<VV> FW: The Glen - Repost from Sept 4-8, 2013

[Rick Norris]

I am forwarding this for Bob as he can’t log on to Fastvairs.

Rick

 

From: bstorc at comcast.net [mailto:bstorc at comcast.net] 
Sent: Monday, September 09, 2013 10:49 AM



Watkins Glen Vintage Grand Prix Report

 

            The good

*	The track - my favorite. Elevation changes, a great layout, decent amenities.
*	The Friday night recreation of the early road races. Two laps of the ORIGINAL Road Course, 6.6 miles going through downtown with 135 or so cars. I was picked to go, but had a distributor problem that kept me form going. I have gone before, it WONDERFUL with 6.6 miles of fans, etc.
*	The entire Watkins Glen community and surrounding area, including the waterfall in the State Park, the Corning (NY) Museum of Glass, a LOT of vineyards for wine-tasting. There is plenty for non-racers to do.
*	380 cars, including just about anything you'd ever want to see - 3 Donahue Camaros, plus the Javelin, in Trans-Am. A GT 40 Ford, etc.
*	They had a Trans-Am recreation in addition to the Group 6 events.
*	SVRA throws a great party.

 

            The bad:

*	Expensive - $575, plus another $250 if you want to run a one-hour endure (I didn't).
*	Very limited track time. 5 sessions over 3 days. All the special stuff, enduros, MG Collier Cup, Trans-Am recreation, etc fill up the schedule. There is very little time left,
*	Sunday's race was almost a repeat of what Chuck Sadek & I had a while ago. The schedule got delayed, running an hour late. Two cars in our group tangled & they stopped the race at 2 laps (red flag). We then got a pace lap to complete 3 and the race was "over". A Datsun 311 passed me under the Red/Full Course yellow & they even gave him the position for the finish.

I understand the track "bucket list". I enjoyed the weekend, but have concluded that the value isn't there to continue to go to the Glen. Having said that, if we had a bunch of Stingers go, I'd consider it. Next year they are having an MG spectacular and expect 100 or so, MG's. I can guess who will have the track time, so if you really want to do this, we should campaign to SVRA for 2015 event.

 

Any interest in Road America/Elkhart Lake? There are 3 courses that everyone should do, Watkins Glen, Road America and Laguna Seca (haven't' done Laguna Seca  yet). VSCDA has an Elkhart Lake/Road America event the same weekend as SVRA's Watkins Glen and VSCDA really provides track time - besides they are non-profit and have much less expensive entry fees.

 

Bob Storc

 

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