2007 Watkins Glen Vintage Grand Prix Festival

This weekend I took some time to be with my parents and enjoy two of their favorite hobbies – classic cars and vintage racing. We participated in what amounts to a public holiday in the town of Watkins Glen, NY – the Grand Prix Festival. Plus, my dad was racing in the SVRA Zippo US Vintage Grand Prix up at the Watkins Glen International race track.

Friday morning I got my Pit Pass and helped prep my dad’s 1967 MG Midget race car for his first qualifying race. The bad news from the previous day had been that he was disqualified at the tech inspection for illegal coil-over springs (his vintage car is supposed to have leaf springs) and therefore couldn’t place in any of the races. They still let him race though as ‘Racer-X’, which was nice of them considering he paid for the privilege. The other bad news from the previous day was that he only made it through 2 laps of his test before blowing a rotor. A rotor, as I learned after hearing the story MANY times, is a $3 plastic part that spins under the distributor cap delivering spark to the plugs. He changed the rotor and the car was now ready to go for the day’s qualifier.

My mom and I accompanied dad down to pit row where they ‘grid’ the cars for the start of the race.

Friday was beastly hot, with highs in the upper 90’s. Our job is to keep the driver cool while he awaits the start of the race. .

It is especially hot after he puts on the fire resistant hood and the helmet. That’s a lot of gear to have a good time.

Finally, they are ready to roll. What boy doesn’t dream of having his Hot Wheels cars on a real track? These big boys with their big toys must have a lot of fun.

The qualifier was exciting…for the first 2 minutes. He got one and a half laps into the race and blew another rotor. Dad got on the radio and said that the tow trucks were towing him in (it’s a free ride no AAA needed). All he needed though was one timed lap, a 2:35 for officials to determine where he would start in the feature races.

In the afternoon, my mom and I went to downtown Watkins Glen to see exactly why the kids have a day off from school for the festival. Apart from the concours d’elegance (a car show featuring the best of the best) and the terrific local beers (with no open container laws) I could see why.

Many of the local roads were shut down completely to re-create the old 6.5 mile road course the went right through the heart of town. The place was buzzing with energy as wave after wave of vintage cars ran the track. The special marques for this year’s festival, BMW and Bugatti, were especially cool to see.

As far as experiences go, all of this paled in comparison to the highlight of my day. At 6pm my dad, along with all of the other SVRA racers brought their cars down from the track. I donned a helmet and took my place in a makeshift jumpseat beside him as we readied for the grand prix race reenactment. I had pretty low expectations as officials intend to keep the “race” at low speeds. I was shocked at how much fun I had though as the green flag waived.

My dad took his little roller skate around the first corner at 35 MPH with crowds of people cheering as though we were doing this for real. Then in a heartbeat we climbed the hill to the top of the Glen at 80 MPH.

From that point onward, the smile never left my face. He drove us through winding turns, over a stone bridge, and down into the Glen with a spectacular view of the south end of Seneca Lake. I’m not sure how my dad was able to concentrate through my obnoxious YEEEEHAWWWW’s and thumbs up to the crowds, but he handled it like a pro.

When I saw the checkered flag I was disappointed that this was not a 500 lap race, but alas we needed to give the streets back to the town again. Now I understand why everyone gets so stoked for racing. Our enthusiasm must have shown through our helmets because the local paper picked up the story of the race. There we were on Saturday morning with our picture on the front page.

I’ve got to thank my mom and dad for an awesome time together. It really was a weekend of memories. I also need to thank my bride for taking care of the homefront so that I could go off on this racing adventure.