About the time Jay Leno and friend arrived in a chocolate-brown vintage Bentley sedan, 78-year-old Mike McNally had likely fixed the persistent oil leak in his 1931 Riley Port Ford.

Leno, comedian, late-night talk show host and obsessed automobile and motorcycle owner and enthusiast, and McNally don't know each other. But while Leno was meandering through an early morning crowd on a pristine Friday morning at Quail Lodge in Carmel Valley, McNally, of Sacramento, California was tinkering.

A race car driver for more than 50 years, McNally was finally set to compete on Laguna Seca Mazda Raceway after spending a few days practicing, prepping and fixing the oil leak with a few cranks of an oversized crescent wrench.

Leno, owner of more than 80 cars — Duesenbergs to a Honda Insight hybrid — and McNally, an independent owner/driver/mechanic, couldn't be further apart in the world of automobile ownership. Yet Leno and McNally were solidly connected, just like the thousands of others who attended Monterey Auto Week.