The streets of Watkins Glen will be full of racers and specialty cars on Friday as the Grand Prix Festival and the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) team up to celebrate road racing history!
This year’s Featured Marque is MG, and hundreds of MG’s will fill the streets of Watkins Glen to participate in the Festival activities. This is the 100th anniversary of the MG brand!
MG owners showed off their cars at a special Lakewood Vineyards FLX car show in Lafayette Park last night, and today, they will be among hundreds of cars participating in the Stone Bridge Driver laps of the original 6.6-mile course used by Grand Prix racers from 1948-1952.
A very special MG, the Fergus MGTD which competed in the Queen Catherine Cup in Watkins Glen in 1952, will be part of the festival—it is owned and will be driven by Glen Moore Tour deMarque event, as well as in the SVRA Smalley’s Tech Inspection Reenactment and the SVRA Tribute Laps. Also appearing for a special anniversary will be a group of Porsche Speedsters! This is
the 70th anniversary of the Porsche Speedster, which was introduced to the world in 1954—in Watkins Glen.
The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA)—the largest Vintage racing association in the United States—will bring a spectacular collection of vintage race cars and their owners to town for the festival. They will “take to the streets” of the Finger Lakes village where U.S. road racing history was made.
As always with the Grand Prix Festival, Franklin Street through the village will close to the public at 12 Noon on Friday; at that time, the SVRA cars will park on the street and be available for public viewing through the afternoon. At 1:00 pm, the Stone Bridge Driver laps, sponsored by Cayuga Health, will begin for some 11 classes of cars driving the Old Course. At about 5:30 pm, the SVRA race cars and others will roar around the Old Course in the SVRA Tribute Laps that have always been the highlight of the festival day.
Stacy Husted, president of Watkins Glen Promotions and chair of the Festival’s management committee, said she is excited about this year’s partnership between the festival and SVRA. “In past years, our Festival ran adjacent to the early September Vintage races at the WGI track, but this year, a change in the NASCAR schedule put those races in August. We are really grateful to SVRA for bringing their members, cars, and drivers back to Watkins Glen to participate in our Festival.”
The Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival will begin with a special SVRA Smalley’s Tech Inspection Reenactment at the original Smalley’s Garage. SVRA race cars will undergo a “technical inspection” similar to those performed during the original Grand Prix races. Late in the afternoon, the assembled SVRA Vintage Racers will participate in the SVRA Grand Prix Festival Tribute Laps of the Old Course! As they have in the past, these race cars will be led by Schuyler County Sheriff’s deputies around the old course and through the hills just as their predecessors did, more than 70 years ago.
The Grand Marshal for this year’s festival will be Robert Gillespie, a local artist who has been producing racing paintings and murals for nearly fifty years. Robert’s artwork will
cover the festival’s Official Program, and he will be available on the Schuyler County Courthouse Lawn to sign and sell copies of his work and his new book, “One Track Mind.”
The Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival is sponsored by Chemung Canal Trust Company and is produced by Watkins Glen Promotions, a nonprofit organization dedicated to presenting community festivals in Schuyler County.
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