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WatkinZ Glen As usual, if you see a pic here you really like of me, the credit goes to JonT. My best friend in NYC - who never had a driver's license in his life and doesn't even like to ride in a car- got all excited when I told him I was going to Watkins Glen. "Now THAT is something I would like to read about" he said, as I nearly dropped my fork. Not what I expected at all. And so there I was, off to Watkins Glen. I dragged JonT along with me and it's a good thing I did. Watkins Glen turns out to be not actually so far as I thought, and only 3 hours from Allentown, Pennysylvania. My favorite BMW dealership is in Allentown, and I have suddenly a whole bunch of stuff to repair in my little glory-mobile, as well as a pretty ridiculous expenditure on sport seats. More on that later. Much more on that later, like Friday or Saturday of this week. One thing for now, my check engine light came on about a week ago. I did the quick DIY- covering it with black duct tape and nearly forgot about it. I pulled off the tape on the way to Daniels to remind me to have them check it and- no light. They check the fault codes anyway and it turned out to be some sort of evaporation leak ( I think ) which they will watch. The interesting part is that on such an error, the check engine light will turn itself off after 30 starts after the error. Weird eh? Back on the road to Watkins Glen and God Bless my frikin Traffic Pro. It had the hotel and the restaurant we were going to already programmed so we could sit back and relax and enjoy the ride into the hinterlands. Yes, let's face it, I am a city gal. This foray into the land of hills and valleys was fine but where the heck would I find something wonderful to eat and a nice place to lay my head? The Glenora Winery and Inn was sort of like an old folks home or a spa in it's demeanor, with an attractive new building and large red wine caskets strewn about the wide grass lawns, gently sloping to the vinyard and the lake below. Sitting outside on the deck the diners could watch Jon and I turning around after missing the turn for the winery as we arrived near sunset. 
 
We joined them on the deck after the organist, Ed, accepted requests for "Someone to Watch Over Me", "Night and Day" and "Begin the Beguine". I sang with Ed later and he turned me on to the Saint Nickolas Club in Harlem where they have jam sessions. We sampled the Winery's potables, from the champagne in the salad dressing to the Chardonnay in the fish sauce, as well as the glass of Glenora Sirah Jon ordered (very dark and berry nose, no legs) and the Glenora Pinot Noir I tried (lighter color, good legs, oaky smoky and light. A winner imho.) An organic baby green salad, grilled swordfish, rice pilaf and fresh veggies were nice enough, very especially the salad. The sun sank, the lights came up and the mosquitoes prepared for their feast.  Traffic Pro into the night, and 25 minutes later we were at the Best Western Lodge on the Green in Dundee. On one hand I have to thank Michel Potheau for the recommendation, as no other place I wanted would have us for just one night. On the other hand- YUCK. Thanks to Jon trading rooms with me I had a place that didn't smell, no view of the cars, and was relatively clean- although the bathroom still had hairs in places I don't want to look. Let's just say I was grateful to have the flip flops I use to wash the car to wear in the shower so I didnt have to touch anything. Happily there was a nice Star Trek on TV to watch, and drop off to sleep. ~*~*~*~Esmerelda's Track Day at Watkins Glen~*~*~*~*~   I just love saying that. It's about as close I am going to come to having a track day at Watkins Glen in Emmy so there ya go. A moment of bitching and complaining here: What is it about track people that they don't feel they have to use things like SIGNS or to plan ahead or answer you when you speak to them? As if they are unable to communicate, only to think about the physics of the track. So even though I had researched this scene thoroughly, instead of finding the International Club or the Glen Club Suites or whatever, we ended up paying $25 for the lapping instead of $45 and that was fine by us! It was so unclear where we were to go, we ended up just turfing the cars in front of the souvenir shop. Immediately there were people gathering and admiring our cars. This I did not understand, since we're just some old Z3s not even track prepared, and there are all these exciting cars around, I didn't imagine anyone would even notice us. All last night we would drive past other hot sports cars in town for the event and just think "WOW". The women from the souvenir shop ran out side when we pulled up and asked if she could just look at our cars. Well, of course we loved that.  We headed down to the paddock area to find Team Spartanburg and John Moore after writing about him for the June New York Chapter BMW CCA newsletter, Die Zugspitze. John's from my nabe in the Big Shiny City and he's the one who really talked me into coming out for the race. On the way we found the #38 Villaconn Z3 CoupØ heading out for practice laps with a fierce looking Porshe Boxster wearing it's hard top right behind it waiting it's turn .   Soon after, the #72 TSR Z3 CoupØ ambled up out of the paddock and headed out to the track-giving us the "thumbs up".   It was pretty amazing the kind of access all the racing teams allow for spectators. They seemed to have all the time in the world to talk to us and answer questions, even if they were heading to the track for their races in 20 minutes. Something led us to the Ferraris. I guess more accurately there was nothing stopping us from heading to the Ferraris, so we Z3 moths were drawn into the Ferrari incandescant light.  OK, yes, Rachel is having Ferrari attacks. The whole Ferrari area is Ferrari Red, their massive Red trucks, their marvelous red cars, their red shirts, it's just a red world. I saw the sponsor Da Silvano and felt a pang for home- and food. Da Silvano has to be one of the greatest restaurants in New York City, celebrities and those in the know, know Da Silvano, very downtown, very chic. I had no idea I was going to find all this familiar sophistication in the heat and humidity of the hinterlands in summer. 
 Share the Power... ... of a Wish
The next sign I read in the Ferrari team area was "Make A Wish". They have a Make A Wish Car- and it's driven by a woman!  Mandy Reimert has raised $290,000 already for Make A Wish. She's a real RoadsterGal   and a native New Yorker from Long Island. She explained to us how she got into racing after her husband bought her her first Porsche- and she still grins when she speaks of that 996.
Once again, everyone at the team tent was generous with their time, encouraged us to get up close to the cars. I was in Ferrari heaven. 
 That's the power to share... and inside the Ferrari Team trailer... and outside with the Ferraris ... the see through hood over the engine in the rear..   a view of the cockpit of a Ferrari in the parking lot... Tearing ourselves away from the Ferraris (it was hard, very hard) we ambled around the rest of the paddocks like a festival checking in the booths and ran smack into Gerald McNeely, the crew chief from Villaconn International.  
Gerald McNeely and Dave Chenowith with their 330i 
He and Dave Chenowith and Al Villamil were busting with news from iZ3's Local Arizona Z3 Group led by Paul Ebeyer. They had such a great time hanging with the AZ Z3ers they stayed late and partied and didn't want to go! Their 330i #22 was up on jackstands as they brought me up to date on their victories. Al Villamil explained that Villaconn International has four drivers in the top- four spots of the Sport Touring I standings, supporting BMW as a marque in this series as racers- not to mention Z3s CoupØs as a model. While we were there the Villaconn folks were helping out the Lexus team with some parts.
Villaconn International racing has got it all together in the right spirit, and they are based in my home town in Huntingdon Valley in Pennsylvania, so I hope to visit them and learn more.  
 
