The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 was held August 8-9 at the 11-turn, 2.238-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca in Salinas, California. Formerly known as Monterey Pre-Historics, the event is held the weekend before the larger Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. The 2015 running of the Monterey Pre-Reunion was again open to the public, allowing spectators to enjoy a more relaxed paddock environment and a glimpse of the following weekend.
The Pre-Reunion is designed to give Monterey Motorsports Reunion entrants — many of whom have never raced on the technical Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca — track time before the green flag officially drops the following weekend. Typically about 50-75% of the cars that race in the Reunion also attend the Pre-Reunion and this year was no different, with approximately 300 historic racing cars on track compared to 550 scheduled for the 2015 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.
The Shelby GT350 Mustang is this year’s featured marque and will officially celebrate its 60th anniversary at the motorsports gathering. Therefore it was no surprise to see a great selection of the Shelbys on track during Monterey Classic Car Week. In addition to the Shelby Mustangs, other notable and interesting entrants at the 2015 Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion included Dean Melling’s 1954 Jaguar D-Type; Greg Whitten’s 1957 Aston Martin DBR2; John Morton’s 1971 Porsche 908/3; Jeffery Segal’s 1970 Ferrari 512M; Marino Franchitti’s 1975 Gulf Mirage GR8; Adrian Sucari’s 1954 Maserati A6 GCS; Chip Conner’s 1980 Porsche 935J; Weldon Munsey’s 1992 Mazda RX7-92P; Zak Brown’s 1986 Porsche 962; Bob Ball’s 1971 Ferrari 312PB; Richard Griot’s 1969 Porsche 908/2 Spyder; Jeff Zwart’s 1966 Porsche 906 and the great selection of Formula 5000 machines; among many others.
—
Similar to 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013 and 2014, Senior Photographer Dennis Gray also documented the 2015 Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion with the following gallery that highlight entrants enjoying their track time at Laguna Seca. We split up Dennis’ pictures into two galleries. The first gallery starting below features our favorite images, all displayed in the full-width view of Sports Car Digest, while the second gallery can be found on the last page of the article and gives a comprehensive view of all the photographs.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Two
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Three
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Four
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Five
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Six
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Seven
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Featured Photo Gallery Page Eight
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
Monterey Motorsports Pre-Reunion 2015 – Main Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)
[nggallery id=826 images=15]
The unauthorized use and/or duplication of any editorial or photographic content from sportscardigest.com without express and written permission from the publisher is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to sportscardigest.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.
[Source: Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca; photos: Dennis Gray]
Excellent images, Dennis! Favorite race car is the ’57 Aston Martin DBR2! Wish I could be up there, maybe next year!
well done Dennis
Thank you! All look like they came off the showroom floor. Lots of memories
Another exceptional coverage of what must have been a weekend of excitement and fantasy for the viewers, fun for the owners/ drivers, as well as for you Dennis. The images tell of your interest and commitment in/to both racing and photography. Thanks… Hard to choose a favorite, but that would probably be the Porsche and Mercedes cresting the corkscrew in the fog.
I don’t see any 1920/30’s racing cars; is there a reason. Surely they must have been racing last week. I have been there a few times at the pre-reunion in the recent past.
Fabulous shots…thanks! Wish some of the California cars would come to VIR! Great memories of early SCCA racing.
Fantastic Photography………end of page 7 I belive you switched the Balwin and Tatum specials.
You listed “Bob Ball’s 1971 Ferrari 312PB”. it is Greg Galdi’s Ferrari and was driven by Bob Earl. There is no “Bob Ball”
Great shots Dennis! Looks like loads of fun!
Along with the 50th anniversary of the Shelby GT-350, the event is also celebrating Formula 5000, and a large number othose were on hand from Australia and New Zealand. Delightful folks!
great pics as always, Jay Esterer,s Mcrae GM1was originally built by Graeme Mcrae A New Zealander .As far as i know is still alive and one year was rookie of the year at indy periodically Jay returns to NZ race in the well supported F5000 RACES