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CORVETTE TODAY #262 - Discover Corvette Thunder At The Glen!
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Jul 12, 2025
Watkins Glen is the birthplace of American Road Racing. But did you know that they also have an event specifically for Corvette? Corvette Thunder At The Glen is an annual event that draws a huge Corvette following. Your CORVETTE TODAY host, Steve Garrett, is joined by Kip Zeiter, the Visitor Services Coordinator at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, New York. Kip gives us a fascinating history of the race track at Watkins Glen. He also reveals the story of Harley Earl attending a race in the early 1950's. That is where Harley got the inspiration for the Corvette! Kip runs down all of the events happening this year at Corvette Thunder At The Glen. Start planning your road trip to upstate New York after you check out this episode of CORVETTE TODAY!
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0:00
[Music] Welcome to Corvette Today, the show that
0:06
talks about everything Corvette with your host Steve Garrett, lifetime member of the National Corvette Museum,
0:13
president of the Corvette Club of Kansas City, Missouri, and radio disc jockey at the number one radio station in Kansas
0:20
City for over 45 years. Here's Steve Garrett.
0:28
Thanks for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette and the only
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current podcast dedicated to Corvette. I'm your host, Steve Garrett. I appreciate you tuning in. Corvette Today
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is brought to you by Wheelcraft. Want to dress up your Corvette with bright chrome or black chrome wheels? Visit
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Canadian Corvette Forum and Corvette Forum welcoming Corvette enthusiasts from around the world. Watkins Glenn is
3:49
the birthplace of American road racing. And one of the biggest events of the year at Watkins Glenn is Corvette
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Thunder at the Glenn. Here to tell us more about the event is Kip Zider. Kip is the visitor services coordinator at
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the International Motor Racing Research Center there in Watkins Glenn, New York. Kip, welcome to Corvette today.
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Hi Steve, it's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for being on the show. I'm really looking forward to hearing about this
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because I've heard so much about this event, but you're going to be able to tell us much more and how we can all get
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involved. First, Kip, give me a little bit of history about the Speedway there at Watkins Glenn.
4:23
Well, to give you a history of the Speedway, we actually need to start with a history of racing here from the get-go. The first postworld War II road
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race in the entire United States took place here in Watkins Glenn in 1948. It was all on public road. start finish
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line was in front of the county courthouse and it made a big circle utilizing those public roads of 6.6
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miles around the state park. So they ran on that from 1948 to 1952.
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Attendance grew from the early days of 10 12 15,000 to upwards of 130 to
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40,000. Wow. In 1951 and 52. Now, they had suffered a
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driver fatality in 1950, but mercifully had not had any spectator fatalities until sadly in 1952. A car kind of
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brushed the crowd. A young boy was killed and several other people were injured. So, as you might expect, that
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was the end of racing through the village. The crowds had simply grown so large they were almost spilling out into
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the street. So, for the next three years, they moved out of town. They used town roads. They just weren't in the
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village. and they developed a circuit of roughly 4 1/2 miles in length and they ran on that from 53 to 1955.
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Now the ultimate goal was to have a permanent circuit. You can't keep closing public roads down inconvenience
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for people and everything. So in 1956 550 acres of land were purchased up on
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top of the hill. And the first circuit, the first permanent circuit was built. It was roughly 2.4 miles in length, kind
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of a teardropshaped circuit. The goal was to have average speeds of 100 miles an hour, which they did. Years go on,
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what happens to race cars? What happens to technology? Race cars don't get slower, they get faster. So, by the late
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1960s, a circuit that had been built in 56 when cars were averaging 100 miles an
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hour was woefully inadequate when the cars were averaging upwards of 130 or 40 mph. In 1971, they added a section known
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as the boot. It's called the boot because quite honestly, that's exactly what it looks like. It added more than a
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mile to the track, bringing the total track length up to roughly 3.4. And that's pretty much the track as we know
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it today. So there's been two permanent circuits. The first one that was from 56
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to roughly 7071. The boot was added in 71 and the circuit has been more or less
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the same up until today. So in talking about the present day circuit, you really have to reflect on how the whole
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origin of racing began here 77 years ago. Now, that's pretty fascinating. Now, the
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racetrack is now owned by NASCAR, isn't it? It is. Originally, when that first circuit was built, there was a
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corporation that was founded. The corporation was intact for many, many, many years. They brought Formula 1 here
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to Watkins Glenn in 1961, and it had a glorious 20-year history until 1980. The
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track was getting into some relatively severe financial problems. at about that same time in part due to how they
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financed building the boot in the early 70s. So they actually hadn't been able
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to pay the purse for the 79 Grand Prix. They'd built up a lot of good feelings among the Grand Prix community. So they
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gave them a one-year reprieve and they came back and fortunately they were still in bad shape in 1980. So that was
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the last year of Formula 1. The track then went into bankruptcy for a couple years. There were still sports car club
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of America races being run on the track even though the track was in bankruptcy. It was purchased by Corning Glass in
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probably 81 or 82. I apologize I don't know the exact year. Corning Glass bought it not because they wanted to
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brag about owning a racetrack but Corning Glass's corporate philosophy was we want to do well for people in the
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region and when thousands of people come here for races they don't all stay in Watkins they can stay in Corning and
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Ithaca and number of places. Corning owned it. It was being managed by the International Speedway Corporation. Over
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the years, the percentages ISC's percentage went up. Corning went down.
