In my past articles I have told you all
about the Rennsport Reunion at Limerock Park that was scheduled for this
summer. As I had attended the Double Fifty celebration at Watkins Glen
in 1998 I did not want to miss this event. Tobey and I arranged to go down
with a couple of friends and stay the weekend. The plan was for the guys
to take off work on Friday and drive down early to watch the practice races.
Our wives were to meet up with us Friday night. Well as things usually
turn out when you make plans something happens to change them. Our friends
had to cancel because of a death in the family. Luckily my friend Steve
was planning on going so I hitched a ride in his RS America.
On our ride down we discussed weather
we would need to buy paddock passes. When we got to the track we found
that the paddock was open to all spectators. Awesome! As we walked down
the steps to A paddock whose car do we see parked under the Amalfi tent
but Bill Hawe's Jagermeister 962. We spoke to Bill Karen and Doug Adams,
who were crewing for Bill and then went to find the rest of the Nerpuckers
who were there for the club races. On our way to B paddock we walked past
Sam Posey. He smiled hello just before a fan looking for an autograph cornered
him. It was like this all weekend. Walking through the paddock was like
walking through a live Who's-Who of Porsche racing.
In B paddock we found Bill Chadwick preparing
a quick lunch in between practice sessions. Lenny Cummings, who came down
to help a friend who was having trouble with his 356 coupe, was there watching
the practice race intently. Whatever Lenny did seemed to have worked because
he looked relieved to see the car finish the race. We also saw Ronny Savinor
who finished first in practice, qualifying, and the race for his group.
Congratulations Ronny.
On the way back to A paddock to look at
all of the cars the factory brought over we stopped again at the Amalfi
tent. Here we saw Norbert Singer looking over Bill Hawe's car. What a site!
After that just 50 feet away was Derek Bell getting into a Rothmans 962.
Derek is probably one of the most patient people I have met. Here he is
trying to get ready to drive a car at over 190 MPH and there are all these
fans coming up to him asking for autographs. I didn't see him turn anyone
away. Which is good because it gave me a chance to get some great pictures.
By the end of the day we saw David Murray,
Fred Schwab, Paul Newman, Hurly Heywood and Vic Elford. Steve and I spoke
with Denise McCluggage who was interviewing fiction writer BS Levy. If
you don't know who BS Levy is he writes historically accurate fictional
stories of the early days of road racing in the United States. His first
book 'The Last Open Road' holds a prominent place on my bookshelf.
His second book 'Montezuma's Ferrari' is now released and I can't wait
to start reading it.
After the practice sessions were done
Steve and I snuck into the hot pit to watch the press rides. Here we saw
Chris Economaki and Leon Mandel. Leon, the publisher of Autoweek, sat and
chatted with us on everything Porsche.
I met up with Tobey at the hotel later
on. When she asked me how the day was all I could relate to her was all
the famous people we saw, i.e. my racing idols. As I went through the list
of names she just sat there and shook her head. When I came up for air
she said I was acting like a twelve year old. I suppose she is right but
what a great weekend. If any of you missed the event rest easy because
we heard that Brian Redmond is planning on continuing to hold these events
every couple of years. Also, you can watch the coverage of this years Rennsport
Reunion on Speedvision. It is being aired four times on the following dates:
September 16 at 3 PM, September 17 at 1 PM, September 21 and 23 at 3 PM.
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