Vintage Indy cars present a display of variety at Monterey

Historic Trans Am racing cars are the featured marque this week at the 2021 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, and there are 42 such cars present from the 1966-1972 seasons.

But at least three other groups of cars were drawing a lot of interest when we visited the track Thursday. Those were cars from La Carrera Panamerica, the famed Mexican Road Race; the Ragtime Racers, a group of racing machines from the first two decades of the 20th Century — complete with what looks like their own vintage garage; and, making their Motorsports Reunion debut, a selection of Indy cars from the years 1963 through 1978. 

Note that these cars come from an era in which the Indy 500 made the transformation from front-engine roadsters to sleek rear-engine, formula-style cars. 

One aspect of the era that, in retrospect, seems hard to believe is the variety of constructors building Indy racers. We’ve become used to single-marque racing, albeit with a couple of engine manufacturers. But among the vintage Indy vehicles parked under a large tent between exhibition laps were cars from Lotus, Eagle, Watson, Huffaker, Vollstedt, Antares and Parnelli Colt.