2014 PVGP Video/Picture Thread!

I tried to post in Michael Oritt's thread, but it wouldn't let me for some reason. Anywho, this thread can be used for anyone participating in either PVGP weekend who would like to share some pictures and/or video! I'll start.

This is video of me in Saturday qualifying at Pitt Race. I had never raced there before so I wanted to work on lines, but I was kept busy by groups of cars to work through, slight "excursions," and even a 2002 losing a wheel!

GREAT video! Wish I were closer.

Can you say who the yellow Spider driver is?

DrEntropy said:

GREAT video! Wish I were closer.

Can you say who the yellow Spider driver is?

Click to expand...

Thanks! Dotti Bechtol was driving the Alfa.

I was telling your Dad how much fun it was to watch you throw that Cortina around. Really neat!

I saw that 3-wheel 2002 getting loaded onto a flatbed at the end of the day.....wondered when that happened?

Anyway, here's a video Andrew Moore just sent me (he was a new driver in a red 1098cc Sprite). It's mostly Andrew battling me for 3rd place.

And here's my mashup video with various action scenes from the four sessions on Saturday:

Andrew looks to have a really good line for a new guy! It's always best when you have someone to duke it out with.

Makes me sorely miss our Lotus Cortina street machine!! Mitsy drove it for years as her daily, didn't get why all the OTHER traffic at the light was so far behind her after she left the line.

Not to spoil the qualifying video, but I ended up third behind a Lotus Elan and an Elva MkVII S sports racer for the afternoon race. I had a great time holding off a Datsun 510 and lowered my time by almost a second!

That was AWESOME!!! Can't really judge how deep you were going into the turns due to the angle-of-acceptance with the lens, but at about 12:41 got the evidence re: tires! You were a busy lad thru that turn, indeed.

Reason I inquired about the Alfa is, I heard a rumor Burt Young had sold his, wondered if that may have been formerly his car, or that he'd not sold it and was still "out there." Know Burt from the old Sewickley Sales and Service days. Even still have a "Burt Young for Mayor" campaign button in the lid of my toolbox. :wink:

DrEntropy said:

That was AWESOME!!! Can't really judge how deep you were going into the turns due to the angle-of-acceptance with the lens, but at about 12:41 got the evidence re: tires! You were a busy lad thru that turn, indeed.

Reason I inquired about the Alfa is, I heard a rumor Burt Young had sold his, wondered if that may have been formerly his car, or that he'd not sold it and was still "out there." Know Burt from the old Sewickley Sales and Service days. Even still have a "Burt Young for Mayor" campaign button in the lid of my toolbox. :wink:

Click to expand...

I'm glad you enjoyed it! If you're talking about braking, I was trying to work as best I could with the brakes I had. I'd say the brakes are the last area that could really use improvement; they're significantly less effective than the later sedans (rear discs aside, of course) and fade pretty noticeably 4-5 laps into most sessions. They also have a good bit of "wander" when I get on them hard. I like being busy though, it feels like I'm getting work done in there!

I can't say for sure if the Alfa was Burt's car or not. I thought I might have seen him at the Jefferson but apparently that was Cesar Cone, another Alfa veteran.

I really enjoyed the video. In 2006, I bought a Chrysler 300C SRT8 and a track day came as part of the purchase price. My older son was at Pitt at the time and we chose that track (Beaver Run then) for the day. It's a great facility, although I have to admit I was a bit over enthusiastic and managed to loop the Viper SRT10 on the right-hander before the front straight. OTOH, I did see 135 mph on the top end, so it was totally worth it. I can't imagine how much fun racing through Schenley Park would be.

That yellow Alfa really looks like Burt Young's yellow car (it's run PVGP in the past). The current owners are locals (like Burt) so there's a good chance it's the same car. I'll ask around when I'm at Shenley.

I talked to John Bechtol last night (his wife, Dotti was driving the yellow Alfa Spider). It's Burt's old car......they bought it from him. They have a number of cars at the PVGP and are well-known Pittsburgh-based vintage racers.

And here's some other shots I found from the Koppel area:

Doc----check your PMs from me.

Bowling Ally


Beaver Falls Motel


War memorial in Rt. 18

I spent a lot of my youth at Sim's Lanes. It was about a two minute walk from the house.

