GPF Update
Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers,
Here is some info regarding the legends Speak.
This should start around 3:00 on Feestival day.
Casey
“All You Ever Wanted to Know About MG…and More!”
Join us for an entertaining hour of “MG” at the gazebo in Lafayette Park. Our panel of enthusiasts includes:
Glen Moore – MG historian, racer, writer, and owner of the Bob Fergus MGTD that raced at The Glen in 1952
Denny Cornett – son of Denver Cornett, noted MG racer who infamously rolled his MG off the Stone Bridge into the Hidden Valley creek in the inaugural 1948 race
Roger Linton – son of legendary racer, Otto Linton who also competed in the 1948 race…and for many years beyond
Moderated by Dave Ward and Rick Hughey
It will be a Mighty Great time – don’t miss it!
Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers,
Last Call today for entering our Stone Bridge Driver Events.
We are mostly sold out, but there are a few spots remaining in a few of our SBD events.
If you haven’t signed up yet, go to http://www.grandprixfestival.com/participant.html and sign up today.
Go to the SBD event of your choice that is not full yet and look for “To Enter”. Then click where it says click PDF and you will see a fillable PDF registration form.
All you have to do is fill it out on your computer, save it, then email it to Michaela at eve...@watkinsglen.com
and you will be in for this year.
And by the way, for those who have registered, you will receive a packet at on site check in. Remember to look in that packet for your Early Bird registration form for our 2025 Grand Prix Festival. This year’s participants get first dibs until October 15.
Casey
Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers and especially Porsche drivers,
Below is another option for something to do on the Saturday after our Friday Grand Prix Festival:
Porsche 356 Drive September 7, 2024
Our drive takes us from Seneca Lake to Cayuga Lake then back to Watkins Glen. The route will take us along the NYS designated scenic byway with excellent opportunities to view Seneca and Cayuga lake. We have three stops scheduled during our drive. The first stop is at Taughannock State Park to view Taughannock Falls. The second stop is for lunch at the Ginny Lee Cafe/Wagner Vineyard. The third and final destination is at Shequaga Falls where you will get an opportunity to photograph your car in front of the falls. The total distance is 57 miles with each stop roughly 30-minutes apart.
Entry Fee: $0
Eligible Cars: All Porsche makes & models are welcome to attend
Registration: No pre registration required please arrive promptly by 10:30
Drive Schedule:
10:30: Arrive/Check In at Tops Markets 504 Franklin Street
11:00: Depart for Taughannock Falls Overlook
12:00: Depart for Ginny Lee Cafe (Responsible for paying for your own lunch)
1:30-2:00: Depart for Shequaga Falls
Link to map:
Ginny Lee Cafe Menu:
Robert O. Dean
On Aug 26, 2024, at 1:32 PM, 'Casey Creamer' via StoneBridgeDrivers <stonebrid...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Casey Creamer
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Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers.
Below is yet another thing that should interest many of you for something to do on Saturday.
Casey
Saturday, September 7 at 4PM a special showing of the movie “Grand Prix” at the Glen Theatre, 112 North Franklin St.
One of the greatest racing movies of all time, the 1966 classic “Grand Prix” starred James Garner, Eva Marie Saint, and Yves Montand with cameo appearances by drivers Phil Hill, Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Dan Gurney, Jochen Rindt among others. Directed by the legendary John Frankenheimer the movie won 3 Academy Awards for technical achievement.
As exciting and breathtaking to watch today as it was in 1966, the Glen Theatre is proud to sponsor this ONE TIME ONLY Showing…AND for only $5.00 …$3.00 LESS than a ticket to the 1966 US Grand Prix at Watkins Glen!
Enjoy the Grand Prix Festival on Friday…the IMRRC Center Conversation Saturday from 1-3PM…and strap yourself in for “Grand Prix” at 4PM
Grand Prix Festival Weekend…don’t miss it!
Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers,
Here is some more stuff to do during the rest of the weekend while you are here.
Sunday 9/8 the Glen Region of the SCCA will be putting on an autocross. You can go and watch or better yet you can go and participate. They even have loaner helmets available. Put a little extra air in your tires, clean out all of the extra stuff floating around inside your car and you are ready to go. https://www.glen-scca.org/solo/schedule.asp
Sunday 9/8 you can go to Lafayette Motorsport Park and watch LMP Series Race #10 for free, or pay a very small amount for a pit pass that gets you everywhere except onto the track. They are only a few miles from Route 81, so you might want to travel east, catch the race, and then go north or south on 81 to get home. By the way, you will even get a chance to watch me and some other folks who are part of the Grand Prix Festival racing there.
