PVGP next two weekends

[Michael Oritt]

I hope I'll see some forum folks at either PIRC (used to be BeaveRun) or Schenley Park over the next two weekends. I'll have the MK IV at both events and look forward to some cooler weather and good racing.

 

[aeronca65t]

You <span style="text-decoration: underline">know</span> I'll be there!

We're heading out Thursday in the AM.
Look forward to seeing the VI out there.

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

I'll be at Schenley early next Saturday morning through Sunday. I'll look for you guys and try to get some good action shots!

 

[aeronca65t]

Here's a quick mix-video from the first weekend of PVGP at PittRace Complex (formerly BeaveRun).

Sprite held together nicely so we'll be at Schenley park for the second of weekend of the PVGP.

Today we're swapping a motor in a friend's MGB.....he just drove back to NJ to get a spare. Should be interesting.....

Video from last weekend at PittRace Complex.

 

[DART]

Nial-Michael: please be gentle with my friend Carl in his pre-war flatrad Morgan. I want him to be able to go to the Glen in Sept.

 

[aeronca65t]

Dale:

Will look for a flat-rad Mog and say hello if we find him.

Yesterday Tom brought back the spare MGB engine from NJ in his Suburban (14 hours round trip). Michael Oritt knew Bret at a local race shop who let us use his lift and spare bay to do the swap ( www.trplace.us ......Bret is a great guy!)

Anyway, we (Michael, Tom and me) got the dead engine out and put in the spare. A little tricky due to the overdrive gearbox, but we still managed to do the swap in a few hours (without putting a scratch on this very nice MGB either). See below:

I also got to meet some of the engineering students from U-Pitt. They were testing their Formula SAE car at the PittRace autocross course. I'm the SAE mentor for the engineering students at my college, so it was fun chatting with them.

 

[DrEntropy]

A bit of espionage, Nial?

 

[aeronca65t]

Nah. :wink:
Our little community college can't afford a Formula SAE so we're doing more modest stuff.
A decent F-SAE can cost $50,000 and then the student travel to events can be even more.
Our high school robotics team burns up over $40K a year, but they have a couple of very generous benefactors.

By the way, I think your buddie's yellow ALFA Spider has moved on to new owners (was his name Burt, I think?).
I saw the Bechtols (Dotti and John) with a yellow Spider that looked a lot like his last weekend.

 

[Michael Oritt]

Last weekend was great: No rain and fine racing. The new owners of PIRC have spent a lot of money on the facilities. The entrance road up from route 18 has been entirely repaved and there is lots of new blacktop in the paddock.

I brought the MK IV to these two weekends and was initially grouped with the Formula Fords but that didn't seem like a very good fit so I moved down to the under 1600 cc group. I had a couple of good battles with Mack McCormack in his Mini and finally got by him in the feature for a 1st overall.

I loaded in at Schenley this afternoon and by the end of the day the paddock was getting filled up. Tomorrow is registration and tech with racing Saturday and Sunday on a hopefully good forecast.

More as it happens

 

[aeronca65t]

Yep. The new PIRC track (formerly BeaveRun) is great. They really improved it. I have video of Mack and Michael on track. Will post when I'm home.
I'm paddocked next to Michael with lots of other friends nearby (he11...we ALL friends at PVGP!)
Raining right now but weekend weather looks real good. There is a race-car drive down one of the main streets tonight (with police escort). I may try to do it if the car cooperates. Right now my clutch pedal is a little wonky and leaves a slight drag. No problem in forward gears but I am getting a good grind in reverse (so mostly, I'm jumping out and pushing it backwards). Anyway, I can live with it....lots of hard-working volunteers are doing a great job. I feel very lucky to be able to participate in this event.

 

[DrEntropy]

Dunno if Burt sold it or not. He hasn't contacted me. :madder:

Have fun up there! Sounds like that's happenin' in any case. :thumbsup:

 

[dougie]

Sounds like big FUN......wish I was there to mix it up with you both. Be safe and have a great time.

 

[Michael Oritt]

I had two great weekends in Pittsburgh:

The VRG event at <span style="font-style: italic">Pittsburgh International Race Complex/PIRC</span> (used to be <span style="font-style: italic">BeaveRun</span>) were terrific with fine weather. I was grouped with the under 2-litre cars and by Saturday afternoon Mack McCormack in his Mini and I in the MK IV were having a great battle for the lead. Here's a neat video of the Sunday feature which I finally managed to win--it combines footage from both of our cars and tells the story:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EefT68fUDaI&feature=youtu.be

BTW the new owners of PIRC have poured some serious money into the facility, including a repaving of the long entrance road and much of the paddock. Word around the campfire is that they have permits in hand to build a second track which can be linked up to the existing one. Supposedly it will have some major elevation changes and this could make a fine track into a great one.

Last weekend was racing at Schenley Park in downtown Pittsburgh and once again the weather gods smiled. The event was wonderful as always and I managed to come in third in group 6 which was populated primarily with fast Loti 7's, 18's and 22's plus a number of other open-wheelers.

I'll be back next year for sure.

 

[aeronca65t]

Linda and I had a great time too!

If you click to 9:30 in Michael's video above, you'll see Mack passing me.
Not all 1275s are equal! :wink:

For more Spridget oriented racing, you can Click Here .
Gary Kroft (Team Thicko yellow Bugeye) and I had some furious races both weekends. That starts around 4:00 in my video above (I am editing more videos and will post them soon).


Spaten Beer helped sponsor both weekends and they gave out a case of their lager to anyone who finished 1st, 2nd or 3rd in any of the races.
Michael and I both won a case of beer. He also won a keen glass trophy (see below).

I was particularly pleased to be gridded in 4th place out of 50 entries in the MG Marque race (granted, some cars were TDs and TCs, but most were "modern" MGs).
Only two MGBs and an MGA were gridded in front of me. Two Canadian MGBs passed me and both crashed! A couple of others got by but I still ended up around 6th in that race (and the fastest Midget).

 

[Andrew_Grannis]

As promised. Great racing guys!

 

[aeronca65t]

Excellent photos!
Thanks, Andrew!

 

[dougie]

Great pictures guys! Love the videos and the on track in-site. Both races looked like a great time and with a beer company on board you can never go wrong.

 

[DrEntropy]

Great stuff, guys!