Don't recall knowing the Bechtol racing effort, But we left Sewickley before the dealership expanded beyond two buildings (1981).

Back-when, my impression of a well-dressed sales-weasel (1976-ish);

The Bechtols weren't a race team way-back-when, they started vintage racing ~15 years ago if I remember correctly with an Elva MkIV and a Lotus 18.

Here's a video of Dad qualifying the Ginetta on Saturday. He was tasked with figuring the track out and qualifying at the same time!

I just returned to MD from Pittsburgh after a somewhat disappointing weekend.

Saturday's weather at Schenley was wet with a questionable forecast for Sunday and, only having driven the track in the dry before, I decided I had best get some experience in the rain. In the Saturday afternoon qualifier I started out 2nd behind a Lotus 23B with a number of fast 7's right behind me. Though it rained continuously throughout the session I was quite pleasantly surprised with the adhesion and pushed the car hard. The 23 and I switched the lead a couple of times and I wound up in first place, with the fourth fastest time for the session behind the 23 and two 7's. I was pretty pleased with that and strategized that in the feature I would be gridded in the second row and hopefully I could jump one or two of the 7's at the start and lean on the 23 with a chance of getting past him.

On Sunday there was a morning "warmup session" and, not understanding that cars were going to be gridded for the feature on the basis of the morning session's results I chose to skip it and go to the Phipps Conservatory with my fiancee. So you can imagine my surprise when, on arriving at the grid for the Sunday afternoon feature, I was put at the back of the pack in 29th place since I had no time from the previous session!

I knew that there was no sense whining about things so I figured I would have a lot of fun passing through the pack. That I did and after four laps I had progressed up to about 10th place and was closing on a few more cars when suddenly I lost all forward motion. The engine was running just fine but I could not engage any gear--I don't think it is a transmission problem and suspect that I stripped out all of the splines in the clutch drive plate but of course will not know until I pull the engine.

So that was that. BTW I have good video--from front and rear cams--from both the Saturday and Sunday sessions-- that I will try to edit and post in the next few days.

Nice video of the Ginetta! I should have some up soon.

Michael: I am pretty sure they said the fastest time on either day would count. Oh well.........

Anyway, we got back on Monday, tired (800 miles round trip) but successful despite a problem with the car.

My clutch pedal has been "low" for the entire 2 weekend event. I've been worried that something would fail, but the car made it through 14 sessions! (although shifting was a bit ugly at times).

Generally I would roll it a bit and then drop into 1st gear. Otherwise it would grind like the dickens. Shifting to 2nd, 3rd and 4th was OK....not great. Basically, it acted like a hydraulic clutch that needed to be bled (although I knew that part was OK).

Today, I pulled the motor. The problem turned out to be a worn bushing in the clutch release arm. I have a good used one I'll install. And I'll put in a new throw-out bearing and clutch plate while I'm at it. Should be done today or tomorrow.

You can see photos of the worn bushing ~HERE~

"Michael: I am pretty sure they said the fastest time on either day would count. Oh well........."

Nial--

Well it really would not have mattered--I simply would have been on a different part of the track when the car died. But I will not make the mistake of sitting out a kick-out type qualifier again!

BTW I just looked at the "Standard Operating Procedures" page for Schenley and it says: "Grids for the races will be determined by your qualifying times and qualifying race results" Since the Sunday morning run was billed as a warm-up session I should not have been kicked to the back of the grid and I think I should bring this development to the attention of the Race Director or Chief Steward.

Michael:

As you probably realize, the arrangements at PVGP can be "loose" at times. I'm not blaming anyone.....it's a complicated undertaking.

For the most part I think Dick, Rocky and Donna are doing their very best to herd cats.

I ran the Group 7 "British Heritage" race. But the schedule also obliquely listed a separate, Group 7 qualifying session for the BH race.

This made no real sense since everyone already had a qualifying time; plus the way it was written into the schedule was very confusing.

I personally walked the entire length of the paddock explaining this one-by-on to all racers with Brit cars; most did not understand this part of the schedule.
Virtually all the people in the Group 7 qualifying session would have missed it if I had not told personally them.

When you and I run The World, things will be different! :friendly_wink: