My Pebble Beach parties

“The worst winter I experienced was a summer in Carmel,” said the American author E S Field. He had a point. Driving into Monterey the weather changed dramatically from sunny blue skies to a heavy cloud of fog, which pretty much stayed throughout my trip. I was expecting California sunshine but because Pebble Beach and Monterey are set on a Peninsula, surrounded by ocean and backed by mountains and valleys, the days start off rather foggy.

This was a great excuse to shop for warmer clothes, but more importantly I was in town for Pebble Beach’s 58th annual Concours d’Elegance Classic Car Weekend. It also coincided with the 35th Rolex Monterey Historic races at Laguna Seca, a Motor Sports Gathering at Quail Lodge and four international auctions by Bonhams & Butterfields, RM, Gooding & Co and Russo & Steele – so many cars, so little time…

The weekend began with the annual McCall Motorworks Revival organised by Gordon and Molly McCall at the Monterey Jet Center – it was their 17th year and from what I hear just gets better and better. I’d heard this was the party to attend, where luxury automotive brands are displayed alongside planes and boats. Corporate jet manufacturers bring their latest offerings, and Bombardier Jets had its latest super challenger plane on show. I found myself trying to bribe the pilot for a demo flight to LA in return for a free subscription to Motor Sport, but he wasn’t having it. Lexus and Bentley Brooklands use the Revival to preview their pre-production cars. Ferrari prototypes, Ford GT40s and AC Cobras were on display, along with a beautifully restored B25 Mitchell bomber.

The highlight of the weekend was attending the Quail Lodge Resort and Golf club for the Motor Sports Gathering, where numbers are limited to 3000 and tickets sell out in March! We sipped Louis Roederer champagne and had a sumptuous lunch prepared by the Quail Lodge culinary team, which included caviar, oven wood-roasted chicken and a selection of homemade ice-creams – the best garden party I’ve been to! I bumped into Jay Leno (Octane’s contributor) and he seemed rather taken with his copy of Motor Sport – he carried it under his arm all day. Once again it was a place for sponsor brands like Land Rover, Maserati Gran Turismo, Rolls-Royce and Mercedes-Benz to display their latest designs. Selby Aviation performed an acrobatic air show, and guests were chartered to the Laguna Secca Raceway by MD Helicopters, or they got behind the wheel of the Maserati Gran Turismo.

Connected to the event was Bonhams and Butterfields’ auction, which raised $22 million. There were some extremely rare and historic competition machines sold, such as the 1960 Jaguar E2A Prototype “Missing Link” Le Mans racer ($5,067,500) and the 1939 Talbot-Lago T150 CSS ($4,845,000). Both established new world records.

Another night, another party… This one was at Pebble Beach, which is hosted by a different car brand every year. This time it was the turn of Land Rover North America, which was launching its 2009 LR2 HST model and celebrating its 60th anniversary. Once again guests were treated to enormous amounts of food and wine. It was a great chance to meet everyone who was involved with the event, from Pebble’s judges and exhibitors to US car dealers. And at the end of the night guests were given a beautifully-produced photographic book by Nick Dimbleby dedicated to Land Rover and aptly named ‘60 Years of Adventure’.

Saturday was race day, and I saw Mario Andretti having fun waving the chequered flag for the Race of Legends at Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway during the 35th Rolex Monterey Historic Races presented by Toyota. Earlier he did demo laps in the No5 Players Lotus 79 in which he won the Formula 1 World Championship, and it was hard to get him out of the car once he got warmed up. I joined sponsor Rolex in its hospitality enclosure, with amazing views of the second corner, and where Patrick Dempsey was a guest. For those of you who don’t know him, he was a teen heart-throb of mine in the ’80s and is now the star of top-rating TV series Grey’s Anatomy. Patrick is also a huge fan of motor racing and drives for the US Mazda team. He has a collection of cars – a ’69 280 SE Mercedes, a ’74 Jaguar E-type, a ’54 Jaguar XK120 SE, a Panoz Esperante GTLM that won Le Mans, and a Porsche GT3 RS. I spoke to him about his busy racing schedule and his ambition to one day race at Le Mans.

The final day and I am exhausted from attending fashion shows, auction house preview cocktail receptions and auctions, plus handing out Motor Sport to the Pebble Beach concours competitors as they parade through Carmel. But I made sure I had the best view at the Rolls-Royce enclosure where we were watched the parade of vehicles being judged at the 58th Pebble Beach Concours d’Elegance. Competitors from 27 states and 12 countries entered for judging in 24 classes, including the oldest vehicle at the show, an 1892 Peugeot. Judges included our own Sir Stirling Moss. The ‘Best of Show’ car this year was the 1938 Alfa Romeo owned by Jon Shirley, former president and CEO of Microsoft. I even managed to have a ride in an Alfa Romeo 1750 GS owned by one of the judges for the Lancia class, Hugo Modderman. The new Bugatti Veyron Convertible (16.4 Grand Sport) was unveiled, attracting a crowd outside the Lodge. We gave copies of Motor Sport to guests in hospitality for Maserati, Rolls-Royce, Aston Martin, Rolex and Mercedes-Benz, and it seemed to be the topic of conversation! I can’t wait for next year’s show, where Bugatti and Bentley will be the hosts.