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Last weekend was the SVRA's annual vintage race at Watkins Glen, the Glenora Wines US Vintage Grand Prix. The race has traditionally been held the second weekend of September, but because the track will be closing August 10th, for a complete repaving, the race was moved up to July 24-26. Demolition of the "Boot" section of the Long Course, has already begun, so the races were held on the Short (aka NASCAR) Course.
The car count was down a lot from past years, and I'm sure the July date had something to do with it. Normally, the event is held in conjunction with the Village of Watkins Glen's annual Grand Prix Festival, but for some reason, the organizers of the GP Festival, decided to keep the Festival on it's normal September date. I'm sure this effected the turn out too, as the down town car show, and reenactment laps on the old street circuit, are very popular with both the racers and fans.
As usual, I was there to crew for Jim Glass, on his 65 Corvette. I also had to tow Bill Bogner's 66, from Jim's shop to the track. We had a real up and down race weekend. Jim was black flagged after one lap Friday morning, because of an oil leak. After Indy, we had a small crack in the pan, that Jim had to repair. The pan doesn't use a gasket, just RTV, and when reinstalling the it, apparently the RTV didn't take in the left front corner. It didn't leak at idle, or while driving the car to tech, but under load on the track, we had a large leak coming from the front of the pan. We spent much of Friday removing the pan, and resealing it, so we could run in our afternoon qualifier.
Jim didn't push the car to hard Friday afternoon, since the RTV only had about 2 hours to set up. Still, he managed to qualify 7th, out of about 25 cars. In Saturday morning qualifying, he improved his time slightly, but still remained 7th. For Saturday afternoon's qualifying race, we decided to try a different set of front brake pads, made some adjustments to the suspension, and put 4 new sticker tires on. Jim went 2 1/2 seconds faster Saturday afternoon, then he ever had before on the short course, turning the 5th fastest lap in the session. At this point, we were really looking forward to Sunday's feature race.
Sunday was hot, with a high near 90, and our race was one of the last of the day, with a scheduled start time of 3:50pm. With only a few things to do to the car on Sunday (put some fuel in, torque the lugs, set the tire pressures, check the fluid levels, clean the car, etc), we decided to have a nice brunch and got to the track late in the morning. At 3;30, we fired the car up, drove out to the grid, and shut the car off. When they gave the five minute warning, Jim went to start the car back up, and it would not fire! Try as we might, we could not get the car to start, so as the rest of our group took the green flag, we towed the car back to the trailer. It turned out that the kill switch had shorted out, and also burned up the coil.
Though I didn't get pictures of all of the Corvettes there, actually racing, I think I did manage to photograph all of them. The red number 11, is Jim's 65, and the blue number 4, is Bill Bogner's 66.
Jim didn't push the car to hard Friday afternoon, since the RTV only had about 2 hours to set up.
FYI, Permatex Right Stuff doesn't require any cure time before it's put back in service.
Once at Laguna Seca, my bride pulled in with oil all over the windshield. A valve cover gasket had let go. While she cleaned the windshield, I cleaned the valve cover, oozed some Right Stuff on, set a new gasket in place and screwed the valve cover back down just in time for the next grid call. She went back out and everything was fine.
FYI, Permatex Right Stuff doesn't require any cure time before it's put back in service.
Once at Laguna Seca, my bride pulled in with oil all over the windshield. A valve cover gasket had let go. While she cleaned the windshield, I cleaned the valve cover, oozed some Right Stuff on, set a new gasket in place and screwed the valve cover back down just in time for the next grid call. She went back out and everything was fine.
Jim
Jim, thanks! I'll have to get Jim to throw a couple tubes of the "Right Stuff", in the trailer.
All we had with us was Ultra Gray RTV Gasket Maker, which has a 24 hour set up time. We were pretty sure it would be okay, especially after we got some heat it in, but we still wanted to be a little cautious.
A funny thing happened at the track on Friday. Around midday, a gentleman came up to me, and said he was looking for his old race car, and wondered if it might be at The Glen. He said it was an 85 Roush Mustang, that was rebodied with a ProtoFab Camaro body around 87. He looked familiar, and I thought I knew who he was, so I asked his name. He replied that he was Marshall Robbins, and I started to laugh. Not only did I know who he was, but I thought I knew where the car was!
