Art explores climate change
The history of mirrors
Online show and sale to benefit environmental efforts - B1
Columnist Elizabeth Stewart reflects on their evolution- B4
Our 166th Year
Montecito Motor Classic grows in 9th show By ANNELISE HANSHAW
Founder and executive director of the Montecito Motor Classic Dolores Morelli Johnson pulled off the car show of her dreams Sunday. The ninth annual Montecito Motor Classic amassed 217 cars, two museums, four artists and 12 vendors at the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club in Carpinteria. Ms. Morelli Johnson started the show after her husband’s death. (He loved cars.) Her friend at the Elks Lodge asked her to build a car show, and she agreed. Some of her friends took some convincing before joining. After all, she isn’t exactly a car collector; she currently drives a pre-owned 2008 Lexus. “I said I want to do a car show, and nobody believed me. So here it is; this is what they didn’t believe I could do. And here we are. I’m really pleased,” she told the News-Press. The show outgrew its Coast Village Road location and moved to the Polo and Racquet Club in 2019. This year is the biggest yet. She thanks other women in the community for helping her. “More and more women are getting involved. And this year, more than any other year, I had a tremendous amount of women supporting me,” Ms. Morelli Johnson said. Many of the entrants are men, but she is glad to see more women join shows each year. And with a variety of categories in the Montecito Motor Classic, there’s many opportunities to find a favorite car. The collectors, though, believe all their cars are special. Their
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ANNELISE HANSHAW / NEWS-PRESS PHOTOS
Allen Grant, former Shelby racecar driver, stands with the 1963 Lola Mk6 GT at the Montecito Motor Classic Sunday at the Santa Barbara Polo and Racquet Club. “Lola” was the first of three concept cars for the Ford GT40.
favorite is the one they are driving that day, Ms. Morelli Johnson said. David Neel, director of the
Murphy Auto Museum in Oxnard, describes collectible cars as a “lending library.” Collectors buy
the cars, maintain them and show them and then sell them to someone else to do the same.
Mr. Grant saw pictures of Lola GT in magazines and thought she was the “prettiest car ever,” with a feminine hood and masculine trunk.
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“All these cars have been owned by people,” he said. “Over the years, they maintain them, and future generations will buy them and do the same thing. So it’s a great hobby. It’s a great culture with just fantastic people.” Murphy Auto Museum has never joined the show before. (It has its own car show every third Sunday of the month.) Ms. Morelli Johnson decided to offer prime spots at the show for free to the museum, aware that it was closed for 13 months during the pandemic. The museum brought three cars and a 1948 Airstream Wee Wind. The most notable vehicle is a 1931 Rolls Royce Phantom, owned by the Shelby family (the legacy of Cobra, Shelby Mustang and Shelby GT). Cleo Shelby, widow of carbuilding domineer Carroll Shelby, attended the show and spoke to the crowd. The grounds of the Polo and Racquet Club were busy, but the many hundreds of guests spread out among a plethora of jawdropping vehicles. The centerpiece of the show were two concept cars. The 1963 Lola Mk6 GT was the concept for the Ford GT40, a top-tier roadster. Allen Grant, a former racecar driver and mechanic for Carroll Shelby, has owned Lola for 54 years. In 1965, he purchased the car for $3,000, equal to around $26,000 today. He spent his last dollar for a shell of a car, but he thought Lola was the “prettiest car ever.” An appraiser recently valued the car, which is now equipped Please see CAR SHOW on A4
The Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians has not been able to celebrate holidays such as Indigenous People’s Day with large events this year. California Native American Day passed Sept. 24; the intertribal pow wow was canceled, and today is Indigenous People’s Day. All have been commemorated individually. Despite losing these opportunities to share Chumash history, the tribe’s roots are not at risk of being ignored. The Santa Ynez Chumash Museum and Cultural Center is currently under construction. The vision for the museum goes back to the ‘70s when Chumash leaders set up displays of traditional dwellings, tule huts or “aps.” But the 14,000 squarefoot museum will give the tribe more opportunities to educate people and engage partnerships. “We have over 20,000 cultural objects that we’ve been putting aside, so we can share our stories and display once we have an actual museum site and museum facility built,” Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Chairman Kenneth Kahn told the News-Press. He estimates that doors will open in the “first quarter to middle of next year.” Please see MUSEUM on A2
COURTESY PHOTO
Santa Ynez Band of Chumash Indians Chairman Kenneth Kahn
Traditional crossword puzzle to return A traditional crossword puzzle, one created by nationally respected Tribune Media, will start appearing in the News-Press on Wednesday. It will be similar to the puzzle that readers have enjoyed for a long time. The current Santa Barbara puzzle series will continue in today’s and Tuesday’s papers. Then the traditional puzzle will succeed it on the Diversions page. We appreciate our readers’ patience.
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Chumash heritage to be celebrated in museum By ANNELISE HANSHAW
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