The Monterey Weekend 2001

Article and photos by Wally Clark

The weekend started off with the Friday Concourso Italiano at the Quail Lodge.  There were about 300 Ferraris inside and outside and the Pacific Region did a marvelous job of getting all the cars inside parked!  The feature were Ferrari show cars and Pininfarina show cars.  Many FCA SW Region members showed their cars and Randy Reiss won "Best of Show" with his fly yellow 250 SWB Berlinetta #3695.

Saturday was track day and the feature at Laguna Seca this year was Bentley.  In the paddock were two very special displays-both featuring Phil Hill.   A lot of the cars he drove were on display in a tent, and he actually drove a few on the track during the lunch hour to the delight of all the tifosi!  There was a great photo display featuring Phil?s racing career, and for a time, he was signing autographs in the tent.  One of the sub features at the track was a vintage Formula 1 race, which had a couple of Ferrari F1 cars in it.  Our own Steve Tillack entered his 1982 March F1 car and lost the brakes in practice and had an incident with a wall.  He slightly injured his collar bone, but otherwise escaped without serious injury.  There were the usual contingent of early Ferrari race cars spaced throughout the classes.  One of the better races saw a 250 LM get out to a great lead,  only to be passed on the last corner of the last lap by a 427 Cobra!

Then there were the auctions, lots of them this year.  Some highlights were the high prices brought by some very special Ferraris.  One of the two existing 410 sport Scaglietti spyders sold for 3.8 million dollars, the ex Randy Reiss 250 TDF sold for $1.2 million,  a competition Daytona sold for $1.2 million,  and a "no reserve" 250 California spyder sold for $831,000.  There were also some no sales: a 512BBLM, a 500 Mondial and a 500 Testa Rossa.

Pebble Beach featured some Pininfarina show cars and at the center of the field was the 1950?s Fiat 642 transporter (ex Richard Freshman) complete with a display of 250 Testa Rossa?s on it.

First in class of the competition Ferraris was Jon Shirley?s 290MM, which also won the Dallas FCA National. First in class for the Pininfarina design class was the 250 PF special coupe #2821GT owned by Lorenzo Zambrano of Mexico City. 

I?m sure I missed something, as there is so much to do and see on this weekend that it could last all week, not just three days!

Wally Clark

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