 
  
 There was a 2001 Porsche 911, driven by Senator Danny Marshall of Virginia's 14th House District.. It's front bumper is painted with "www.thejenniferfund.com" and handprints from the children who are cancer patients at the hospital in Virginia where Danny's niece was a patient. This car and driver raise funds for families who need help dealing with the many costs of treating children with cancer.     
 We caught Senator Marshall just after his race as he was grabbing a banana and pigeonholed him on my "Why I don't like driving in Virginia" rap since the return from Homecoming 1998. He verified that as well as yes, Botentourt county will put you in jail for speeding Virginia does get half the nation's budget for roads- and added that one third of the nation's paved roads are in Virginia. I am not too sure that rehabilitates Virginia in my view. All kidding aside, Virginia is a great place with great people and great roads. Still, I will take the long way if I have time. ;) Now it's time to get back to the staging area by the souvenir shop to have our parade laps on the track. By this time we are beginning to find all the GangsterZ- Z3ers from the Z3 Rides email list who have come out to Watkins Glen to see the coupØs run, and to get our chance to drive the famous course. Among the group of about 50 cars we had 5 Z3s- that is 4 roadsters and one coupØ- and a 6th Z3er who now drives a Corvette. How can I tell you how groovy it was? I can't. So I took video. I was lucky, the cars in front of me also knew how to play the "catch up game" so I had a blast. There we were on the track at Watkins Glen and boy oh boy was it fun to drive. I only realized the week before that the "track" is not a simple oval. These "road courses" are like driving in Tuscany- nicely paved roads running around wide green lawns and forests. I saw the famous blue wall going by and was pretty amazed at the drunken campers along the route. By the time they led us off the track I was beginning to like this waaaaay too much. We wanted to stay for the race with our Z3 pals, but Jon and I both have Moms who are sick at home, and both of us had to get back to be with family, many miles to go just to get there and many more to travel with our families in terms of deeper issues. On the way home I saw a pale blue Ferrari from the paddock in my side mirror- even at a distance that car is something special. We tagged along behind them in our own little Ferrari-Z3 caravan for a while before they seemed actually anxious to get rid of us. We left my car at Daniels for the big week of work, Jon dropped me off in the city - but first stopped for gas and a Krispy Kreme Doughnut. I only ate it because Dr Biggly has been telling me about the mouth watering sin rings since I was marooned in North Carolina 3 months ago. Evil doings in the Lincoln tunnel, where I lost my Krispy Kreme doughnut virginity in the passenger seat of Jon's Z3. There's no Speedvision on my Time Warner cable, finally Jon found a great recap of the race on the Watkins Glen site.... "Villaconn International was awarded its second-straight victory in the Grand-Am Cup Sport Touring race at the Sports Car Grand Prix...Beau Brisson and Ken Dobson in the team's #34 BMW Z3 were awarded first place honors... 
#34 picked up its first win of the season at Grand-Am Cup's last race in Phoenix...BMW showed its dominance in the Sport Touring I Class at The Glen with Team Spartanburg's #72 BMW Z3 starting the race from the pole position and Villaconn's #34 BMW beside it... " GET DOWN! The BMW Z3s are kicking ass on the race track, both of our teams! Both of the Z3 teams- as well as the Porsches and Ferraris and all the other teams welcome and invite you to come out to the track and watch and learn and dream of driving in a championship, driving on a famous course... and it doesn't hurt a BIT that we're presently top dogs. Uh HUH! So much for all that talk on the message boards about which car is fastest, eh? Talk is cheap - but racing ain't cheap, and street racing is just a cop out for those who can't face the track. People like Mandy Reimart in her Make A Wish Ferrari and Senator Danny Marshall in his Jennifer Fund Porshe are already winners in the race that counts. The next race where you can see everyone run is at Virginia International Raceway TUESDAY-THURSDAY, June 25-27. You can see the race won at Watkins Glen on Speedvision on July 6, 5-7pm- someone please tape it for me? There also was some kind of webcast of the Watkins Glen event- which I missed. All Race information is on the Grand-Am Web site. Everyone - please go out to the track for the races if you can, bring your friends in Lexus's, and Hyundais, Boxsters and Ferraris and more, Z3ers should get in touch with the teams and see about having get togethers and make sure you wander down to the paddock areas and say a special hello to the BMW Z3 Teams, they will all be happy to see you- and you'll be glad you made the effort, I promise!  
 
 
      
   
      
  
    
   
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