By Cyndi Paceley - Feb 11, 2021, 9:26 AM ET

“Our optimism is running high”: WeatherTech Raceway’s Barry Toepke

Photo: Nick Lish (Vintage Motorsport)

Salinas, CA -- Monday, Feb. 15 is circled on the calendars of everyone connected with this year’s Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion.

It’s the deadline for entry applications for the event and one of the first mile markers on the journey to WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca again hosting the event, scheduled for Aug. 12-15, along with the

Aug. 7-8 Pre-Reunion.

Spectator tickets for the events went on sale yesterday (Feb. 10).

“Nobody knows what August will fully look like, but we are fully proceeding,” Barry Toepke, the track’s director of heritage events and public relations, told us Tuesday. “Our optimism is running high for the return of Monterey Car Week, and we’re planning a few new features at the

Rolex Reunion

that we’ll share in the coming weeks and months.”

“The one commonality with the entries being considered for acceptance into the Reunion is that they are the ‘real deal’ -- historically significant race cars from the past that are restored and prepared to their original period specifications,” Toepke said.

In recognition of this strict adherence, the Rolex Reunion is the only U.S.-based event to win the prestigious Federation Internationale de L’Automobile (FIA) Founding Members Cup as Motorsport Event of the Year in 2017.

Toepke said “many incredible cars” have already applied for entry in the Reunion’s 14 run groups that includes a first-time class for 1963-1978 Indy cars.

Historic Sportscar Racing is on tap as the event’s new sanctioning body for 2021, as Vintage Motorsport reported in a September 2020 story.