Racing legends recall GT40 era at Pebble Beach

Jacky Ickx and Jackie Oliver deliver a GT40 win at the 1969 24 Hours of Le Mans. Photo courtesy Ford Motorsport.

It's not just about the finest cars on planet Earth. The grand show at Pebble Beach next month is also about getting educated about the cars on display, and automotive history in general. To that end, the Pebble Beach Classic Car Forum presents opportunities to rub elbows with the great legends of motorsport, design and historic automobiles. This year's selection of seminars, however, is hands-down topped by The Racing Legacy of the Ford GT40, the schedule's opening event, set for 3 p.m. on Thursday, August 18.

The lineup of drivers that will comprise the GT40 discussion panel is nothing less than stellar. Alphabetically, they consist of Chris Amon, who led the parade of GT40s across the finish line at Le Mans a half-century ago this year; the legendary Dan Gurney, who won in Formula 1, Indy cars, NASCAR and sports cars; David Hobbs, a prolific winner in Formula 5000, sports cars and Trans-Am competition; Jacky Ickx, who scored 25 podium finishes in Formula 1 and is one of international sports car racing's most prolific winners; and Brian Redman, who was equally adept in open-wheelers and sports cars. The moderator will be acclaimed historian and author Ken Gross.

Like all the Pebble Beach seminars, the GT40 event is free to the public but seating is limited to 200 attendees and reservations are required; seats can be booked at PBClassicCarForum.com. Other seminars include Jay Leno's Garage, where the famous host will discuss his CNBC program; a session on estate planning for collector-car owners, the Evolution of Racing at Indy, co-hosted by Bobby Rahal and Danny Sullivan; Life in the Pits, a racing retrospective featuring Nick Mason, Jochen Mass and Sir Stirling Moss; the showing of the film A Moment in Time, about the fabled Jaguar test driver Norman Dewis; Classic Car Matchmaking; and Know When to Hold Them, the last an outlay of buy-versus-sell strategies.

A full schedule of these seminars is available at PBClassicCarForum.com.

from Hemmings Daily – News for the collector car enthusiast http://ift.tt/2ajorVA