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Watkins Glen US Vintage GP & Trans-Am (picture heavy)
I've posted the same post in the C1/C2 Forum, but thought I'd post it here, for those that don't wander into the C1/C2 Forum.
This past weekend I was at Watkins Glen to crew for Jim Glass on his 71 Corvette, in the SVRA US Vintage Grand Prix. This has always been one of our favorite race weekends, with hundreds of vintage race cars competing, and for 2017, a Trans Am race was added. With twelve different race groups competing, as well as the Trans Am Series, it made for a full schedule of racing, and somewhat limited amount of track time.
One of the highlights of the weekend is usually Friday night's reenactment of the original races through the streets of Watkins Glen. Usually, about 150 of the vintage racers are invited to drive to town, where they are displayed on Franklin Street for about two hours. This allows the public to get a close up look at the cars, and meet the drivers and crews. At around 6:30, the drivers are called back to their cars, the street is cleared, and the cars do a couple laps around the original street course, before returning to the track. Unfortunately, the forecast was for showers and, shortly before the cars were to leave the track for town, it started to rain. The rain stopped long enough for some cars to get to town, and the festival to go on, but the rain returned, just as the cars were returning to the track. It was a shame that it rained, because the rain kept many of the cars from going to town (including us ). Rain doesn't mix well with old race cars without roofs, windshields, wipers, defrosters, and on tires with minimal tread.
We had a typical up and down race weekend. We skipped Friday afternoon's race, because of the rain, and had to come in early in Saturday morning's one hour enduro, to replace a bad coil. Ever since The Glen was repaved last year, we've struggled with rear grip in Jim's 71, and this weekend was no different. The cool weather (50's and low 60's) didn't help either, as we were having trouble getting heat in the tires. As the weekend went on, we got the car better, and got down to the 2:12's, quicker than we've ever gown there with the car, but still 10 seconds off of the times of the top couple cars from Duntov Motors and Peter Klutt/Legendary Motorcars. We know there's still some speed left in the car, and will be going back to The Glen in October, to see if we can find a little more of it.
There was also a 55, 58 and 61 Corvette racing, as well as a 63 Grand Sport replica. I spent a lot of time working on the race car this weekend, and never got to see the 55, 58 or 61 on track, and the Grand Sport had a valve train issue Thursday morning, and was done for the weekend.
The first Corvette is Jim Glass in his 71 (with 68-69 side fender louvers added by a previous owner).
For those of you not familiar with this "Corvette", it's a Corvette Daytona Prototype, which raced in the Grand Am Series from 2012-2016. Forum member "Mjolitor 68" also has a Corvette DP, and was at The Glen, but I never saw him on track.
Here are some of the Trans Am Corvettes competing on Sunday.
Awesome. Thanks for the pics. My brother was there too crewing for one of the Trans Am teams. BC Racecars I think. He said it was such a cool weekend with lots of amazing and very rare cars!!
09-12-2017, 10:35 AM
Watkins Glen US Vintage GP & Trans-Am (picture heavy)
). Rain doesn't mix well with old race cars without roofs, windshields, wipers, defrosters, and on tires with minimal tread. 
