First timers at the Glen

[RACER X #99]

Congratulations to Doug Axelrod for bringing his very clean and almost new Superformance Cobra all the way from Cin. Ohio to run with the Rochester Shelby Club at WGI.
I had the pleasure of being his instructor and Doug did a fine job negotiating the very fast pavement of the Glen.
Doug did manage to keep it off the Armco and out of the grass.
I hope he comes back next year when we have a full compliment of Crankoids.He needs to experience the full Club Cranky gang.

Thanks to Ken Walder who got the seven SVT owners to trailer in from Kansas, Oklahoma, and one real diehard racer all the way from California.

We keep telling everbody what a great track the Glen is. glad they listened.

Cranky

[NJ2000R]

it was a flawless event, other than one vette owner running with too much testosterone who looped it in the boot and scrubbed the armco....the weather was perfect, and all in attendance were treated to an excellent on-track experience....hopefully there will be a good number of SVT guys at the June and/or August event with CMR....it was a pleasure meeting Doug, and hope to see him and others next time at The Glen

[Doug Axelrod]

It was a tremendous priviledge and pleasure to do the Glen. It's a monster track--larger, faster, and more varied than anything I'd done before. The Rochester Mustang and Cobra Club put on a great event, with safety paramount and amazing instruction. I was gifted by having Roger Davis as instructor, with great real-time and patient advice, and went from lost to found by the second day. I'll put some pontificating on the importance of track for cobra owners elsewhere where it's more likely to be read by the non-racers. I'll do my best to be back next year and I look forward to seeing lots of cobras at MidOhio, too.

[Bob In Ct]

The Glen has a great layout! But I have to wonder why they chose to put the armco 3 feet from the pavement just about everywhere. It could be a lot softer if the guys that ran the track also drove the cars.

Bob

[RACER X #99]

Bob,
Back when Richard Pettty was driving in Nascar he always ran high on the track and close to the guardrail. His explination was that if you ever blow a tire you want to be as close to the fence as possible so you don't hit it so hard. It makes sense to me but to some others its an excuse. I have seen more inexperienced guys crash at tracks with plenty of grass runoff areas because they didn't worry about the guardrails and drove in way past their talent.

The downhill right turn heading for the main straight at LRP scares me more than the Armco at the Glen.

[Kputz]

Armco is your friend, if not you car's. Off track excursions compute to sliding sideways and to roll overs, eventually. You'll hook a tire in a hole or the sod and end up on your roof.....assuming you have a roof. The downside to armco is that the offending car often becomes sideways to fast traffic, and side impact crashes result in more serious injuries than any other kind, so you pays your dough and you takes your chances.
I won't comment on the intelligence required to understand the importance of a real roll cage with nascar bars if you're going to play.
Pay homage to the intellect of the Stewart's and Donahue's who refused to race unless/until track managers made their tracks safer with the use of closely placed armco. There was a time when an off track excursion often met with a tree.

[John McMahon]

With the high degree of track support at the Glen by their management, they require quite a bit of involvement from all driving schools instructors and education sessions.

As a result, there are very few 'events' there and those are mostly attributed to 'driving beyond ones means'.

Its a very safe environment, more so than your average freeway, for sure.

I have been through the esses sideways (and backwards) at over 100MPH as a passenger, it felt like slow motion, the a-hole I was with did a remarkable job of backing the car off the grass and curbs. The only damage was to the tires and a sidepipe.

The incident would not have occurred had this 'seasoned Busch driver' heeded the warnings from the novice of how to drive a 90 inch WB car.

All in all, one of the safer (and fastest!) tracks around.

[RACER X #99]

JM,
Some guys are just plain afraid of High Speed track time. I can't understand why in the world they would even bother to own a High performance car.

I have driven about 1,000 miles this year at differen't Open Track events. Been sideways a few times but luckily no impact,YET.

I have driven my Cobra zero miles on the street this year. Just too damn dangerous for me.


Sad to say last year I gave a Cobra owner a spirited ride at the Glen in my Cobra. A few months later he lost his life in a street accident.

I'll be damed if im gonna watch other guys have all the racetrack fun.

Real men race their Cobras..............You know the rest.

[NJ2000R]

I've got 6600 miles on my 2000 Mustang Cobra R, and about 4600 of which are track miles....zero incidents....I use the car very little if at all on the street anymore, because its just not exciting to stay within the confines of the legally posted speeds....and too frustrating with traffic and all of the idiots cutting in and out of lanes on the highways without regard for anyone else....its much safer out on the track than the streets....

[klayfish]

Roger,
I certainly hope that isn't an omen for me, as I got a spirited ride around the Glen a few months ago too.

I'm very excited to finally get to drive the Glen in a few weeks. But I do have to admit that after riding around it and seeing the speeds involved and the Armco, it is definitely intimidating. I sure hope the novice run group of NASA has lots of first time Glen people like me.

Steve

[mrmustang]

Steve,

Don't let the ride with Cranky scare you. The "feel" and experience of driving it yourself will more than make up for the intimidation of the "big blue walls". Take things slowly, remember, check your gauges, check your mirrors, then have a good time. Let the speed build up along with your confidence level as you learn the ins and outs of the track. Don't think you have to go out and mash the pedal to the floor right away, this will come later on (maybe not even during this event)........


Just my two cents worth (again).


Bill S.

[klayfish]

Bill,
The ride with Cranky definitely didn't scare me, it made me even more excited to try driving. But it definitely put things in perspective! I wish someone could have gotten a photo of my face, I'll bet my eyeballs were popping out of my head! That track is fast, fast, fast. Just like my first runs at Pocono, I fully intend to go out there and drive well within my abilities, no matter how slow it is, and listen to my instructor. But I know my heart rate will match the motor rpms those first few laps. I'm hoping Cranky will be my instructor, along with the guy who actually built my Mustang. He'll be there and is a NASA instructor.

Steve

[Clois Harlan]

Next year I plan on being another Oklahoman to show up at the Glen. Probably in August as June is a pretty busy time locally. So Cranky as soon as you get some firm dates please post them so I can make arrangments.

Sounds like everyone had a great time. By the way the scariest place in a Cobra is in the passenger seat at 3/4 speed or better.


Clois

[RACER X #99]

Clois,
Our two favorite Open Track Clubs that run Watkins Glen(most track time) are Apex in June,Rochester Shelby in June and August. I will know next years dates sometime in January and will post here and at www.clubcranky.com

The SVT club really enjoyed the Glen this year and some are coming back in 2005.

I hope you can convince some of your Cobra buddies to join in also.

RD

[NJ2000R]

I was there for both the June and August events with rochester shelby, tons of track time, great crowd, definately plan on being back next year for both, plus possibly the apex event....I'm also working on getting a few track events planned for the 2 mustang clubs I'm in, tracks in consideration are: Lime Rock, Mid-Ohio, and Summit Point....should have definates by January also....plus one of these days I need to get to beaver run....