The Daily Grind – Musings From Monterey

It always seems as though August is the busiest month of the year. With SEMA rapidly approaching, our project builds take off, just as the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion arrives. Balance that with the tail end of show season, travel, and the StanceWorks day-to-day, and we're hoping you feel a bit of pressure with us. Luckily, August is coming to a close, and with that, we're excited to look back on a bit of what has happened in the past few weeks.

Two weeks ago, Andrew took the initiative to drive up to Monterey for what's known as the Pre-Reunion: test and shakedown days for many of the classic race cars at Laguna Seca. Armed with his camera, some camping gear, and his overhauled Montero, he spent the entire weekend trackside, gathering thousands of photos of the cars in their natural habitat.

But as soon as he had arrived, it was time to leave - he made the 6-hour drive back home for the week, only for both of us to return the following weekend for the main event.

Just 4 days later, we hopped in my Land Cruiser and made the trip back to Monterey, which went smoothly. Zach Dunn made the trip down from Seattle in his HJ61, so we took the opportunity to snap some photos on one afternoon following the races; since I missed our planned trip to Colorado at the beginning of the month, I couldn't pass up the opportunity for some photos of the trucks together.

Just like Andrew, I did some trackside snapping too, attempting to balance enjoyment of the races and cars with a bit of photography too. This year, I aimed to make the trip less of a "job" and more of a vacation, and it was perhaps my favorite year for the event so far.

Once back in Socal (after two consecutive drives to Monterey for Andrew!) we had some truck washing to do. Blessed with a slew of cleaning goodies thanks to our friends at Turtle Wax, we gave the trucks a once-over, with Andrew spending a bit of extra time on the Montero in the eternal quest for a hint of shine. The dull respray often appears matte under the summer sun, but we somehow managed to get a bit of beading water nonetheless. Success, we'd say.

Back inside the shop, we completed our most recent bit of handiwork: building an enormous desk as the home for our new livestream podcast: The Drivers Meeting. For those that missed it, The Drivers Meeting is a podcast, livestreamed from our Instagram account on Tuesday evenings, 8PM, Pacific time. Later in the week, you can catch the episodes on our Youtube channel, and here on the homepage.

The desk itself serves as a new home for the show, offering room for 4 to 5 as we talk shop on a weekly basis. In fact, we hope you join us for future shows, as we do our best to get the audience involved in discussion as part of the live show.

And with that, you can catch last week's episodes here: Be sure to watch the second half as well, and check the homepage soon for our most recent episode, and the first to take place here at the SW HQ. Until then...