To be exact, 1723 miles from Havelock, NC to Watkins Glen, NY and back by
Midget. The car performed exceptionally well, with no problems whatsoever.
I didn't even have to add any oil to the engine. Incredibly, the SO and I
drove the entire 1,723 miles with the top down -- it has been very dry in
the East recently. This was the second year in a row that we have driven
OO NINE to Watkins Glen for the Zippo vintage car races. This post is in
the nature of a "trip report" for anyone who is interested.
We first attended Watkins Glen in 1990 for the Team Healey Challenge Race,
where the European Healey racers challenged the U.S. Healey racers to a
series of events across the country, culminating in the race at the Glen.
I have never been particularly racing-oriented, but that was so much fun
that we have tried to attend the vintage car event there each year since.
Seeing Healey 3000s and MGBs being driven at speeds up to 150 miles per
hour was amazing. There are the races, of course; but also there is a
vintage car show. This is dominated by British cars, but includes
practically anything. I was very surprised and somewhat disappointed at
the Big Healey showing, though, as there were only about 4 of them present,
while being greatly outnumbered by E-types. It was a special pleasure to
meet a fellow Spridget lister, Charlie Baldwin, at the car show. If any
other listers were there (other than the Lister Chevy and the Lister Jaguar
-- sorry, couldn't resist :-) ), I'm sorry we didn't meet you. We had Amy
T.'s Spridgeteer sign in our windshield, but didn't see any others.
One benefit of entering a car in the show is being allowed to participate
in a "parade lap" around the track. Last year and this year, for some
reason, we were permitted to do two laps. "Amateur racing" during this
parade lap is strongly discouraged, but last year occasionally the pace car
would speed up enough to allow the rest of us to get up some speed. This
year, however, when we got on the track in OO NINE, we discovered only a
Plymouth convertible ahead of us, and he quickly disappeared. I could
pretty much drive the Midget as fast as I felt comfortable. Knowing we
still had a 900-mile trip ahead of us suppressed any wish to stress the
engine too much, but it was fun to drive fast and not have to worry about a
gendarme giving me a speeding ticket. I can see how being a serious racer
could be so much fun.
Another benefit of the race this year was that we were privileged to watch
Stirling Moss himself pilot a borrowed Lotus to second place in one heat in
relay with another driver.; The qualifying races go on pretty much
continuously, so you can watch the races a while and then drift over to the
car show, observe the maintenance going on in the garage, or meet and talk
with some of the drivers who are camped out in the infield. I had a very
interesting conversation with a female Big Healey race driver.
For anyone who is not familiar with Watkins Glen, it is located on a
hilltop with a wonderful view of some of the most scenic countryside you
can imagine. The cows in the pasture across the road from Turn 1 didn't
seem to be bothered by the noise. Guess they are used to it. The scenery
inspired us to continue on west after leaving the Glen, to explore some of
the backroads of New York and Pennsylvania. We took NY 417, a very good
road for sportscars, west about a hundred miles to Olean, NY. It was on
this road that we met the only other British cars on the road that we saw
on the whole trip: a TR2 or TR3 smallmouth, and about 5 miles further on,
an early MGB.
South into Pennsylvania, we went through Punxsutawny and visited
Punxsutawny Phil, "the world's smallest and furriest weather forecaster"
(the groundhog, in case you don't know). Although Phil resides in the
local library most of the year, he does his official forecasting on the top
of Gobbler's Knob, where we had a very pleasant picnic and enjoyed the
beautiful weather.
Our return home coincided conveniently with British Car Day at Berkeley
Plantation on the James River near Richmond, VA. We met two more
Spridgeteers there, Ric Bergstrom, whose white street Midget I mistook for
a racer, and Jeff Church with his nice red Bugeye (it IS, too, Jeff!).
Ric, Jeff and others have already given the list a summary of the
activities there, so I will just say it was hot as blazes, in a lovely
location, with a lot of beautiful cars. Sorry we had to leave there fairly
early because we still had 250 more miles to go before arriving home. As
we completed the 1700 miles, my butt had almost become one with the
Midget's seat; but we're already looking forward to next year.
Steve Byers
Havelock, NC USA
'73 Midget GAN5UD126009G "OO NINE" (still cooling off)
"It is better to remain silent, and be thought a fool
than to speak, and remove all doubt" -- Mark Twain
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