California Dreaming - The Glamour of Monterey Car Week
The Brits have Goodwood, France has the Le Mans Classic – now, it’s America’s turn. This is classic car racing, California-style. Discover the sun-soaked Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion with Zak Brown and the historics racing team at United Autosports.
On Friday August 12th, the 2022 edition of Monterey Car Week officially began. This world-famous event invites petrolheads from around the globe to indulge in two weeks of all-things-automobile on the Californian coast.
From classic racing on the Raceway Laguna Seca to oceanside award-ceremonies and the Pebble Beach Tour D’Elegance which sees rare motors parade up the coastal road against the epic backdrop of Big Sur, Monterey Car Week has prestige and glamour in abundance. Indeed, past attendees have included The Terminator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
This year, Zak Brown - United Autosports co-owner and McLaren CEO - raced two classic cars from his personal collection, a 1981 Porsche 935 and a 1989 Jaguar XJR-10.
The Porsche won both the Daytona 24 Hours and the Sebring 12 Hours in the same year (1982), while the Jaguar topped the podium at IMSA GT Championship races across the US in the late 80s and early 90s, from Portland to Miami.
Photo credit: Rolex
When they’re not on the track, these motors are cared for by the dedicated historics department at United Autosports, a championship-winning motorsport racing team based in Yorkshire who count the iconic 24 Hours of Le Mans amongst their accolades.
The expert United crew was on hand in California to make sure everything ran smoothly, including Richard Dean - Le Mans champion, United Autosports team co-owner and close friend of Zak Brown - who watched trackside.
The 2022 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion was held at the WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca between Wednesday August 17th and Saturday August 20th.
“It’s awesome to be returning to Monterey – it’s such a prestigious event on the classic car calendar, and in my home state too. This will be our eighth time racing at the Reunion and I can’t wait to get back out on track with the United Autosports team.”
- Zak Brown
“This is United Autosports’ eighth visit to California for the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion. It is such an important event, best summed up as simply ‘car week’! It has everything and for me is one of the most enjoyable events we do. It’s great to go back there, this time competing with two very iconic race cars in the Jaguar XJR-10 and the Porsche 935.”
- Richard Dean