Legends of Motorsports, a Bobby Rahal Signature Event, held the second round of its inaugural season at historic Watkins Glen International in upstate New York on June 13-13, 2010. Legends of Motorsports called the weekend a “celebration of all things 1970s,” as it featured live music, disco dance parties, autograph sessions, a fan forum and, among others, a full field of F5000 cars.
The quality of the cars was high as featured marque Porsche was represented by multiple 956/962s and 911 variations, while other entrants included Lola T70s, a Ferrari 512S, McLaren M6B Can-Am and a healthy field of booming F5000 cars. The small field of approximately 50 cars were grouped into four races, including USRRC/Can-Am/FIA Championship of Makes, F5000/Classic Monoposto, IMSA GT/2 Liter Sports Cars/Thunder & Lightning/Group C/GTP and Formula Libre.
On track, misfortune struck John Giordano’s beautiful Ferrari 512S with a substantial shunt during Saturday’s qualifying race. Giordano reportedly lost control while avoiding another race car in the Inner Loop and his Ferrari hit the guardrails more than once. Fortunately, Giordano was not injured, although his Ferrari endured significant left side damage. As the rollback truck came into the paddock carrying the wounded Ferrari, the witnesses on hand all nearly cried, as just moments earlier this beautiful car set out of the garage in stunning fashion.
Legendary drivers complemented the cars and played a big role in the weekend. In addition to Bobby Rahal himself, Sam Posey, Bobby Brown and Doc Bundy were also on hand, as was celebrated Porsche driver Vic Elford, who served as the event Grand Marshal.
“Even with the rain and the fog it’s been a wonderful weekend,” Elford, the 24 Hours of Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring winner said. “The public is receptive and everyone is enjoying it. Legends of Motorsports is getting people more involved. It’s more fan friendly, more user friendly. I think it’s going to be great.”
Yes indeed, Sunday was a rain out, as fog and mist off the lake overcame the track and brought visibility down to less than 100 feet at times. Though rain and fog caused delays in Sunday’s schedule, Formula 5000 was the only race that had to be canceled due to dense fog.
Seb Coppola, President of the F5000 Driver’s Association, got out of his car on the “frozen” grid and made the call to do two pace-parade laps for the folks that were left in the stands. The grid disappeared into the mist and those in the pits were scared that if someone went off, they wouldn’t be able to find them for days! The F5000 win was awarded to Saturday’s qualifying race winner, Steve Davis in a 1969 Gurney Eagle Mk5.
“It was unfortunate that the weather did not cooperate on Sunday,” said series co-founder and 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal. “That was the only glitch this weekend. We had an amazing field of cars come out for our second event and the spectators really enjoyed the live music, autograph sessions, track touring and fan forum.”
The next Legends of Motorsports weekend is July 9-11 at Circuit Mont Tremblant in Quebec, Canada, with Ferrari as the featured marque.
Legends of Motorsports at Watkins Glen – Feature Race Results and Photos Gallery
USRRC/Can-Am/FIA Championship of Makes – Feature Race Results
1. Robert Ryan – McLaren M6B
2. James Freeman – Matich SR 3
3. Archie Urciuoli – Lola T70 Spyder
4. Doc Bundy – Lotus 23B
5. Johan Woerheide – Lola T70
USRRC/Can-Am/FIA Championship of Makes – Complete Results
F5000/Classic Monoposto – Qualifying Race Results
1. Steve Davis – Eagle Mk5
2. Dudley Cunningham – Lola T332
3. Jim Stengel – McRae GM-1
4. Kurt Engelmann – Lola T192
5. Tony Adamowicz – Eagle Mk5
F5000/Classic Monoposto – Complete Results
IMSA GT/2 Liter Sports Cars/Thunder&Lightning/Group C/GTP – Feature Race Results
1. David Friedman – Porsche 911 RSR
2. Zak Brown – Porsche 962
3. Peter Stoneberg – Porsche 911 RSR
4. Rob Hurley – Porsche 911
5. Ira Schoen – Ford Capri 2000
IMSA GT/2 Liter Sports Cars/Thunder & Lightning/Group C/GTP – Complete Results
Legends of Motorsports at Watkins Glen International – Photo Gallery (photo credit: Steve Rossini)
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Legends of Motorsports at Watkins Glen International – Photo Gallery Two (photo credit: Doug Seeley, Jr.)
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[Source: photo credit: Steve Rossini / Highland Design Studio; Doug Seeley, Jr.]
Good article and I especially like the photos of the Ferrari 512 by Doug Seeley. One of the best from the Golden Age.
I spoke with a driver at Barber during that event regarding the number of cars. He said that numerous cars were declined entry because their history was not good enough. Seems like the initial events would try to get as many cars as possible and they could trim in later years.
Wishing Legends the best of success. Haven’t been to an event yet, but hearing good things from competitors. Hopefully the word gets out and the fields grow.
Thank you for the coverage SCD.
It’s really nice to have such wonderful nostalgia provided for us, many of which participated for many years, and made many friends. Great job Bobby
Great article and great photos. That Ferrari 512 S is straight out of the great “Le Mans” movie. Was Erich Staller driving?
I went to this event and was a little disappointed by the small field of cars and the number of spectators. Although the cars were high quality , it just wasn’t as exciting as the vintage grand prix held there in September. I realize this was an inaugural event and only hope that it becomes more popular.
I always camp at the “Glen” and so I was able to pick a great site because there were so few other campers there.
I should also mention that if it wasn’t raining it was very uncomfortably HOT and humid. This might be the factor on which I decide to attend next year.
You can’t have it both ways…
I don’t want to be negative, but the Legends replaced the HSR event that has been held in the past several years at the Glen. The HSR event never equaled the SVRA event in Septemeber, but it was always a great time, with the HSR dinner on the lake always at treat.
HSR seemed to have a class for everyone. It was a treat to see the high end cars that the Legends series is trying to attract, while still having small bore cars.
The Legend Series has eliminated the small bore cars. In stead of doing the HSR Glen race we are now headed to Ohio for the SVRA race. Nothing against Mid Ohio, but we really like the Glen.
As I said, I don’t want to be negative but many of the elements in the establishing the Legends week end purposely seem to separate the vintage community. I love Sam Posey, but whats wrong with people associating small bore cars with vintage cars.
Looking forward to the SVRA race at the Glen this year.
I was a flagger at the flagging station (6) just before the Inner Loop when the Ferrari had its incident. I was watching it and about 100′ before the station the front of the car was down under breaking and started to shake, I thought not good, blinked my eyes and when I opened my eyes the the car had impacted the guard rail about 10′ or 15′ before station. Dirt was flying through the gaps and over the guard rail and onto the flagging station as it went by against the guard rail. Shortly after the flagging station the car rotated 180 degrees (now going backwards just off the guard rail in the grass). It came to a stop about 300′ or so beyond station. These are images in my mind’s eye scrapbook