Short Video of Racing Last Weekend

[C J Murray]

60 cars in this race! Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix 40th anniversary. This is from the Pitt Race track which occurs the weekend before the race through Schenley Park.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ir9ffrMMpa0&t=2s

[John Hearn]

Cliff
Great looking track, how many laps was the race?
KTF
John

[C J Murray]

Cliff
Great looking track, how many laps was the race?
KTF
John

LOL! That race was a super super super super short sprint, 2 laps. The organization learned a few things about taking 68 entries into one race group. Don't do it. The event offered a lot of track time according to the schedule but there were factors working against that happening. The track has many blind corners so some cars(including me) were out playing in the grass. Most of the cars entered were British so breakdowns were common. There was scattered rain on Friday and Saturday. These things made keeping to the schedule difficult. We even had a delay for a helicopter landing to transport a heart attack victim. Overall I had a lot of track time and the officials of the event treated the competitors perfectly, the best I have ever experienced. They apologized for the shortened races and made adjustments on Sunday. They have changes planned for next year to adjust for the increasing popularity of this event. This weekend the cars move to the Schenley Park street course where the event has been held for 40 years. Not my thing but I hope they do well there this weekend. This two weekend event is for charity and raises $400,000 for good causes. Win, win, win!

[Martin Benade]

Were some of the cars a lot more potent, or was everything pretty evenly matched?

[Michael Branning]

Thanks for sharing the video, that was fun to watch. Sounds like a great event.

[C J Murray]

Were some of the cars a lot more potent, or was everything pretty evenly matched?

That is a good question best answered with the attached result sheet. The race that I was in is supposed to be 1.5 to 2.0 liter cars but this organization is a bit loose and they will shift some cars up or down the race groups for a variety of reasons. My 1622cc car is very light weight(but not me ) whereas many of the other cars are 2.5 liter and above but they carry more weight. The attached results are for my worst finish of 10th out of 46 starters. This was my first time on this track and all of the blind turns were tripping me up all weekend making my lap times inconsistent. My best lap of this race was an indication that I should be around 5th in this group but the other guys were more consistent. I think a Healey 100-4 is 2700cc stock and boy did that thing accelerate and he drove the car well. Some of the Triumphs are 6 cylinders and over 2.5 liter. The BMW 2002 has a stroker engine of around 2.3 liter. All those cars weigh much more than mine. The Ginettas are always wicked fast and sometimes weigh as little as 1000 pounds. The Lotus 7 had a Lotus twin-cam engine which isn't be legal in the production class. All that said, there were a number of cars running up front at very similar lap times.

http://www.race-monitor.com/Results/Session/7550047

[Dave Erickson]

Cliff, I really enjoyed that. Thanks for sharing.

[John Hearn]

Cliff
Thanks for the background story and the result sheet.
KTF
John

[C J Murray]

I'm glad you all enjoyed it.

I should have said to click the "podium" icon to see the fastest lap order of the cars. In racing your ultimate one lap speed is only part of success. You must be consistent and you have to have good race craft which is needed to get past slightly slower competitors. If you have the 5th fastest best lap but are inconsistent or ineffective during passing then you end up 10th. This race was only 2 laps so inconsistency was not a big factor but my start was not good. In yet another excuse, if you pay attention you can hear that my car refused to go into 2nd gear downshifting in the esses while battling with the yellow 2002.

"podium" icon

Screen Shot 2022-07-21 at 7.17.10 AM.png (5.41 KiB) Viewed 320 times

[C J Murray]

I was just on YouTube and found two videos posted by our fellow members, Kevin and Kimberly Kochera. Kevin was at Pitt Race Thursday to test his 356 for the race in the park the following weekend. I met him that day and he was all smiles along with his paddock mate fellow member Kobus Reyneke racing his other Porsche, a 912.

These videos give the viewer an excellent sense of what this event was all about. It also shows how fantastic the Pitt Race facility is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dufUyh6GyxA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=msIbEL4jcfk

[Kobus Reyneke]

Great video Cliff. Thanks for sharing and not showing the part where you blew by my Porsche 912. That track is truly amazing and the facilities topnotch.

[C J Murray]

Great video Cliff. Thanks for sharing and not showing the part where you blew by my Porsche 912. That track is truly amazing and the facilities topnotch.

To be fair, you were driving a 2000 pound car that you also drive on the street, not a race only car weighing hundreds of pounds less. We both had fun.

[Mike Wilson]

I've been to the PVGP twice as we get to combine a great weekend with visiting my wife's brother and sister-in-law who live outside Pittsburgh (also Porsche owners). This will be another great event as Porsche is the featured marque again. Best of luck, Cliff!

Mike