WGI Opening Day

Saturday April 24 is opening day at Watkins Glen International. This will be the first driving event of the year for the Niagara Region Porsche Club of America. This year’s event is on Saturday to avoid the log jam we ran into last year. In fact to further streamline things, we have a 1:00 pm reservation for our laps of the track.

THIS IS A RAIN OR SHINE EVENT.

We will meet at Eastview Mall, Victor NY, in the parking lot near Macy’s between 9:00 and 9:30am. Be sure to sign the NRPCA waiver. See URL below for a map of Eastview.

Rob Dean will be leading the Buffalo contingent. Meet Rob at Autoplace Porsche at 8 am. Departure time from Autoplace will be 8:15 and arrival at Eastview Mall will be ~9:30.

EASTVIEW MALL MAP

Driver’s meeting will be when Rob and his group arrive. We’ll go over the route, what to do if you get lost, etc.

Bill Schicker will take a group and depart Eastview mall at ~9:45. Tom and Babs will take the remaining cars and leave about 15 minutes later. The two groups will meet up again near the track.

We will be taking a scenic ride through the Finger Lakes countryside. The trip to WGI should take about 2 hours with a ~15 to 30 minute potty break (depending on the line at the bathroom) in Penn Yan.

I will have rally style route sheets available. They have the entire ~70 mile trip mapped out with mileage to the nearest 1/10th mile and with prominent landmarks identified. Reset your odometers as we exit the mall (Pizza Uno across the street) so your mileage will match the route sheet. In the event you get separated from the group you can still follow the route and catch us up.

The mid trip potty break in Penn Yan will be at Byrne Dairy just like previous years. If you can’t find a parking spot at Byrne Dairy there is plenty of parking at the bank just across Route 14a from the dairy or in the Aldi’s parking lot. We’ll be stopped until the line at the ladies room is gone then we’ll finish our trip to the track. Snack food, drinks, potties, and gas are all available at the dairy.

Once we arrive at WGI, Gate #2, we will have to sign their waiver before we enter the track. We will be told at that time where we should gather while we wait for our turn on the track.

A representative from WGI will collect $25.00 from each car. The $25.00 covers the cost of three pace car lead laps of the track. Be sure to have CASH. They don’t take checks or credit cards.

I have been told WGI concessions will be open where you can get dogs, hamburgers, soda.

For those leaving right after their laps, you can follow the same route back to Eastview Mall or take the quickie route to the NYS Thruway. The quickie route is mapped on side two of the route sheet. Or you can be daring and strike out on your own to discover even more twisty roads. There are LOTS of them in the Finger Lakes. You can also take advantage of the many wineries in the area. Make a day of it so to speak.

Come and join us. This is one of my favorite events all year. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as Babs and I do.

Tom & Babs Lyons & Bill & Jane Schicker
585-415-8055

Watkins Glen International Raceway

Location: Watkins Glen International Raceway

Start at: April 24, 2010 9:00AM

End at: April 24, 2010 6:00PM