I'm towing the Sprite up to The Glen today to attend THIS.
It's almost unbelievable to me to think that I've been going there for 44 years now.
My first trip to any race track was an F1 event at Watkins Glen in 1968. I was a 17 year-old college freshman (atTrenton State). I brought two of my high school buddies with me. We drove up in a 1958 VW beetle with 36 horsepower. I had just bought the VW two weeks before (it replaced a pathetic MGA). It didn't occur to us to bring a tent....we all just slept in the car. The racing and the crowds were fantastic. But I was really struck by the uniformed mechanics with their perfect tools and plentiful spare engines. I'd never seen any engine in a crate before but there were lots of crated DFVs sitting around in the garages. We did The Bog and even spotted Zora Arkus-Duntov driving around in a Mako Shark. Mario Andretti was on the pole but Stewart won (with Graham Hill and Surtees 2nd and 3rd). We rooted for Piers Courage, because he had such a cool name. But we liked Stewart too, because of his neat, painted helmet. I went to the next five F1 races there, plus lots of other Glen events. The handbrake got stuck on the VW so we drove home very slowly (10 hours to central NJ). A month later I rolled it and totalled it in the Trenton State parking lot while testing it's cornering limits (it was replaced by a dreadful TR3).
Very, very cool. My dad was at the same '68 Grand Prix. Ironically I was showing someone some of his photos yesterday--including ones with Jackie Stewart and my dad's buddies. They made the trip up in a blue '67 GTO.
I grew up one lake over, in Ithaca. I've been going to the Glen since before I can remember. It was a 40 minute drive to the track, but it always felt like it took a year and a half. By the time we could hear the cars, which usually happened before the track was in sight, I would be practically bouncing out of my seat with excitement yelling at my dad to "hurry up so we don't miss the cars!" as we're waiting in line at the gate....
The first cars I remember there were the IMSA GTPs, but I'm young enough to only just barely remember them. I guess I'm somewhere around my 22nd year going to the Glen (I'm 26 now), I hope both the track and I are still around to see what the cars are like in 2034.
Thanks for sharing, have fun this weekend.
My parents took me to the Glen in 1957 for the SCCA Grand Prix (age 11), which at the time was a big SCCA national (no F1 yet). Got to see the Cunningham Lister-Jaguars, an Aston-Martin DBR-1?? (or -2, or -3, don't remember), lots of ordinary sports cars, and fell in love with the whole thing, and here I am several ages later, still enthralled. Went to the F1 races in '63, '66 and '67 (two Clark wins and a third - met Jimmy briefly), several Trans-Ams, several USRRC races. Saw many great drivers and cars - Jim Hall and the Chaparrals, Roger Penske (boy was he a good driver, we don't remember that today), Donohue, Gurney, Jones, Savage, Follmer.
What a great sport we have, and what a great track the Glen was, and is.
the glen and the bog those were the days. my college roomate dad was head grounds keeper doing the 70's and 80's. i can remember in 77 when we both bought new Suzuki's 1000e and him letting us on the track to test them out. working the GP cleaning and empyting trash cans.
I have attended races at every version of Watkins Glen race tracks.
I even participated in an SCCA drivers school on the new track when the pits were after the "90".
It's been awhile since I have been there. Need to do that.
