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HMSA Club Event at Laguna Seca 2011 – Report and Photos

Tom Price in the Ferrari 500 TRC

Report and photos by Dennis Gray

The Historic Motors Sports Association (HMSA) held a club event on April 28, 2011 at the 11-turn, 2.238-mile Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca road course in Salinas, California.

HMSA events feature historic production cars built through 1972 and purpose-built Formula, Sports Racing and IMSA and Trans-Am cars built through 1991. The one-day April club event featured nearly 100 vintage/historic race cars circling Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Entrants were greeted with sunny, clear skies with just a touch of a cooling breeze.

The HMSA Club Event at Laguna Seca 2011 field included many notable cars, ranging from Mary Smith’s 1937 ERA R2A driven by Paddins Dowling to the 1976 F-1 Penske PC4 driven Doug Mockett. In between were other samples of the automotive art like Bruce Canepa’s 1970 AMC Javelin Trans-Am car, Wade Carter’s 1972 McLaren M8FP Can-Am car, Jonathan Feiber’s 1960 Maserati Tipo 61, Nick Colonna’s Lola T70 Spyder and Costin Lister Chevrolet, Steven Read’s Ferrari 312PB and so much more.

Ed Nigro brought the 1961 Lotus 20 Formula Junior that he purchased from Carl Moore in February. Moore stated, “The best early rear engine Formula Jr. on the West Coast. Winner of numerous awards. Twice winner of class at Wine Country for performance and presentation. Winner of Rolex award at Monterey Historics; Winner of Jack McKee/CSRG award for exemplary restoration; consistently reliable and ahead of newer Formula Jrs. Always maintained by John Anderson Racing. Five speed Hewland gearbox.”

Of special interest was the first outing for Tom Price’s 1957 Ferrari 500 TRC Spyder Scaglietti. This two liter, four cylinder, twin over head cam car sounded as good as it looked. Painted in the Belgium national team color of bright cadmium yellow, the 500 TRC Spyder quickly drew admirers. In Tom Price’s hands the car was quick each of its sessions.

Another vehicle that drew admiring onlookers was Don Orosco’s Bartoletti Transporter, which was built in 1960 to haul Lance Reventlow’s Scarab F1 team from race-to-race in Europe. The Scarab Transporter was built along the lines of the Bartoletti Ferrari and Maserati team transporters.

After Reventlow and the Scarab team were done with the truck Team Lotus and Team Camoradi used the truck before Carroll Shelby’s Cobra team carrying the team Daytona coupes through Europe. British team Alan Mann Racing also used the transporter. The transporter was bought by Michael Shoen in the early 1980s. Shoen was involved in a bitter fight for control of the U-Haul company and the transporter somehow ended up in a fenced off yard in Arizona. Don Orosco bought the transporter for $80,000 in 2006.

Don’s team of Olle Ericksson, Jesse Cruz, Brad Hand, Enrique Guillen, Brian Plumliegh, Mike Limasa and a multitude of European connections performed a frame-off restoration in time for 2009 Monterey Historics with two Scarab F-1 cars and a Scarab Chevrolet Mk 1 race car on board. This truck is the center of attention whenever Don Orosco and his Scarab team pull in.

For more information, visit www.hmsausa.com.

HMSA Club Event at Laguna Seca 2011 – Photo Gallery (click image for larger picture and description)

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[Source: Dennis Gray]