Rob Manson interview with Cars TV 2023, Del Monte Trophy Race Group
THE VIDEO… View it at https://youtu.be/K6PhJ9-m8_4
Rob Manson is the chief marshal and coordinator of the Del Monte Trophy Race Group, that’s made up of the cars which raced (and the cars of a type which raced) at the original Pebble Beach Road Races near Monterey California in the 1950s. Here he is interviewed by Cars TV during the Rolex Monterey Historic Reunion in August 2023. The footage does contain shots of 1930s race cars, barnstormers and all sorts, but Rob’s commentary is excellent.
You can read more about these Pebble Beach – Del Monte Trophy – cars at www.dmtrg.com, and see lots of pictures. And at https://www.facebook.com/MontereySportsCarRoadRacers/
Acknowledgements… With thanks to Cars TV for letting us copy, post and share this video… “Ride along with “Cars.TV” for a front-seat view of auto show premieres, amazing private collections (Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, John Cena and others), radical customizations and innovations, exclusive auctions, racing and more. This Emmy® Award winning show delivers everything that ultimate automotive enthusiasts crave (except for the actual car keys).” https://cars.tv/
THE TEXT… Would you like to read the interview in text form? Here it is…
“My name is Rob Manson. I look after the Del Monte Trophy race group (www.dmtrg.com) , which is a vintage racing group that is made up of the cars that raced in the Pebble Beach Road races in the earliest period of road racing in the United States after World War II.
“From the Pebble Beach Road races, we have an enormous group of passionate spectators that were created from the very first Pebble Beach Road race in 1950, and then that spectator base grew. And when the last race was held in 1956, it was clear that there needed to be a permanent racetrack. This track, Laguna Seca Raceway, was built with that demand in mind. There was actually a Pebble Beach Road race at Laguna Seca, which was the inaugural race of the Laguna Seca racetrack.
“In 1957 Organizations came to the idea of organizing a European style road race in Southern California. There were two men, John Von Neumann and Roger Barlow, who organized the Southern California Sports Car Club, and they had done a number of speed events, hill climbs and dry Lakes runs. They couldn’t find a place that would allow them to do a road race until 1950. In Northern California, it was Sterling Edwards and Shell Caval. Sterling Edwards approached the Morse family of the Pebble Beach fame and said, Hey, how about this idea? Morris was open to the idea when it was presented by Sterling Edwards, and so they went ahead with it.
“Simultaneously, the hot rod movement was happening, so the organizers of the first road races were faced with these guys bringing this stuff that they didn’t like, and they defined what a sports car was. It had to be road-registered, it had to be driven to the track and driven home, not trailered, so it had headlights, it had a parking brake, it had a spare tire, it had a brake light, and it had a door. The other rule was that the drivers had to be amateurs. As a result, these were guys typically who could buy their own, but a few guys built specials. “The Del Monte Trophy race group consists of cars that raced at the Pebble Beach Road races from 1950 through 1955.
“The Jaguar behind me, the wonderful swoopy grill that is the principle example of the first sports cars to come to the United States after the war that were designed specifically after the war, and built specifically to be sold in America. That’s a Jaguar XK 120. The first one came in 1948. The white car out here, the Parkinson Jaguar Special is a 1949 Jaguar Roadster just like this. The other car that received immediate popularity in the United States was the MGTC and the MGTD. So those two marques plus the Allards, and there are a couple of Allards across the corridor, were the principle imports that were used and that populated the grids for the very first road races held in California, held on the West Coast.”
With thanks to Cars TV and Rob Manson for letting us copy, post and share this text. https://cars.tv/
What exactly is a Del Monte Trophy car? http://dmtrg.com/2024/01/09/the-definition/
More about John von Neumann at https://www.historicracing.com/driverDetail.cfm?driverID=2868
More about Roger Barlow at https://www.jsasoc.com/Family_archive/Archive/barlow/escape%20road%205-28-90%20obit.pdf
CARSTV_21012-1217_Rob_Manson_Segment – https://youtu.be/K6PhJ9-m8_4
With thanks to CarsTV https://cars.tv/