General Information

cfgill · December 15, 2015, 08:48:35 PM

This event will be run as part of the Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix weekend (which is a BIG deal in that part of the country and has lots of spectators) with support by Steel Cities Region SCCA.

link to the fun.
http://www.pvgp.org/race-week-events/

cfgill · March 02, 2016, 01:47:50 PM

Post deleted for poster not paying attention to dates

Butch Kummer · March 02, 2016, 02:07:09 PM

Chris - are you sure that's the schedule for the PVGP at PittRace?

The reason I ask is the dates I've got for "our" event are July 8-10.

On edit - based on the dates (which would be Sunday thru Tuesday), it appears you've posted the 2015 schedule. I have not yet seen a schedule for the PittRace weekend (July 8-10, 2016) but here's the link to the event information:

http://www.pvgp.org/historics/

cfgill · March 02, 2016, 02:15:19 PM

It's odd Butch, I followed the link it said the July 8-10 on there site and that is the schedule that comes up. They must have last years still posted.

OK so on that note do you know if we will be our own group?

Butch Kummer · March 02, 2016, 02:23:09 PM

Quote from: cfgill on March 02, 2016, 02:15:19 PM
It's odd Butch, I followed the link it said the July 8-10 on there site and that is the schedule that comes up. They must have last years still posted.

OK so on that note do you know if we will be our own group?

See my edited post above but yes, what you've posted is the 2015 schedule.

I'll post the 2016 schedule when it's finalized, but my understanding is we will NOT have our own run group this year.

KeithO · March 05, 2016, 09:03:13 AM

I ran this event in 2013. This was the event where I killed my engine. This year will be the first I have run since that event. I plan to run this again in 2016 and I'd be crazy not to since the track is <15 miles from my house.

I have been going to this for quite a few years as spectator or driver. Observations as follows -

The primary goal of the event is to fund the charities it supports. This event has evolved over the years from slow vintage cars in a park in Pittsburgh to a two-weekend event. The slow cars still run in the park but faster cars are running at Pitt Race.

The focus of the event is entertainment for spectators and a relaxed series of track sessions for the drivers. Since the race is sanctioned by a historic organization, even the lightest contact can get you ejected and potentially banned for a period months or years by the sanctioning organization.

In every year that I have seen, they try to group cars by speed. Assuming they follow the same as before, cars like ours will be put into the "Modern Historics" category. This means that we will likely be put in the BMWCCA national points race group.

The BMWCCA has been running a national points race at this event for many years. I point this out to prepare potential attendees for a few realities.

The CCA guys are pretty aggressive since this race counts towards the national points championship and non-CCA cars can steal points positions. That by itself is not a problem. However, the problem that I saw was that some of the drivers didn't see fit to attend the driver's meetings. At the driver's meetings the organizers emphasized that grid order for a session was based on the fastest lap from the previous session regardless of the "race session" finishing order. PVGP tends to call qualifying sessions races complete with parade laps and a green flag to start but it still just a timed qualifying. This format is for the benefit of the spectators. It is up to the driver to decide how to approach these sessions.

Lack of understanding the event caused some CCA drivers (and one notable one in particular) to behave poorly on grid, on out laps and during early laps of the race. In at least one guy's mind, he was gridded wrong. This particular guy seemed like he was doing a tryout for Penske Racing and unfortunately we were about the same speed. I'd play with him for a couple of laps and then lift and let him go to give myself a gap to get a fast lap. Then the next session would come and I would be gridded ahead of him even though he finished ahead of me in the previous session. The knucklehead could never understand what was happening (even with repeated visit from the race officials to him on grid) and if he wasn't so foolish on track, it would have been funny.

The good news for me is that there were 2 other guys that were about the same speed as me and we did have a lot of fun running each other hard and clean. We talked between sessions and gave each other pointers on why we were better/worse than each other at given parts of the track. ...I like that sort of stuff, I guess.

Overall it is a nice event and a bonus if you are looking for a little more relaxed event. Another bonus is that since it is classified as a charity, your race entry fee is tax deductible on your federal taxes (or at least it was in 2013).

Hope this helps...

Butch Kummer · March 05, 2016, 09:35:15 AM

Keith (and others),

Part of the reason the event is now three days is the BMW guys asked for (and received) their own run group. That should alleviate a lot of the activities you saw in 2013.

KeithO · March 05, 2016, 11:26:06 AM

Either way it's OK I think. Just need to be mindful of other guys sometimes. In my younger days, it would have seemed like a bigger deal. Figuring out what was going on took a little time, which was my main motivation in posting that.

I just checked the website for the event. It is a bit of a mess - it appears that someone did a copy-n-paste from previous years to create the 2016 content, but forgot to update some of the links. Over time, they will fix this.

I hope to see many of you guys at the event.

vern smith · March 05, 2016, 09:46:02 PM

Keith,

Thanks for the inside scoop. Please keep us informed as the event grows closer, you obviously have a much better source for information than the rest of us. As of now I'm planning on attending.

millstreet · March 24, 2016, 08:53:21 AM

couple videos Vern requested
2015 PIRC event;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaJDIcPXICg

and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwnFvYBiwk8

Andy

millstreet · March 25, 2016, 05:45:27 PM

some PIRC photos from 2015, really nice place

tech "garage"

marble (yes, marble) showers in tech garage

track map, with notes (blind,blind,blind,etc)

I'm looking forward to this summer

Andy

cfgill · June 07, 2016, 08:51:49 PM

OK this is an odd sign up procedure how do we fill in this form so we don't get rejected?

http://www.pvgp.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/2016-PVGP-Racer-Application1.pdf

Butch Kummer · June 08, 2016, 07:55:39 AM

Make sure you state that you're part of the V8RRS group.

(Also covered in the "MORE General Information" topic...

)

millstreet · June 08, 2016, 11:56:46 AM

just send in this picture with your application, you'll be a shoe in at any vintage event

Andy

vern smith · June 16, 2016, 08:51:02 PM

I hope everyone gets to enjoy as many years as I have on the right side of the sod. Please double check with the Pitt track folks that your entry was received and if you want to reserve a space with shore power do it immediately. I reserved a space for myself and Randy Walker the end of March with a confirmation email from them. He called them on Tuesday and they had no record of it. It was easily fixed with the usual left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing excuse but these guys are obviously new to the game.

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