34th Rolex Monterey Historic Automobile Races

When I was called a couple of months ago and asked if I wanted to race against these names I thought: "Yes! That's sounds like a lot of fun." And now I'm here I realize it's a great group of people Toyota have put together.

I raced against a number of these guys before. The Unsers are pretty special, and I've never raced them. I've known Bobby for a while, and met Al at Goodwood. Bobby Rahal I've known for years, but never actually raced against. Derek Bell is one of my oldest and dearest friends, and I've raced him many times. Parnelli Jones and I raced together in Grand-Am and Trans-Am nearly 40 years ago, so it will be nice to race him again.

I still do some races, but nothing serious. The last time I raced actively was at Elkhart Lake over 10 years ago. It was the 30th anniversary of Can-Am, and there were so many big fast cars there, and a lot of people who really shouldn't have been driving them. I got out of the car at the end of that race, and decided that was it, I was never going to race again. The last time I raced here at Laguna Seca was in a Chaparral in 1970! And of course the track has changed a lot.

But I love doing things like the Monterey Historic Races, and the Goodwood Festival at home in England. They are both great celebrations of racing's history.

I'm going to have a lot of fun, and I hope to catch up with you during the weekend.