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It ultimately became an ISC track. And of course, NASCAR gobbled up ISC here
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within the last two or three years. So, yes, you are correct that it is now a firmly NASCAR owned track, but it has
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only been a NASCAR owned track for the last several years. Gotcha. Now, Watkins Glenn has hosted
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nearly every road racing class as well, haven't they? They have. Most people think that the premier road racing series in the world,
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of course, is the Grand Prix circuit. As I just said, we hosted the Grand Prix here for 20 years from 1961 to 80. It
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was a absolute fabulous time. It was a much simpler time. The event was really
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almost community in that high school students would sell programs to raise money for senior trips.
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Nice. People from the village would sell tickets. I mean, it was great. So, Formula 1 had a great 20 years here, but
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Indie Car has raced here. Interestingly enough, not many people know that the first professional race, and by that I
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mean where people actually got paid to show up and compete here, was a NASCAR race back in 1957. So, NASCAR raced here
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in 57. They raced here in ' 64 and ' 65, and they have been a permanent part of
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the annual schedule since 1986. The NASCAR weekend is far and away the biggest spectator event that we have
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here. We've had Indie Cars and of course sports cars IPSA which is huge and getting bigger. Even NASCAR modifies. I
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grew up on short track racing and NASCAR modifies. The mods guys have run here on I think three or four different
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occasions. Wow. And they actually ran motorcycles I believe three or four times in the very
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early years of the permanent circuit. But there's not enough runoff area for bikes now. So the motorcycle thing was a
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fairly short experiment. Only lasted a few years. They haven't run motorcycle races at the track for years and years
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and years. Interesting. Now let's talk more about the connection that Watkins Glenn has with Corvette.
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Well, it all starts in 1951. The gentleman that designed the Corvette, the great Harley Earl, GM's
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head stylist and engineer, contacted a gentleman by the name of Nick Faboni, who was the owner of the then Glenn
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Chevrolet dealership. Mr. or wanted to come to Watkins Glenn to see the sports car races. And keep in mind in 51 they
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were still running through the streets of Watkins. So Mr. Fabone said, "Well, sure. You can come and you can spend the
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weekend with me." Harley was going to bring a very fancy, stylish car called the Lasaber, one of his 1950s fins and
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jet inspired design cars. And he needed a place to store it. So of course he was able to store it at Glenn dealership. So
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Mr. Earl comes out for the 51 races. He drives the car through the streets of town. The car is a huge hit. People
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hoggling it all the time. Mr. Earl himself was a huge favorite with spectators. He was a big tall genial
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gentleman. So he just endeared himself with everybody. He was absolutely blown away by the fact that there were again
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20 30,000 people here cheering all these cars as they were running through the streets. But they weren't cheering for
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any American cars. Oh, there were American engine cars like all
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the Cad Allards, but there was no true American sports car. Mr. Earl commented several times to Mr. Forbone throughout
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the course of that weekend that, "Wow, America just seems to be missing the boat here because there's MGs and there's Porsches and there's Ferraris,
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and you know, there's all different kinds of makes, but they're all foreign makes." So, Mr. Earl goes back to
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Detroit. Two years later, in 1953, we have the design of the Corvette, America's sports car. And subsequently
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he gives several interviews, one in particular to a Detroit journalist named Stanley Bronze where he flat out comes
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out and says, "I got the whole inspiration for the Corvette when I was in Watkins Glenn in 1951."
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Wow, that's how cool. And Corvettes have been racing there at the Glenn since the mid-50s then, haven't they?
