Dave,
Yeah, there's always a lot to see at PVGP, but this year was exceptional.
We had 360-some pre-registered, which is up from last year by more than 50.
We were well north of 400 cars on the field for British Car Day, so I'm sure
that the 1700 overall figure was accurate. We couldn't have asked for
better weather. I got a semi-good look at your car, while I was standing in
front of it and talking to some friends. That's really a wonderful car,
Dave!
Burt Levy and our Triumph Club have some history. Seems that at a party
during the Mid-Ohio event a few years ago, Burt asked a couple of our
veteran members to hold his (full) beer for him, while he ran an errand.
The beer line was long and my buddies were mighty thirsty, so....
Burt: (feigning shock and horror) "Did you guys drink my beer?!!"
Bruce & Ed: "OF COURSE we drank your beer! We were THIRSTY!"
Now, just as Burt is a world class race car ride mooch, Bruce & Ed are
world class beer mooches. They have an uncanny ability to come up with free
beer when no one else can even SUSPECT that there is beer in the vicinity.
They quickly got Burt's beer replenished and a good time was had by all.
On another occasion, at Mid Ohio, Burt was selling copies of his latest book
out of the back of his rental car, in the paddock, to a group of our
(Western PA Triumph Assn) guys when another vendor suggested (jokingly) that
he stop and purchase a vendor's permit. Burt's response was: "I'm
surrounded by a bunch of drunken British car guys and it's like shooting
fish in a barrel!"
Yep, Burt is quite a character. He had promised to buy beer for the club,
in return for us letting him sell his books out of our tent, but, I think we
let him slide by. (Our president is a bit squeamish about having a keg of
beer under the table at BCD, like we always used to)
We watched the races from under some nice, big shade trees, on the outside
of the hairpin leading into the serpentine. One of my buddies from our
Porsche 356 group was working that corner station, so we got pretty good
information on what was going on around the course. Glad no one got hurt in
that one! Sounds like it was a very near thing.
Bud Osbourne
-----Original Message-----
From Dave Carpenter [mailto:d.carpenter7 at verizon.net]
Sent: Monday, July 21, 2003 10:54 PM
To: Bud Osbourne
Cc: Spridgets@Autox. Team. Net
Subject: Re: Pittsburgh Vintage GP
Sorry Bud, we wandered around most of the time looking at cars. Our
Bugeye was the Ivory one straight across the aisle. There must have been
40 big Healeys and about 600,000 MGBs and Triumphs. Never made it to the
American cars. (Did you see the Corvette Nomad wagon?) The announcer
said there were 1700 registered display vehicles if you count all
classes and marques. I believe it to be true. Burt Levy was a lot of fun
while signing autographs. The show had all the vehicles from the books.
The C-type Jag was stunning as was the Jowett Jupiter. The Allards and
TDs along with all the others made for a full day of looking. Don't
forget the #409 Speedwell Sprite coupe that ran in the race too. I think
the Mini would have been a real threat to the XK coupe had it kept
running. There was one mishap at the turn near the conservatory, a red
Elva Courier got out of shape and spun to the inside of the sweeping
right hander. He went sideways onto the curb and took down a light pole.
The big kind of city light pole 30 feet high witht he curved arm at the
top. The pole did a slow motion fall right across the cowling, narrowly
missing the cockpit. He was OK (probably had to send the driving suit
straight to the cleaners), tok an hour and a half for the city crews to
show up and clear the track. Could not have asked for better weather.
CHUCK, you need to bring the sports racer!!!
Those that missed this event, shame on you for six weeks.
Dave & Bobbie
Bud Osbourne wrote:
>I finally got one of my fondest wishes, at PVGP: We actually had a B/E
>Sprite racing. Not only that, the B/E won his class (production under 1
>liter) very convincingly. I'm hoping this will open the "flood gate" for
>Sprite entries. Sprites are so beautifully suited to the course, at
>Schenley Park (PVGP is run on public roads, through a wooded, hilly, 150
>year old park, right in Pittsburgh's Oakland section). The car looked
>TERRIFIC on the track!
>Also, we had way north of 400 cars on the golf course, overlooking the race
>course, for British Car Day, on Saturday. We had something like 18 B/Es
>pre-registered, which is the most we've every had. We had about 9 pre-'75
>Midgets, but no Mk-II-IV Sprites :(
>Dave Carpenter, I'm sorry I missed you....I was busy parking cars all
>morning and drinking beer/swapping war stories w/my Triumph Club and MG
Club
>buddies all afternoon.
>Hey, any Spridgeteers going to The Roadster Factory Summer Party?
>
>Bud Osbourne
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