest changes into a driver's suit that I've seen. In minutes he was on the way to the pre-grid.

Due to the loose wheel we were second to last on the grid sheet. However a half dozen cars were sent to the back for installing (illegal) single plane intake manifolds which give a huge horse power boost compared to the dual planes we are supposed to use. (I believe Michael's neighbor might have been among those sent to the back.)

As noted in earlier posts, in the main race John managed to pass enough cars for a ninth place finish, to the delight of both the announcers and the crowd. Tom finished a few places back and Steve Sorensen had the misfortune to blow the fuse supplying his fuel pump.

Michael's correct that we did not have the finish we'd seen in other years but the results didn't tell the real story. A few Tiger owners refused to quit and stepped up, making possible for us to have a very successful race.

Words can not express my appreciation. My sincere thanks to all of them.

BT,
at the beach
 
Buck, as stressful as things started out, what a great experience it turned out to be in so many other ways. Just to coin a phrase, "money is great, true friends are priceless".:D

Thanks for sharing.

Gene
 
george

One of the best features of this weekend was having George Boskoff holding court in the Trippel/Sakai/Alcala pit area all day Saturday and Sunday.

He is as sharp as a tack and he can talk about anything having to do with cars or Hawaii (his 2 favorite subjects) for hours.

Buck figured out how to get him to Monterey and it was a treat.

Bob J.
 
I can not take any credit for getting George there.

Doug Lyle, who owns the Shelby / Boskoff prototype, did it all. He deserves all the credit. He paid for George's transportation from Hawaii, gave him a place to stay, then chauffeured and accompanied George everywhere during the visit. Maybe Doug has an idea how many autographs George signed. I can only guess. One hundred? Two hundred?

Cleo Shelby visited our pits as well but missed George. Later they chatted.

It was also fun to see George reunite with Tiger owner Kerry Agapiou who lives in Tarzana. Kerry and his brother Charlie were Shelby American race mechanics and occasionally worked on the Shelby American race Tiger. Before joining Shelby American, both worked for Ken Miles and even contributed to the Miles prototype. Kerry even worked at HSC with Doanne Spencer in the early sixties.

BT,
at the beach
 
Buck,

Thanks so much for the report.. and again seems bad luck stops you from getting the result you (john and the car) deserve at the event. It must have been a great drive by John to get back through the feild.

Also nice to see the Sunbeam community pulling together to ensure that the marque makes a good showing.. good cars, good people good spirit! I believe Tom had issues last year or the year before and made a huge effort to rebuild the rear end to be back for the race?

When i posted the original results that was all that was up.. the same link has the updated race resutls now.

As for John.. not sure if he was guest driving or that was a car he entred? I would assume guest driving... i did note that he managed to get well up the feild from the back in the second race.. and set the fastest lap.

look forward to the newsletter report and some pics!

well done to all the tiger racers (and support crew!)
 
george b.

Like I said, thanks to Doug and Buck for getting George to Monterey.
Bob J.
 
Maybe Doug has an idea how many autographs George signed. I can only guess. One hundred? Two hundred?

I think George signed books for close to 3 hours. Here are two shots from the signing. With George are Pete Brock, John Morton, Silvia Wilkinson, and Joe Cavaglieri
 
About Time

I finally went through my Monterey Pics and so it is an old thread with some pictures finally.

Rick
 
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