I spent four glorious days at Laguna Seca last month attending Rennsport Reunion VI. This celebration of Porsche was attended by over 81,000 automotive enthusiasts, the largest attendance ever at Laguna Seca, who shared their love for the marque, motor racing, history, and the people who made it great and continue to do so today.
Among the many enthusiastic people I met were Jacky Ickx and John Oats.
When you stop to think about these two successful individuals, from very different backgrounds, ended up in the same place in the world on the same days, it’s pretty phenomenal. It is a testament to the power of passion for automobiles and how that passion brings people together. People from all walks of life, backgrounds, beliefs, religions, races, and socioeconomics.
There are no nasty political debates at a car event.
I hear people talking about how divided we’ve become. Maybe that’s why I love the car hobby so much. It brings people together and allows for quality exchanges of opinion and knowledge. While you may like one model and I like another, we communicate and share, and we listen to each other. That’s a pretty nice way to spend time with new friends, and old.
Look for John and Jacky to be on Cars Yeah in the future.
I’m fortunate to have met two new car friends.
In case you don’t know Jacky and John, here you go. By the way, they are only three years apart in age, John being 70 and Jacky is 73.
Jacques Bernard “Jacky” Ickx is a Belgian former racing driver who won the 24 Hours of Le Mans six times, achieved eight wins and 25 podium finishes in Formula One. He also won the Can-Am Championship in 1979 and is a former winner of the Dakar Rally.
John William Oates is an American rock, R&B and soul guitarist, singer, songwriter and record producer best known as half of the rock and soul duo, Hall & Oates (with Daryl Hall). His latest album is titled Arkansas.
Photo credit for Jacky and me: Bill Morris, Car Guy Extraordinaire!