I've told this on here before, but in the 80's I crewed for a privateer who raced in the Trans-Am, as well as the occasional SCCA GT-1 and IMSA GTO race. Marshall, and his "Spirit of Detroit" Mustang, was one of the many people we raced with in the 80's. As luck would have it, I knew a vintage racer from Wilmington DE, who happened to own Marshall Robbins' old Roush Mustang. After Marshall sold it, it ended up in AZ and was eventually raced in the Trans-Am by Glen Fox, with a third generation Camaro body on it.
I didn't have contact info for the racer in Wilmington with me, but another racer we're friends with, who was at The Glen, did. It turns out that the car had been sold, and is now on the west coast, but the current owner wants to sell it, and Marshall has already talked to him about buying it!
It's funny just how much I seem to be able to remember, especially when it comes to old race cars, and racers. Almost every time I go to a vintage race, I run into someone I know, or a car I remember from 30 or 40 years ago. My wife says I'm an elephant, because I never forget anything, and the other guys I crew with call me the "historian", because of all of the useless old race car info I'm able to remember.
Still, it's funny that of the 5 of us that were together at The Glen, Marshall happened to approach me, because no one else on the team had any idea who he was or what car(s) he use to race.
Later in the day, he stopped back to let me know how he made out, and to thank me for the information I'd given him. As it turned out, Jan Hyde from the Registry of Corvette Race Cars had just stopped by to see me, so I introduced Marshall to him, since I knew he'd raced Corvettes too. He had lots of pictures of his old race cars on a tablet, and he and Jan sat and talked in our trailer, for quite a while.
Jim, thanks! I'll have to get Jim to throw a couple tubes of the "Right Stuff", in the trailer.
All we had with us was Ultra Gray RTV Gasket Maker, which has a 24 hour set up time. We were pretty sure it would be okay, especially after we got some heat it in, but we still wanted to be a little cautious.
A funny thing happened at the track on Friday. Around midday, a gentleman came up to me, and said he was looking for his old race car, and wondered if it might be at The Glen. He said it was an 85 Roush Mustang, that was rebodied with a ProtoFab Camaro body around 87. He looked familiar, and I thought I knew who he was, so I asked his name. He replied that he was Marshall Robbins, and I started to laugh. Not only did I know who he was, but I thought I knew where the car was!
I've told this on here before, but in the 80's I crewed for a privateer who raced in the Trans-Am, as well as the occasional SCCA GT-1 and IMSA GTO race. Marshall, and his "Spirit of Detroit" Mustang, was one of the many people we raced with in the 80's. As luck would have it, I knew a vintage racer from Wilmington DE, who happened to own Marshall Robbins' old Roush Mustang. After Marshall sold it, it ended up in AZ and was eventually raced in the Trans-Am by Glen Fox, with a third generation Camaro body on it.
I didn't have contact info for the racer in Wilmington with me, but another racer we're friends with, who was at The Glen, did. It turns out that the car had been sold, and is now on the west coast, but the current owner wants to sell it, and Marshall has already talked to him about buying it!
It's funny just how much I seem to be able to remember, especially when it comes to old race cars, and racers. Almost every time I go to a vintage race, I run into someone I know, or a car I remember from 30 or 40 years ago. My wife says I'm an elephant, because I never forget anything, and the other guys I crew with call me the "historian", because of all of the useless old race car info I'm able to remember.
Still, it's funny that of the 5 of us that were together at The Glen, Marshall happened to approach me, because no one else on the team had any idea who he was or what car(s) he use to race.
Later in the day, he stopped back to let me know how he made out, and to thank me for the information I'd given him. As it turned out, Jan Hyde from the Registry of Corvette Race Cars had just stopped by to see me, so I introduced Marshall to him, since I knew he'd raced Corvettes too. He had lots of pictures of his old race cars on a tablet, and he and Jan sat and talked in our trailer, for quite a while.
Cool story. I agree that almost every time I go to a race, I meet someone from my past;-)
07-30-2015, 05:38 PM
SVRA Vintage Races at Watkins Glen
