A mouth-watering entre of Corvettes at the 2024 50 th Rolex Monterey Motorsport Reunion

On the weekend of the world - famous Pebble Beach Concours car show in 1974, a young Steve Earle, (left of Steve Griswold) invited 70 “friends” to race their pre-and post-war relics at the Laguna Seca circuit, built in 1957 on property now deeded to the Monterey County Parks Department and formerly a firing range of the now closed Fort Ord military base in Monterey CA.

Fifty years onward, the oversubscribed event known as the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion (RMMR) is limited to 400 invitees.

Photos courtesy of Dennis Gray, Bill Wagenblatt and Kevin Gray from WGGPhotography.ShootProof.com.

John Goodman retired early in his C4 # 5 1988 IMSA GTO Corvette, a car with great provenance stemming from original driver Wally Dallenbach Jr.

Patrick Byrne, a semi-pro driver from Spokane WA finished second in his 1977 # 40 big block Greenwood customer car chassis 008 ex R.V Schulnberg in the hotly contested Peter Gregg Trophy race for late 1970’s IMSA GT cars.

Also bearing the Greenwood touch from the mid-1970’s was John Anderson’s # 37 ex Rick Mancuso IMSA GTO; and Brad Briscoe’s # 15 Greenwood chassis 010 specially built for Sam Mancuso (no relation) to race in the 1976 Trans Am Series.

Scooter Gabel from Chulouta FL finished mid-pack in his 1984 # 4 IMSA GTP ex Dave Force Lola chassis T711 HU-02 in the hotly contested Hurley Haywood Trophy race for IMSA GTP and FIA Group C cars.

The afore-mentioned Patrick Byrne finished the Ken Mikes GT Trophy race for 1955-1967 SCCA big bore production cars, second only to Ford CEO Jim Farley racing a Cobra 289. This is an exceptional result given Byrne’s Sting Ray carries 50% more weight.

Doug Manista in his 1965 big block Corvette followed a dozen Ford Cobras and Mustang GT 350s in a huge field of 34 cars.

Here are Sting Rays of # 161 Nick Colonna, # 8 Del Hardy, # 31 Craig Carter, # 82 Steve Yarborough and # 7 Jay Parille (FIA Dave Morgan Replica).

Ed Hugo from Mill Valley CA in his # 58 1958 ex Noel Park led the straight-axle contingent, others even finished ahead of the Sting Rays.

Dave Roberts 1956 # 57 ex Jim Swan Speed Lab, Jacob Angel 1960 # 111 ex Doug Nicoli, Ron Erickson 1957 # 283 ex Fred Yeakel and Cooper DuBois # 1962 # 61.

The # 2 1960 ex-Briggs Cunningham FIA Le Mans Corvette piloted by Dick Thompson/Fred Windridge was on display from Bruce Myers, chairman of the buzzing Petersen Auto Museum in LA.

Plus, the # 2 and # 3 1963 FIA Grand Sport Chassis 003 A J Foyt/John Cannon and 004 Delmo Johnson/Dave morgan respectively owned by Larry Bowman and Miles Collier of the Revs Institute in Naples FL.

Other photos via Dolph Images are where noted.

Compiled from the Corvette Race Car Archive by www.registryofcorvetteracecars.com