MiniMe

All, I apologize for the lateness of the announcement.

The Races are August 15th, 16th and 17th. The Marquis this year is Alfa Romeo, which just happens to have been the marquis of the FIRST Annual Monterey Historics back in 1973. Unfortunately I didn't attend that year since I was only 3 years old

Mario Andretti will be the guest of honor and I would be my paycheck he will be out there doing some quick laps @ lunchtime so bring your cameras.

This will be my third year organizing the club corral and I am once again REALLY looking forward to seeing all my old friends. By old friends I mean the people & the cars

For information about the Historics please visit http://www.montereyhistoric.com/

To view the past 2 years corral discussions(including a LOT of background information about the weekend events) please view these posts:

• 33rd Annual Monterey Historics Mazda Club Corral
• 34th Annual Monterey Historics Mazda Club Corral

There are two requirements for joining the corral:

1. You order your tickets through me by June 23rd(the deadline for ordering tickets + corral passes)
2. You arrive in a Mazda(sorry, no other car makes will be allolwed to mingle with us this year)

Since my time is very limited this year(travelling nearly every week since early February) I am requiring payment via PayPal. If you do not have a PayPal account I highly suggest you set one up. Sending $ is Free with their service and you can set up your account to fund payments via credit card(if you are paranoid about linking your checking or savings account). Because PayPal charges 3% + a small transaction fee for every $ transfer I receive I am adding a few dollars to the total for the ticket orders. Note, I do not make any $ by organizing the ticket orders, I am merely trying to break even and am volunteering my time to make sure we have a corral.

Prices are unchanged from previous years, but as stated above I have added a few $ to cover my PayPal fees:

• Friday Only(no corral parking available) - $45
• Saturday Only - $65
• Sunday Only - $45
• 2-day Super Sat/Sun - $95
• 3-day Super Fri/Sat/Sun - $125

To order tickets please go to My Home Page


Thanks and See you @ the Races!!!

MiniMe

Perhaps you have never been to the Historics or you have never been to Laguna Seca Raceway. Perhaps you have never even visited Monterey bay, Carmel or Pacific Grove. You may be asking yourself "just what is the big deal about the Historics Race weekend?" Here are 3 reasons:

* The Monterey Historics is considered the most prestigious vintage racing event in the world. The organization that runs the event gets over 10,000 applicants so the cars that are accepted are usually extremely rare and have won historic races and/or were driven by famous racers. Thus the caliber of cars at this event is the best in the world.
* The Concorso Italiano(Friday) is considered the most prestigious Italian sports car gathering in the world.
* The Pebble Beach Concours D'elegance(Sunday) IS the most prestigious car show in the world.

There are a lot of other activities to do and many events going during the week leading up to the races and during the weekend.
Key Activities:

* Sightseeing/driving - highway-1, Pacific Grove, Carmel, 17 mile drive etc.
* Monterey Bay Aquarium
* Beautiful beaches - clean air, clean beaches and tidal pools...
* Carmel - A+ shopping and fine dining

Key Events:

* Wed;
www.pebblebeachconcours.net 1500 mile tour from Wash. to Monterey, CA
www.quaillodge.com The Quail Rally
* Wed-Sat;
www.blackhawkcollection.com Blackhawk collection of cars on sale at Black Horse golf course
* Thurs;
www.pebblebeachconcours.net Gravity Racers at Jack's Peak
www.christies.com The Christies Auction of cars at the Jet Center
www.pebblebeachconcours.net Tour d'Elegance at the Polo Field in Del Monte Forest
* Thurs-Sat;
www.rmauctions.com RM Monterey Sports & Classic Car Auction at the Portola Plaza
* Fri;
www.concorso.com Consorso Italiano at Black Horse Golf Course in Seaside - 300+ Ferraris, 50+ Lamborghinis, DeTomaso Panteras, Lancias, Afas, and a TON of other Italian sports cars, some well known, some very rare.
www.kruse.com Seaside Kruse Select Auction at Black Horse
www.quaillodge.com The Quail motor sport gathering
www.pgautorally.org/ PGA charity rally
* Fri-Sat;
www.russoandsteele.com Russo & Steele sports and muscle at the Marriott
* Fri-Sun;
www.bonhams.com Bonhams & Butterfields Sale at the Quail Lodge
www.pebblebeachconcours.net Retro Auto display
www.montereyhistoric.com Historic Automobile Races at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway
* Sat;
www.autoartgallery.com AFAS Exibition on the 18th fairway Pebble Beach
* Sun;
www.goodingco.com Gooding & Co Pebble Beach Auction
www.pebblebeachconcours.net The Concours d'Elegance

other events:
Automobilia Monterey
www.automobiliamonteey.com

Carmel Vintage Car Parade and Display
www.carmelcalifornia.com

Khaki's Ferrari Event
www.thebarnyard.com

Russo & Steele Monterey Muscle Car Auction at the Marriott
www.russoandsteele.com/monterey_auction.html

MiniMe

Good News:
Per the updated Attendee List I have 25 tickets sold with another 8 pending payment. So that is 33 and close enough that I can say that our corral will happen, so it is a GO!

