Porsche Club of America, Northeast Region

Activities

Nor'easter News

Car Care

Membership

Other Cool Stuff

Sponsors & Advertisers

Administrivia

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region

By Dennis Cataldo, Autox968@aol.com
NOR'EASTER Online - September 2001

Since my birthday is in September, I think everyone in the club should pitch in and buy me a new GT-2. Kidding, but I would settle for a 996 Cup Car. Well, you can’t blame me for asking.

I thought I would take a moment to talk more about some of my Drivers Ed experiences in the hopes that this information will fall into the hands of a spouse or companion that has been reluctant to attend one of these events with “the person who goes away all the time”. We are fortunate enough to be located in an area that is within 8 hours of some of the best tracks in the Northeast and have one of the best track committee’s to ensure a good time. I think most of us are within a two-hour distance of NHIS and therefore usually make the drive back and forth daily. Therefore, I will leave that track out of this. If you have not read about the likes of Watkins Glen, Lime Rock and Mt. Tremblant you will have noticed how many years they have been in operation. These tracks are located in some of the most picturesque and activity laden areas you can visit. These are places you AND your family can enjoy!

Since the last time I wrote about my first driving impressions of Virginia International Raceway and Watkins Glen, I have had the opportunity to visit Mt. Tremblant. On the pure driving experience of an event, Tremblant is, in my opinion, the best track there is. The track is very, very technical with turn one being “scary” to say the least. This is a track that you need to keep driving in order to find all of the different lines you can take to run a fast lap. On the non-driving side of the trip, it was I place I would love to live! The Mt. Tremblant area was absolutely gorgeous. Coming into the main village area, you drive by two or three well-manicured golf courses, one that had sand so white it looked like salt. The hotels that most of us stayed are located on the foot of world-class ski resort in a very European village atmosphere. Within 1/8 mile walking distance were over twenty restaurants and over 50 great shops and markets. To get you back and forth in the village there was also a complimentary tram that slowly glided over the rooftops giving great views of the village and surrounding mountains. There, without driving, you could take trips up to the summit of the mountain, go horseback riding, fishing and rent bicycles. I know there were quite a few people that even rented boats for the day in the lake just ¼ mile away and hit the links in the afternoon. While we were in town Mario Lemieux and a few of his friends were in the village for a charity golf tournament. We just so happened to be at the bar when Mario, Dan Marino and Mike Eruzione walked in! Not a bad bonus for the night. With the dollar so strong in Canada the trip was a virtual bargain. I have not heard of one non-driver that did not have a blast.

I have also had the opportunity to visit Watkins Glen twice since my last related column and every time I go I find more things to do off track. We have spent considerable time haunting the local go-cart track, visiting the local wineries and most recently, nightly excursions to the local raceway. I am still laughing about last Friday night. A fairly large group of us, after a long day at the track, decided that heading out to Black Rock race track would be a better solution than taking showers and getting a good meal, so off we went. Black Rock is located just about 20 minutes from the Glen in the small town of Dundee. This is a dirt track and these guys can drive. Amongst the “nice tooth” jokes we were aiming at the “locals” we had a lot of laughs and enjoyed quite a bit of humor at the town’s expense. The beer was $1.50 a can, and the seating was first come, first serve. We thought we had hit a homer with our selection of seats until the 50 lap Modified feature took place. About 10 laps into the race, the cars created a tornado in the stadium, we couldn’t look left, and we were laughing so hard it hurt. The locals had brought umbrellas to block the dirt from filling their eyes. You have never seen anything so funny as a person sitting in the stands looking at the back of an umbrella. They must have been “listening” to the race. As if this wasn’t enough, we headed out on Saturday night as well to another local track, this one paved, to watch the Nascar Pro Stocks and Modified cars running at Chemung (don’t ask, we pronounced this so many ways I think it was a crime). This was an entirely different experience. More civilized so to speak, or least until the “visitors” as the announcer so referred, swarmed the stadium. It was another comical night.

I have only visited Lime Rock once but the Berkshires are really scenic. And it appears that there are loads of antique shops and tons of touristy things to do. It is usually not until the second visit that you start to feel comfortable to roam the area and do anything but talk about Porsche’s. With all the great things that keep happening everywhere else, I can hardly wait to go back.

It’s too bad I cannot make the trip up to Mosport with the club. I know the committee has been doing a great job in getting this event together. I know I will be missing a driving “highlight”, but what the heck, I’ll have a new place to go next year.

Porsche Club of America The Northeast Region

Porsche Club of America
The Northeast Region