[h=2]SVRA: Cars are stars at Watkins Glen GP Festival[/h] Saturday, 10 September 2016



Mark Dill (words & images)

The U.S. Vintage Grand Prix weekend launched in full earnest Friday with the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival. The festival is an annual event celebrating the advent of America's first major post-World War II road race beginning Oct. 2, 1948. Founded by the late Cameron Argetsinger, the event was originally held over 6.6 miles of undulating public roads with the backdrop of thick stands of trees boasting the blazing leaves of early autumn.
The charm of those initial contests was apparent with various marques of exotic racecars transforming a peaceful village of barely 3,000 into a raucous, unbridled scramble to get home first. Charming, yes, but equally evident was the danger not just to the participants who embraced risk, but also to the thousands of onlookers who lined the course, many times with mere hay bales between them and speeding cars on the edge. The construction in 1956 of what is now Watkins Glen International put an end to the racing on public roads and provided a venue that not only supported Formula 1 from 1961 to 1980 but also has expanded to host virtually all major American racing series.
"I try to explain the magic of those first races to people," says Jim Scaptura, who manages the Walk of Fame for the festival committee and was 12 years old when he witnessed the first race. "I just don't think people can understand unless they were there. The cars, the drivers, they were out in the town among the people. Briggs Cunningham, the Collier brothers, John Fitch walked right beside me. There were Bugattis, Alfas, Jaguars and, of course, lots of MGs. It was really magic."
The festival kick-off was a Thursday night fundraiser reception at the International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC) hosted by Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) CEO Tony Parella. The feature attraction of the evening was the unveiling of this year's Festival Grand Marshal Roberto Guerrero's name on the community's Walk of Fame. Along with A.J. Foyt and several others, Roberto's name is just outside the IMRRC entrance.
"I'm still getting used to the idea that my name is going alongside A.J. and so many other champions," Guerrero (pictured, with Parella) said. "Really, all I can say is that I am extremely honored and honestly humbled. This means so much to me to be remembered."
As grand marshal Guerrero gave the ceremonial command to start engines for the "Grand Prix Re-enactment," a two-lap tour of the original course by SVRA cars from the vintage of those early days. This, along with two "Grand Prix Tribute Tours," by SVRA and Historic Trans Am racers of more recent vintage, helped illustrate the hard-to-imagine setting Scaptura says he struggles to describe.