Better News:
Elliot Shev(our Mazda Advisory Council rep) got Mazda to negotiate a stay of execution for our ticket payment to the track. I have until NEXT FRIDAY, June 27th to get them payment, so that is another week for people to get off the fence That said, I don't think anyone on the fence will have any difficulty jumping off once they read the awesome news below:

[b]NOW, for the AWESOME news:
Behind the scenes Elliot Shev has been trying to get Mazda to do something special for us at the track on Saturday. I have been holding back getting everyone's hopes up because in past years we were unable to make anything happen. Well, he JUST confirmed that Mazda is going to fund what I requested(note, just the tent, tables and chairs are going to cost ~$1800)

1. A 30' x 30' trackside tent
2. Four 8' banquet tables
3. Nine 5' dining tables(round) and chairs - enough for up to 81 people

I will be talking with him about this today, so I do not yet know if they will fully fund everything, but as long as they fund the big stuff I can handle hiring a catering company to at least provide a nice lunch and/or breakfast. As I stated, it MIGHT be completely funded(FREE), but if not I would estimate lunch costing $15-20 per person, soda/water included.

A few more reasons to attend:
Elliot will be there in a shiny new 2009 Mazda-6 for everyone to check out. He will also be handing out Mazda goodie bags to all the corral attendees on Saturday(which he does every year), so that coupled with the fact that we FINALLY have an awesome place to get some shade, hang out, socialize, and eat, I think everyone would happily shell out another $15-$20, am I right?

The ONLY variable is WHERE the events people will put our tent. I am fairly certain there will be plenty of room to have it where our corral is located - about 125' from the apex of turn-5, basically where we watch the cars accelerate out of the turn and head up the hill. However, this is dependent on the number of tickets we buy(to them this is the # of cars). That said, in previous years we had about 35 cars and there was more than enough room for a tent at the track side end of the corral. I am confident the tent will be in the location where it used to be in previous years.

SO, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?

MiniMe

All, per the Attendee List we now have 36 committed attendees, not counting the two extra tickets that Ron so graciously paid for on TOP of his own ticket . There are still a few pending payment, but given that I just found out that we now have until July 3rd to finalize our corral order we have plenty of time .

That said, if we don't get a large enough group in the corral they might put our tent and corral on the ISLAND, which is better than having NO tent at all, but the inside Turn-5 location is MUCHO GRANDE better, trust me. It is where we have ALWAYS had our corral and we WANT it there.

SO, if you guys want to hang out RIGHT next to the track you NEED to get more people to sign up. I sold 3 more tickets over the weekend, but it was a far cry from what I expected. I assumed people would be ALL over this, but maybe $ is tight this year

In any event, as I have stated previously, if you are within 3 hours driving of Monterey then you should NOT MISS THIS EVENT. I know of more than 14 of the members that are only coming for the Saturday event and are going back home after the races are done. I have driven down to Laguna countless times over the years and I live about 3 hours away, not only that but I have driven down, driven the track for 2+ hours full throttle and then driven back home, all in the same day(and in racing bucket seat with minimal padding and no reclining . I'm no spring chicken anymore so if I can do THAT then all of you can handle coming to the Saturday event.

Let's have a MASSIVE turnout this year. If it is as successful as I hope then I might just do it one better next year :toast:

And for the record, ALL OF THE FOOD AND BEVERAGES WILL BE FREE! Given the small group we should have MORE than enough $ for a nice catered breakfast as well as lunch. For those that remembered when Barbara Beach organized the corral and tent/food - do you remember how much it cost per person? MAZDA did not sponsor us back then so Barbara had to pass the cost onto us and it used to cost $45+ per person...

The bottom line is - we have FULL sponsorship from Mazda for this event - this is the FIRST time ever for the Mazda corral @ the historics and if it is successful we should have no problem securing funding for next year as well.

Thank you,
Mike Hagerla