US Vintage Grand Prix of Watkins Glen

September 10-12 1999
by David Wells and Larry Wells

Capris at the Glen

Six Capris, (four roadgoing and two race cars) attended the US Vintage Grand Prix of Watkins Glen.

Goin' to the Glen

On Friday, Dave drove his infamous Blue Beast from Rochester down to Watkins Glen to see what was going on. It's a gorgeous drive down Rt 14 from Geneva to Watkins Glen. If you're ever in the area, give it a try. It's a lovely drive overlooking Seneca Lake through New York's wine country. Lots of places for wine tasting, if you're into that. Watkins Glen and Geneva are both pretty towns. There's almost nothing in between them, so you can make good time even though it's only a 2-lane road.

The track itself is a historic 3.77 mile road course, with lost of twists and hills. The track is up in the hills, about 4 miles southwest of town. You get a marvelous view from up there.

View from the top: The main straight at Watkins Glen, with local driver Vic Franzese and his 1969 McLaren M12 "Champagne Car" approaching the start/finish line.

The old 6 mile street circuit is just a short distance from the current track. It's composed entirely of public roads, so it's possible to tour the old course.

Friday's Practice Session

Friday was the practice day for the SVRA race that weekend. SVRA is a series for historic race cars. For the practice session, Group 8 and Group 10 were practicing together. This meant that both vintage racing Capris would be on the track together. Things got off to a promising start for the Capris.

Ira Schoen was there with his 1971 Capri 2000, an ex-Trans Am 2.5 car. It's had numerous engine and suspension upgrades since last year. In Friday's practice session Ira turned lap times a full 3 seconds faster than last year, (about 2:30) despite having little track time since last season. On the second practice lap he was in the process of overpowering a twin cam Alfa Romeo when his engine developed a high RPM misfire, so he abandoned the practice early. Ira's mechanic, Mark Stockman, suspected an ignition problem, and started taking the ignition apart.

Ross Bremer was there with his Group 2 RS-2600. The ex-Horst Kwech/Harry T., ex-Miles/Muir car had crashed at this very track 26 years earlier. On this day though, Ross was looking REALLY good, passing other cars at will. He made it a few laps further than Ira did, but his brakes overheated, and he had to quit as well.

Saturday's Qualifying

We both drove down to the Glen on Saturday. There were some slight navigational problems with Larry's shortcut, but we made it there in plenty of time for qualifying.

Ira went out for practice in the morning, but found out that his problem wasn't ignition as he'd thought; his engine had swallowed a piece of a valve guide. OUCH! Fortunately Ira was able to shut down before any catastrophic damage occurred, but they were going to have to pull the cylinder head off. He was done for the weekend.

Engine trouble sent Ira Schoen's 1971 Capri 2000 back to the trailer early.

Ross Bremer also turned some impressive lap times in qualifying with his RS 2600 (best time: 2:17) but he continued to be plagued by severe brake fade, despite new cooling ducts and a repaired caliper. After 4 or 5 laps, the brakes faded out entirely, forcing him to make an early exit.

He hoped that a change to different brake pads would cure the problem in time for Sunday's race.

Ross Bremer got off to a promising start in Saturday's qualifying (left). Unfortunately within a few laps he had to limp back to the pits with severe brake fade (right).

We met up with some of our Capri friends, including Rod Ramsey, Bev & Jim Connell, David Ailes, Dave Reid, and Rob Harber. A nice bunch of folks. There were also four roadgoing Capris present: our two plus Dave Reid's 73 2600 and Rob Harber's '72 2600.

Sunday's Racing

Ross Bremer swapped the brake pads in his RS 2600, and found that the old (not very old, actually) pads were glazed. Apparently, repeated overheating had glazed them.

Ross had qualified 21st of 43 cars, so he was way back in the pack at the start. After a few laps, there was a spectacular Porsche on Porsche crash right in front of us. (no injuries, thankfully, and one of the Porsches returned to the race immediately) The next car in line was Ross' RS-2600. The new brake pads worked!! Unfortunately, the yellow flag was a local yellow. Ross had to stop, while the cars ahead of him could run at nearly full speed. He finally got past the accident, but there was a huge gap, too much to make up for in such a short race. Nevertheless, he put in an impressive performance against much more powerful cars. He finished 18th overall, and 4th in class against competition that included a gaggle of 3+ liter Porsche 911's and several early '90s Corvettes. Once again, he had no brakes left.

Ross Bremer at the start of Sunday's Group 10 race.

This was probably the last race for the ex-Horst & Harry Trans-Am and IMSA racer. Ross plans to retire the car, since he considers it too valuable to race.

Just to make things interesting Ross then jumped in a 2300 cc Cosworth-powered (a YB series engine, we think) mid-engined Toj (pronounced "Toy") sports car and drove it to a 5th place overall finish in a class that included IMSA GTP cars from Porsche, Nissan, and Jaguar.

You shoulda been there!! 

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