I was just talking with a friend who is running at the Glen with American Endurance Racing this weekend. It’s another series a bit like chumpcar
I think I want to cruise to Watkins Glen International this sunday to see some of this. (taking back roads obviously) It’s free to get in and roam the grounds and watch the racing I’ve been told (waiting on the official email to confirm).
After a bit of spectating I’m thinking a beer at the famous Seneca Lodge and maybe a quick bite before heading back. Possibly stop at a winery or two. it’s all up for debate
I’m thinking leave rochester around 9:30am.
If you’re interested post up here.
I’m interested, but I can’t make it 
just got official word that the grounds are wide open and there is no cover charge at the gate.
looks like they have some decently serious names racing also: Mike Skeen, Randy Pobst, Colin Thompson, and more.
I’d probably bring the m3
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Looks like a nice fall day :tup:
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Here’s a writeup from someone who was driving on Sunday: Bark's Bites: Fear, Trust, and Character Are All Revealed By the Glen | The Truth About Cars
The writer has an obligation to put the reader in his shoes, to vividly describe his reality in a way that is descriptive enough to allow the reader to vicariously share his experiences. It is likely, dear reader, that I shall fail you today in my attempt to share my experience from this past weekend, but let me attempt by starting with this:
Watkins Glen is perilously wondrous.
If the top of the Pyramid of Speed is represented by wheel-to-wheel racing, then racing at the Glen represents the final brick at the summit, cemented by years and years of tireless labor. This is no country club track, with acres of runoff space. If you make a mistake at Watkins Glen, you will hit something, and you will hit it with remarkable velocity.
How was the racing? I’ve grown somewhat weary of the whole Chump series, mostly the rules on top of rules and AER seems to be more relaxed.
they only had about 35 cars so the track was pretty empty. The place was filled with all kinds of pro and semi-pro drivers having a blast. I bump started Randy Pobst and later while talking to him got rudely interrupted when Mr Penske called him about something. Mike Skeen and I talked E30s for a while and there were a bunch of people I didn’t know that upon looking up later on facebook all have profile pictures of them in Ferrari challenge cars, craftsman trucks, or their helicopters. It was cool just to be there hanging out, nobody had an ego, this event was about fun.
The quality of driving was higher than chump but it lacked having enough cars to really make it interesting. Rules are a bit different from chump. It’s a 3 day event with friday being qualifying and practice. They took laptimes from friday and used them to class you. No sandbagging because if you run a large delta on raceday they bump you up classes during the race (or something like that). It’s a fun format because it’s less about building a cheater car which also makes it easy for people from other series to come and play without rebuilding their cars. I still like chumpcar better because the politics of building a car are a fun part of the game to me and the result is a field of about 100 cars at the glen that are all able to compete against each other in one class which makes the racing exceptional.
Here is my friend Anthony driving the Rally Baby E30
some of the videos posted on the forum-which-shall-not-be-mentioned along with some commentary surrounding the situations presented clearly contradict the statement that the driving is of higher quality.
this is a pointless argument since many drive both series. I can only comment on what I saw, if chump had a 35 car field then it might look different also.
It sounds like a great event/series but I’d probably be a speed bump to those guys.
plenty of racers had their wives and kids out running stints like in chump. I don’t think you’d be a roadblock.
Great article.