Saturday 9/7 How about going for a nice hike? Not every activity has to involve noise and motors.
The Ithaca Hikers will be doing Hike # 41 on their hit parade. https://www.ithacahikers.com/hike-41
All of their hikes are just 2 hours and this one will start promptly at 9:30 in the morning. Nothing to sign up for. Just show up, on time, and ready to go on a real hike on a section of the Finger Lakes Trail. This particular hike will be led by me. But much to your surprise, you will not be asked to keep up with anyone. It will be an out and back hike. So you can go at your own pace, or lack thereof, and turn around at the one hour mark. This hike starts just a few miles east of Watkins Glen.
Casey
Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers,
Rules for Laps of the Old Course for Stone Bridge Drivers
No cameras, cell phones, etc. usage during laps.
During your 2 lap tour of the Old Course it is an open road, not a closed course. There will be oncoming traffic and there may even be local traffic mixed in with your group if you wrongly let that happen.
Be aware that one third of you want to drive too fast, and wish the rest would speed up. (Casey would be in this category if he was still allowed on the Old Course)
Another third of you want to drive too slowly, and are annoyed at how fast everyone else is going.
While the other third just wants to do it properly with everyone keeping it at a safe and proper speed.
My goal is to keep this festival going for as many years as possible. That means NO MISHAPS on the Old Course. It is better to have a little bit of fun for a lot of years than to have a lot of fun for only one year.
Although each Stone Bridge Driver Event will have its own lead car, there will be one common pace car that will pace each group for all of the Stone Bridge Driver Laps. This year the pace car will be a Miata driven by Robyn Resch, our veteran Pace Car Driver. Our Sweep Car for each group this year will be an Art Car Mercedes driven by Dave Tobin of Tobin Motor works. https://www.tobinmotorworks.com/
Most groups will not be split car by car but rather the first half of your group will go up the right lane towards the S/F line and then the second half of your group will be directed by our professional splitter Dancing Dan to take the left lane to head towards the S/F line for the start of your 2 laps. The person who does the splitting is a pro and is used to splitting real race cars driven by pros, so act accordingly. Meaning look for his signals and do what he tells you, and try not to hit him. He is trained to not move, so you only have one spot to avoid. By splitting the group in half, it should work out that whichever cars are in front of you and behind you as you approach downtown Watkins Glen for your standing start, will be with you for the entirety of your laps whether you like that or not.
As you grid on Franklin Street for your standing start, don’t leave a big gap between you and the car ahead of you. If you can’t keep up with the car ahead of you when you are standing still, how are you going to manage when you are moving? We have a lot of cars to grid on that street and there is only so much room. So pack them in please.
Each group will get a standing start, beginning with the right lane with the cars that are in the left lane following on the end of the first half of the cars. This will happen one lane at a time. In other words one lane will proceed and then the other will follow. This will all be at the direction of our traffic people who will all be wearing yellowish safety vests. So, all you have to do is pay attention and go when and where they tell you to go. If the one car in the moving lane is slow on the uptake, the next car in the waiting lane might be directed to go, to try to keep you all together. Of course then you will be out of order, but that is just one of the many bad things that can happen when one of you fails to keep up with the car ahead.
There will be no passing at all while doing your two laps on the Old Course. Sorry, but we really have to keep it safe for the longevity of this great event.
Keep in mind that when we do our laps, the Old Course is still an open road. It is NOT a closed course as it is for the SVRA cars, later on.
There will be no breaking of any speed limits while doing your two laps on the Old Course. There will be Police cars patrolling the course in the opposite direction who will be issuing traffic tickets to any violators.
Standard NY seat belt laws will still be in effect and will be enforced. And the driver and every passenger in your car must have signed a waiver when they showed up at their respective events. That means no added passengers for your two lap tour. And if I catch any driver texting or talking on a cell phone while driving, you will instantly be thrown out. And definitely no stopping anywhere on the course to switch drivers or pick up or discharge passengers.
While speeding is prohibited, driving too slow will also not be tolerated. If you and/or your car are not capable of maintaining 55 MPH outside of the village limits, we ask that you agree to not participate in your respective two lap tour of the Old Course. Please tell your event chair at your drivers meeting that you won’t be able to keep up and you will be told where to go and what to do so that you will still be able to park with your group.
