words: Troy Sicotte, photos: George Achorn
Editor’s Note: This story originally ran in the Fall 2017 issue of the Audi Club North America quattro quarterly print magazine. This time around, we’ve added the entire collection of photography shot on site at Legends of the Autobahn. If you don’t receive quattro quarterly and wish to subscribe, join the Audi Club North America HERE.
It’s no secret that California’s Monterey Car Week is an auto enthusiast’s dream vacation getaway. There’s beauty enough in the surroundings of Monterey, California, but when you add perfect weather, cool ocean breezes and the most exotic cars driving around as common as the average family sedan, you end up with a week that fulfills the most fanatical car enthusiast’s dream. For Audi Club North America, the main focus of ‘Car Week’ is an event called Legends of the Autobahn.
Becoming known as a hidden gem of Car Week, ‘Legends’ is an all-German marque concours and car corral. It is the official event for ACNA during this epic week. Now in its eighth year for 2017, BMW CCA and Mercedes Benz Club of America are the gracious co-hosts.
The event offers Audi owners an opportunity to show off their cars on the beautiful fairways of Nicklaus Club-Monterey Country Club, located just a few minutes from world-famous Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. Though primarily a concours event, the car corral offers a special parking area where owners can show off in a non-judged environment, and yet still on the lawn.
ACNA’s Golden Gate Chapter is the lead organizer for all things Audi here, and this year had special help from Audi of America which brought not one, but two brand new RS 3 sedans, one in Catalunya Red and the other in Ara Blue.
This year the Audi presence was larger than ever before, thanks in part to coordination between owner groups. The Golden Gate Chapter reached out to other local Audi Clubs, NorCal Audi Club, quattro Crew and Audi Gruppe Silicon Valley. All are based in the San Francisco Bay Area and offer regionally relevant social events and camaraderie around the love of the four rings. These groups really showed up with a great group of shined-up cars and great people. The Golden Gate Chapter will continue to reach out to other non-ACNA Audi Clubs to share the love of Audis at this spectacular event. After all, we want to give those BMWs and Mercedes Benz clubs a run for their money!
This year, the event drew well-over 400 registered cars, 60 of which were Audi, and over 3,000 spectators. ACNA SoCal chapter board member, Bill Vogel, had a special treat for those spectators, his R8 LMS ultra and World Challenge Audi S4 competition (B5). It was great to have such icons of Audi Sport there to remind all of those BMW and Mercedes Benz fans of Audi’s deep racing prowess.
Special thanks to Audi Stevens Creek for supplying the nine amazing hand-made trophies for each Audi Class, which included Audi Sport, Audi Historic, Audi Sedan, Audi Modified and one Special Mention award.
Audi Concours Results:
Audi Four Rings Historic Sponsored by Audi Stevens Creek
- 3rd place John Rafferty, 1989 200 quattro
- 2nd place Marion Pepper, 1960 NSU Prinz
- 1st place Daniel Blanchard, Audi 4000 quattro
Audi Special Award “Audi Special Mention presented by Andy Immel” Sponsored by Audi Stevens Creek
- Bill Vogel, 2014 R8 LMS ultra
Audi Sports Class Sponsored by Audi Stevens Creek
- 3rd place Tom Allan, 2015 RS 5
- 2nd place Troy Sicotte, 2018 TT RS
- 1st place Nayeem Qureshi, 2014 R8
Audi 4-door Sedan Sponsored by Audi Stevens Creek
- 3rd place Nicole Johnsen, 2015 S3
- 2nd place Jaron Brass, 2017 A4 Allroad
- 1st place Dan Thatcher, 2001 RS 4 Avant by 2Bennett
Audi Modified Sponsored by Audi Stevens Creek
- 3rd place Aaron Gumbinger, 2008 Stasis A3 sportback
- 2nd place Andreas Dharmawan, 2005 S4 Avant
- 1st place Vahe Markarian, 1985 Audi quattro Wide Body by 2Bennett
Best of Marque Audi
- Vahe Markarian 1985 Sport quattro Wide Body by 2Bennett
2017 Overall People’s Choice Award
- Ashley Cardenas, 2014 Audi allroad
This story originally ran in the Fall 2017 issue of the Audi Club North America quattro quarterly print magazine. In order to subscribe to quattro quarterly, join the Audi Club North America HERE.