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Yeah, pretty much. We've got photos, I think you have a couple photos there from 1955 and yes, they've competed here
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pretty much since then. You know, the 1953 Corvette honestly was kind of a sports car in name only. It was a two or
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three-speed automatic, a very low powered engine. Clearly, over the years, long ago, evolved into truly America's
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sports car, but the first ones really weren't that sporty. But yeah, since the mid-50s, Corvettes have competed here in
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any number of different classes and very, very successfully over the years. Fantastic. Well, Kip, let's take our
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first break. When we come back, we're going to get more into the specifics of Corvette Thunder at the Glenn. That's
12:46
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Steve Garrett. With me is Kiper. Kip and I are talking about Corvette at the Glenn. Kip, tell me the date of Corvette
16:48
at the Glenn. It's Saturday and Sunday, May 17th and 18th. For those people that may want to
16:53
come in on Friday the 16th, we are having a very informal welcome to the village party at a real cool bar called
17:01
Kla Rocks, which is just a block up from the courthouse, which is right in the center of town. So, anybody can show up
17:07
and hang out there. But the formal event is Saturday the 17th. We're having a car show from 10:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon
17:14
and then a wonderful dinner that evening. Our featured speaker is going to be Richard Prince, who's the official
17:20
Corvette race team photographer. I believe you've interviewed him. Yes, sir. Did a wonderful book called Corvette 70,
17:26
the one and only. He's spoken here at the center a couple different times. He's just a wonderful, fantastic gentleman. So, he's going to be our
17:32
featured speaker Saturday. And then Sunday is a drive the original 6.6 six mile street circuit and end up at the
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famous WGI for some laps around the track. Very cool. Now, talk to me more about the events on Saturday because I know
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you got food trucks there and things like that. Then you've got a dinner that night. Is that where Richard Prince is
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going to be speaking at that dinner? Yes, the car show itself is held at Clute Park, which is right at the end of
17:56
beautiful Senica Lake. So, you know, fingers crossed we'll have a lovely sunny day. Not a better place to hang
18:02
out than right in the park, right at the foot of the lake. The dinner is at the community building which literally is
18:08
right across the road from where the car show takes place in the park that afternoon. Richard will be our featured
18:14
speaker that night. We're very excited about that. There will be vendors and various other exhibitors and I'm in
18:22
process of trying to put together. It'll be a small but hopefully interesting exhibit of some Corvette race cars. We
18:29
won't have them mixed in with the cars that are there to be shown, but we'll have them in a separate area so people can go check out the Corvette race cars.
18:35
I'm still working on that project, but it's going to be a fun day. I don't think we have a band, but I think we have a DJ, so there'll be music and
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people could just come out and hang out and meet new people and look at cars. Pretty cool way to spend the day.
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Fantastic. Give me an overview of Sunday then, too. Well, here's kind of the awkward thing to be candid about it. The awkward thing
18:53
we're in the position of right now because our Sunday events actually right now are sold out. We have a finite
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number of cars that we can put on the street and then drive the original
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course. I think it's somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 cars. Pretty much it was the same thing going to the track to
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run the laps. While we're actually sold out of the Sunday events, the drive the
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old course and do the track, people are still encouraged to spend the night, stay over, all the merchants will be
19:22
open up and down Franklin Street. The cars are going to be positioned on Franklin Street and they'll be hanging
19:27
out there for a couple hours before everything takes off midway through the afternoon. We have reserved the Watkins
19:34
Theater. We're going to show a couple short films, one of which the center shows here quite frequently. It's called
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25 Years at Speed, the Watkins Glenn Story, and it's a great recap of the first 25 years of racing in Watkins. So,
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it takes you from 1948 to 1972. Wow. The other one I'm trying to to be
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honest, I'm trying to hustle something from the Corvette Museum in Bowling Green. We showed a great movie on kind
19:57
of the history of the museum here a couple years ago. So, if I can get my hands on that or just something kind of
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an overall arcing story of the history of Corvette. So, we'll have the theater blocked off for an hour, hour and a half
20:09
or so. Again, this is kind of awkward to say that our Sunday stuff is sold out. We still have plenty of space for the
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Saturday car show and the dinner. So, if you wanted to come out and just hang out with us for the day, you are more than
20:20
welcome to do that. That sounds good. Well, Kip, let's take our final break. When we come back, let's talk about how everybody can
20:27
participate at Corvette Thunder at the Glenn. That's coming up next here on Corvette Today.
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And now back to the only current podcast on Corvettes. Corvette Today with your host Steve Garrett.
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Thanks once again for listening and watching Corvette Today, the show that talks about everything Corvette.