Anyone who is taking part in the two lap tour, who fails to keep up with the group, will be pulled out of their group on Franklin Street by one of the traffic workers and asked to remain there while the rest of their group completes their laps. I know this sounds harsh, but I have to tell you that not keeping up with the car ahead of you can be as dangerous and/or disruptive as driving too fast.
It will be up to each and every Stone Bridge Driver to KEEP UP with the car in front of you. You will not be required to break any speed limits or drive in a dangerous manner to accomplish this task of keeping up. But it will only work if everyone does their part. If one car lags behind, they hold up the train behind them, and then they have to go too fast to catch up, and then we have huge holes in the group, which in turn encourages pedestrians to cross the street, which can of course put them and our entire festival in jeopardy. Also even relatively small gaps will unnecessarily allow local cars and trucks to get into the mix which will then make it impossible for you to keep up without dangerously speeding. When I see the gap on Franklin Street and you tell me there had been a big truck who got into the line, I automatically know you were not keeping up properly. That is the only way that truck could have gotten in front of you.
Treat it like a funeral procession in a big city that has to go through traffic lights all together as one unit. They can do it, so can you.
You all know the old joke: Why did the pedestrian cross the road? No it really wasn’t to get to the other side. It was because one of you failed to keep up with the car ahead of you and now we have a bunch of pedestrians in the way. Shame on you!
Not keeping up with the car ahead of you not only encourages stupid pedestrians to put themselves into harm’s way, but it will also allow cars, trucks, and dreaded RVs out on the course to get into your line and in the way of everyone. The best way to keep them out is to keep up with the car ahead of you. This will also make it impossible for the interlopers who try every year to get into the act.
We have a lot of Stone Bridge Driver vehicles to put across the Old Course in a very small amount of time. That creates a very tight schedule that only works when you are doing your part by following directions and keeping up with the car ahead of you.
Another thing to consider is that while you are enjoying your 2 laps of the Old Course, you are also “The Show” downtown for many, many spectators. Well, it isn’t much of a show if there are big gaps between groups of cars. That leaves you just one choice:
Keep up with the car ahead of you.
Please help the festival by doing your part to obey these rules. You will still have a fun drive and you will find that it will be so much more enjoyable for everyone when you are all going at approximately the same speed.
Casey
Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers,
Here is a complete list of other stuff to do while you are here.
http://www.grandprixfestival.com/2024WeekendEvents.html
Casey
Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers,
You should all be aware that the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival is and always has been a rain or shine event. Generally we have been blessed for the past thirty years with very good weather. There have been major storms leading up to our event and major storms on the Saturday after our event, but at the worst we have seen just a few minor sprinkles here and there on the day of our event.
The best way to ward off the rain is to come to the event entirely prepared for the worst. Bring your rain jackets and umbrellas, and even rain pants if you have them. In fact I just went to REI yesterday and bought myself a new rain jacket just because I managed to wear mine out by packing it for our event for the last thirty years without having to actually wear it.
And by the way, for those who like the top down experience, if it happens to sprinkle or even rain hard while you are on the Old Course doing your laps, do not even think about stopping to put up or take down your top. Once you start, there will be no stopping for anything other than a train approaching the rail road tracks. As long as you keep going, you should be able to stay dry enough.
I don’t know what the weather report is, but I know that our weather is changeable enough in this region that the weather report doesn’t do you much good anyway.
I am looking forward to watching all of you do your best to keep up with the car ahead of you.
See you soon,
Casey
Casey Creamer
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers,
Another great Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival is in the books.
I sure hope you all had as much fun as I did. And all of the naysayers who said we couldn’t do our Grand Prix Festival on our normal date without having a race in town were proven wrong.
And that is all thanks to the support and participation and proper behavior of you Stone Bridge Drivers.
Thanks for keeping up with the car ahead of you,
Casey
Marc Goldfarb
H.Alex Stiles
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H.Alex Stiles
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David Allen
On Aug 31, 2024, at 10:01 AM, 'Casey Creamer' via StoneBridgeDrivers <stonebrid...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Andrew Montgomery
On Sep 7, 2024, at 8:30 AM, 'Casey Creamer' via StoneBridgeDrivers <stonebrid...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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Willie Hayes
On Sep 7, 2024, at 8:30 AM, 'Casey Creamer' via StoneBridgeDrivers <stonebrid...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
Hello fellow Stone Bridge Drivers,
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