Monterey Mania

Update by Tim Suddard to the Triumph Group 44 GT6 project car
Aug 18, 2009

The red Honda Civic Si served as our chase car. (Thanks, Honda.) It's quick, roomy and easy to park.

That's Tim in the green shirt and JK Jackson--lead wrench--with the pipe. Gary Hunter, who helped with much of the restoration, is next to JK.

Tim likes to clean. Before heading out for the feature race, he took care of the windshield.

The car rumbled to the grid with no issues.

Jere Dotten, our other lead wrench, changed plugs before the feature race Sunday.

T minus five minutes until launch. Left to right, that's Jere, Tim and JK.

Tim getting strapped in for the big show.

Laguna Seca's false grid is located behind pit row, so it's interesting to watch cars pull away while the front of the field passes in the other direction.

There goes Tim! Since a pit stop would basically mean the end of the race, we didn't drag too much to the pit wall.

Our lap times were pretty consistent.

Whew, the car made it back to our paddock space safe and sound. Time to celebrate.

And time to roll outta Dodge. Next stop: Jay Leno's garage for some filming.

Once we unloaded the car and set up, we finally felt like we could relax and entertain the growing crowd surrounding the GT6+… Monterey was shaping up to be a very nice week.

After some last-minute drama in our Monterey preparations, we were finally ready for Monterey. Luckily, the weekend proved to be full of good excitement—no more of the stressful kind we’d already experienced too much of.

Thankfully, the trip out to Monterey was uneventful. The GT6+ arrived Tuesday, towed by our Group 44 support van.

Once we unloaded the car and set up, we finally felt like we could relax and entertain the growing crowd surrounding the GT6+.

We were in full entertainment mode Thursday night at our annual Baja Cantina Monterey kickoff celebration. Peter Brock of BRE fame was a special guest this year, which made the party even more memorable. Monterey was shaping up to be a very nice week.

Practice and qualifying went well, too—nothing broke, blew up or fell off—so we changed the plugs, cleaned the car a little more, and readied our nerves for the feature race Sunday.

Once again, we enjoyed more good luck. The GT6+ looked great, posted consistent lap times, and made it back into the paddock safe and sound.

As Monterey wound down, we loaded up the car and made one last stop before heading back to Florida: We dropped by Jay Leno’s garage, where he and his crew filmed the GT6+.