En route to the Seneca Lodge you drive a short section of the original course. Immediate instruction in the sort of cojones which must have blessed those original drivers. And this is an uphill section of the track, no less. Truly remarkable! Visitors can drive the full 6.6-mile original course following well-marked signage. But nothing prepares you for the sight of Seneca Lake as you make the final crest and the steep dropoff back down into town.
On Saturday afternoon, while some 200 old Volvos lined up for the VSA concours, we racers ran our qualifying race. Not too many pilot errors for your correspondent, who started 14th and finished 10th, in a field of 23. The car ran very strongly, and I know there are seconds to be had. As a first-timer to the track, I felt pretty good, but here's where it became clear that some of these guys were prepared to really run and win.
Weight reduction and a few added horsepower can do miracles on lap times. Just watch our friend Duane Matejka. Qualified on the pole. Sort of a permanent starting location for car #1. And by the way, he spent most of Friday at a local machine shop rebuilding the head. Seems like 14:1 compression reduces valve-seal life in an old Volvo. Wonder why?
Unfortunately, we started to see some cars retiring early with mechanical problems. Rick Hayden blew the engine in old #49 and got permission from officials to substitute #51 for the rest of the weekend. This must be the advantage of bringing two old cars to the track.
Mitch Duncan lost the engine in his pretty red P-1800 (#78) and was forced to sit the rest of the weekend out. Several others parked, and the group kept shrinking.
Sunday dawned overcast and drizzly. Were we going to be racing on the rains? I hoped not. The memory of heading uphill into the Esses and that vanishing track still lingered. Rain tires or no. By race time it was partly cloudy, and fears of racing in the rain were gone. At 1:00 p.m., on the grid and anxious. Hey, we're the headliners for the weekend! How cool is this? Off for the pace lap and the green flag dropped. Seems like when the Volvo racers get together, everyone tries just a little bit harder. More cars broke during the race. The field was definitely shrinking. Patti Alspach (#97) broke a ball joint after eight laps while running second in the race. Scary slide into the wall outside Turn 1, but no injury. The Chicago-based Keller brothers, Rob and Randy, with times comparable to Parker and Alspach, lost the engine in P-1800 #2 after only eight laps.
As predicted, Duane Matejka (#1) was victorious on Sunday afternoon, followed closely by John Parker (#77) and Rich Kushner (#8). Hometown boy makes good, and makes local headlines the following day. Yours truly (#122) started 14th and finished 12th.
Boy, was this fun! Talk began immediately of a fourth running of the Vintage Volvo Gran Prix, on the west coast next time. Maybe Laguna Seca?