A raucous discipline of 24 IROC race vehicles will be part of the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca for the primary time on Aug. 13-16.
The Worldwide Race of Champions (IROC) collection was the brainchild of businessman and motorsports legend Roger Penske. It was an automotive all-star occasion with the highest drivers of the day competing in similar equipment.
This group is stacked with racing legends from a wide range of disciplines, together with NASCAR legends Jeff Gordon, Mark Martin, Invoice Elliott, Ken Schrader and Bobby Labonte, in addition to Zak Brown, Danny Sullivan, Scott Pruett and lots of extra. Al Unser Jr. will function Grand Marshall of the IROC class.
Nonetheless, the vehicles additionally carry important star energy to this group, as Ray Evernham, co-owner of IROC, has helped assemble a formidable discipline representing all seven generations of IROC vehicles. The 2025 Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion will mark the primary time in historical past that each one seven generations of IROC vehicles might be displayed collectively in a single place. Right here’s a glimpse of a number of the machines that may deal with the two.238-mile circuit:
1974 Porsche 911
Driver: William E. (Chip) Connor II
The automotive chosen for IROC’s inaugural collection was the quick and dependable Porsche 911 Carrera RSR. Fifteen vehicles had been ordered in a rainbow of colours to reinforce tv viewing. Chassis 0075, delivered in “Mexico Blue,” was raced within the 1974 IROC collection by Method 1 Ace Denny Hulme, USAC Nationwide Champion Roger McCluskey and NASCAR Champion David Pearson.
1975 Chevrolet Camaro
Driver: Shaun Lynn/Alex Lynn
After IROC’s inaugural season utilizing Porsches that in the end proved to be too costly to take care of, the collection switched to Chevrolet Camaros. Pulled straight from the showroom flooring, these vehicles had been outfitted with roll cages and upgraded mechanical parts, ushering within the period of the IROC Camaro. This Camaro was campaigned in a number of occasions between 1974 and 1977 by David Pearson, Johnny Rutherford, A.J. Foyt, Brian Redman and James Hunt. It notoriously competed in a race at Daytona Worldwide Speedway in 1975, the place Foyt drove the automotive in a battle in opposition to Bobby Unser. Foyt in the end ended the race just some toes wanting Unser, which grew to become the second closest end in IROC historical past.
1978 Chevrolet Camaro
Driver: Zak Brown
After three seasons utilizing Camaros, lots of the NASCAR drivers who competed in IROC inspired the collection to transition to a tube body chassis for added security on the superspeedways like Daytona and Michigan. IROC adopted this route and debuted a brand new IROC Camaro for the 1977-78 season utilizing “our bodies in white” immediately from Basic Motors and a contemporary tube body chassis constructed by famend race automotive builder Banjo Matthews. Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip drove this 1978 Chevrolet Camaro to victory, and Alan Jones drove it to fourth place throughout its profitable profession. Hollywood stars Clint Eastwood, Paul Newman, Gene Hackman and James Brolin additionally loved some seat time behind the wheel of this automotive throughout a media observe day at then-Sears Level Raceway in 1977.
1985 Chevrolet Camaro
Driver: Invoice Elliott
For the 1984 IROC season, Basic Motors and IROC partnered to debut the Chevrolet Camaro IROC-Z on the observe and in dealerships throughout the nation as an upgraded Camaro avenue automotive trim package deal. Owned by Richard Griot, NASCAR champion Invoice Elliott will return to the seat of the 1985 Chevrolet Camaro during which he gained the 1988 IROC race at Daytona Worldwide Speedway. This golden magnificence was additionally pushed by Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Rahal, Scott Pruett and Geoff Bodine.
1990 Dodge Daytona
Driver: Scott Pruett
Previous to receiving its Dodge Daytona bodywork, this automotive started life as an IROC Camaro and gained two races, 1985 Michigan Worldwide Speedway pushed by Harry Gant and 1986 Daytona Worldwide Speedway pushed by Al Unser Jr. Gant’s win in 1985 will go down as one of many collection’ most legendary championship finishes. Gant entered the ultimate race of the 1985 season at Michigan 12 factors behind the championship chief, Darrell Waltrip. Gant would go on to win the race and, by doing so, create a tie with Waltrip within the season-long factors race. The tie break was decided based mostly on who had the best ending place within the race, which gave Gant the 1985 IROC championship. IROC’s lengthy standing relationship with Basic Motors got here to an finish after the 1989 season, leading to its fleet of race vehicles, together with this automotive, being rebodied as Dodge Daytonas. After retiring from IROC competitors, this automotive remained in Roger Penske’s personal assortment till early 2025. It is without doubt one of the only a few IROC Dodge Daytona race vehicles nonetheless in existence.
1995 Dodge Avenger
Driver: Bruce Canepa
This automotive was one of many first Banjo Matthews Gen 3 IROC Camaros constructed, so it hung out as a Gen 3 Camaro, Dodge Daytona and a Dodge Avenger earlier than being retired from IROC competitors after the 1995 season. Lots of the most iconic names in racing historical past drove this automotive, together with George Follmer, Emerson Fittipaldi, Dale Earnhardt, Bobby Rahal, Jeff Gordon, Richard Petty, Mark Martin and numerous others. Whereas this automotive spent most of its life as a Blue #2, the present livery pays tribute to the Orange Avenger Earnhardt drove at Darlington and Michigan to win the 1995 IROC championship over Martin by a mere 4 factors.
2006 Pontiac Firebird
Driver: Rob Kauffman
For the 1996 season, IROC switched to the Pontiac Firebird. This Firebird was pushed to victory lane by Tony Stewart within the third race of the 2006 IROC season underneath the lights on the Daytona Worldwide Speedway street course. This was the second IROC race win of 2006 for Tony Stewart and paved the way in which for him to win the ultimate IROC collection championship.
The Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion will characteristic greater than 400 period-correct historic race vehicles competing all through the weekend in 14 race teams.