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for more information. I'm your host Steve Garrett. With me is Kip Zider. We are talking about Corvette Thunder at
24:02
the Glenn. In this final segment, we're going to tell you how you can participate. Kip, if a Corvette owner
24:08
wants to participate in the event, how can they get registered? This is embarrassing. I don't have the
24:13
exact website, but if you simply Google Watkins Glenn Promotions Corvette Thunder at the Glenn, you're going to
24:18
get it. Okay. And you'll get a very nice website. You'll see Mr. Prince leaning against his Corvette. You can scroll down to
24:25
register for the Saturday car show andor the Saturday dinner. As I say, unfortunately our Sunday events are sold
24:32
out, but we urge you to stay over and just kind of hang out and have fun with us on Sunday. So, just Google up Corvette Thunder at the Glenn and you'll
24:39
find us. That's perfect. Now, there's also some sponsorship opportunities available. And I bring that up because that's great for
24:45
like Corvette clubs that want to come or even some vendors, isn't it? Yeah, definitely. When you go to that
24:52
website, not only is there a place to register if you just want to come and hang out with us individually, but yes,
24:57
should you be interested in sponsorship, there's a little window to open up for that and you can see the various levels
25:02
of sponsorship and what you get for that. This will air, I guess, about a month before the show. Who isn't always
25:07
looking for sponsorship? We're looking for sponsorship. So, yeah, if you see something that you might like or if you
25:13
just like to come and hang out with us, it's a bit of a stretch. I know this is a nationwide thing. You're in Kansas
25:18
City. We're in upstate New York. It's a bit of a stretch to ask somebody from Kansas City to drive up here, but
25:23
certainly New York, Pennsylvania, New England, Jersey, anybody in that general area. Easy peasy drive to get here. And
25:30
there can be lots worse places to hang out on a May weekend than Watkins Glenn, New York. Trust me. Definitely, buddy. That's for sure. Now,
25:38
you're also looking for some volunteers for the event, isn't that right? Yeah, we are. We can always use that for
25:44
registration, for cleanup. There's always stuff to do. We have been working on this event easily for my goodness
25:51
probably the last seven or eight months with a very small but very dedicated committee of Corvette enthusiasts and
25:58
fans and everything, but there's only so much we can do. So, yes, we're always looking for people to chip in and help
26:04
out and do whatever they can do. That sounds good. And you're right, for me in Kansas City, that's a long drive
26:10
to upstate New York. If I'm going to be flying in for Corvette Thunder at the Glenn, what's the best airport to fly
26:16
into? Well, the closest airport is probably Elmyra. It's not a very large airport,
26:22
so you're limited. Let's say a little bit. Ithaca is marginally farther away.
26:27
Again, Ithaca is about the same size as Elmyra. Your largest major airport, I'll say, would probably be either Syracuse
26:34
or Rochester. I would say do Rochester in lie of Syracuse. Easy peasy airport to get in and out of. pretty easy drive
26:40
to get down here. So, in terms of more airlines, more flights, more possible combination, and equally as important,
26:47
potentially a lower fair, I would check either Rochester or Syracuse on that, but you've also, like I say, you've got
26:52
Elmmyra and Ithaca. That sounds good. Are there any hotels that you would recommend in the area to
26:57
stay in while they're there for Corvette Thunder at the Glenn? We do have an official hotel. It's the Hotel Laurel. And in fact, when you get
27:04
on the website, you'll see a lovely picture. The Hotel Laurel is actually quite historic. It was the old Glen
27:10
Motor in which in the era of the Grand Prix days was the place to stay. The
27:15
drivers and the team owners all stayed at the Glen Motor in the Glen Motor in fell on some hard times and was recently
27:22
purchased and renovated and it's very nice now. It had an absolutely spectacular location overlooking Senica
27:29
Lake. The dining area has a floor to ceiling window view of the the lake. So that's our official hotel. That would be
27:35
right on the website. So you could call them and check out rates and availability easy enough. There's a
27:41
number of smaller, more mom and pop, I guess for lack of a better term, hotels in the area as well. One of the reasons
27:47
we're having it when we're having it is we're right on the cusp of the true tourist season here when the rates go up
27:54
dramatically and hotel availability gets to be difficult. So that's why we're kind of purposely doing this just a week
28:00
before. Memorial Day is pretty much the official kickoff of summer and that's when everything starts going up
28:05
ratewise. So, there's a reason why we've picked the weekend. The other thing I might talk about real quickly, if you do
28:11
come for the event, we urge you to come in and visit us here at the Motor Racing Research Center. This place opened up in
28:18
1998. We are an archival library research institution. Our whole reason for being is to keep the history of
28:24
international motorsports alive. So, we've got a reference library of over 6,000 books. We have periodicals. We
28:31
just have lots and lots of stuff. We're not a car museum, but I always have an interesting car on the floor. So, come
28:36
in and check out what we have on the floor and just come in and hang out with us. If you want to take a quick break from the car show, it's a fairly easy
28:42
walk from the lake up to our place and come hang out with us for a little bit, too. The phone number here at the center
28:48
is area code 607535944. That sounds fantastic. Kip, thank you so
28:55
much for being here on Corvette today. I look forward to Corvette Thunder at the Glenn. Thanks, Steve. I really appreciate the
29:01
opportunity to talk about it. If any of your listeners have any questions, if you call us, chances are I'll get the
29:07
phone and say hello. And please feel free to call with any questions you might have. But thank you for the opportunity. I really appreciate it.
29:13
Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette Today. And be sure to tell your family, friends, and other Corvette
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DJ. Thanks again for listening and watching Corvette today. [Music]
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