Gentleman John

In several sections of this month’s issue, you’ll find coverage of just a small sampling of the constellation of events that now make up the week of the Monterey Historics. It seems like every year, in this column, I make some comment on how it couldn’t possibly get any bigger or sustain any more ancillary events, and yet every year at least one or two new functions get added to the mix. Usually, it all starts off with the Monterey Pre-Historics (a full race weekend, in its own right, for many of the excellent cars that there just wasn’t room enough for on the main Historics weekend!), then the middle of the week is now taken up with Tony Singer’s fast-growing Automobilia show, the Pebble Beach Rally and the Ocean Avenue Motor Club lunch. By Friday, it is The Quail Motorsport Gathering, Concorso Italiano, racing at the track and the start of a weekend full of racing, auctions and at least a dozen or more other events and special dinners. I used to naively think I could do it all, that was until it started taking two full days just to collect all the necessary credentials!

However, one exclusive event that I’ve come to look forward to each year is a Friday night dinner that Mercedes Benz holds out at the Lodge at Pebble Beach. Now I know what you’re probably thinking, “Oh, sure! Some fancy, dinner to wine and dine the jaded journalists.” And while that is probably partially true, surprisingly enough, that’s not the reason I like to go. Believe me, by the time Friday night rolls around, I’m already so exhausted from the week of planning, meetings, travel and activities, I’d just as soon collapse in a dark room with a cool cloth on my forehead.