Coatesville Invitational Vintage Automobile Grand Prix

Earlier today the City of Coatesville held a Grand Prix as a fundraiser for their Parks & Recreations department. The city is an old steel town in PA. They were looking for an out of the box event for raising funds. I was there all day today, and so was the whole crowd. I think they pulled it off.

Not everything went smooth. But this was the first time they have ever done anything like that. I have been to professional race tracks that are worse. The city crew did a good job.

We had a couple guys in the event. The one int he yellow A speedster works for me, the other in the Valiant is a very good friend. If the original 1965 cutoff was a little higher I would have run my Barracuda. Apparently the cutoff was relaxed some, but not publicized.

There was an interesting mix of cars there. Here's some pics from my shop's book of faces:

Our club helped out with that. I would have liked to be there, but I had another commitment.

I'm glad it went well. I must say, they did a lousy job of advertising it. I'm a car guy and I'm in Coatesville several times a week , and I didn't know about it until just 3 days ago, when I saw an ad on a billboard on the RT 30 bypass. I know a couple of people in the region with cars that could have been eligible to compete, and they didn't know about until I told them about it.

That's looks really cool. Sad I was so close but missed out.

I agree they could have promoted it better in our region. I would have posted something earlier, but I haven't had much free time to get on the board lately.

Wow, I'm right in Downingtown and didn't know this was happening...

Old_Town wrote: Wow, I'm right in Downingtown and didn't know this was happening...

I'm in D'town too.

wheels777 wrote: Dang. Let me know about that next year. The Fiat would be a blast to run that event in.

I thought you sold the Fiat? If they do it again I'll post it early here.

Very interesting. I'm in RI and wouldn't have been able to make it even if I knew about it. Nevertheless, it's refreshing to see something like this happening. It'd be great to see more of this type of event happening elsewhere. What was the format? Was there actual wheel-to-wheel racing or was it time trials? It'd also be interesting to know how the organizers convinced the city council to allow it. How was competitor/spectator safety and liability insurance for the city handled? Those are the primary issues that usually deter other communities from holding competitive car events like this on city streets. Maybe they could provide a template for others to pull off an event like this.

I don't know how they handled insurance, but apparently the city council was 100% behind the idea. They had a 2.75-mile loop of closed streets around center city. There was a series of "races", with cars started at 10- or 15-second intervals and passing only permitted on certain stretches. Longer straights were broken up with haybale chicanes or offsets. I helped with course layout in a minor way and we tried to make it so that there was a major element shortly before each 90-degree street turn, in order to make sure cars were slowed well in advance of the big, dangerous turns.

In Glenmoore, was out and about that day and saw the lotus and thought nice looking car being driven on the street. Then on the way home I see that number 57 thing rolling down the road, the kids thought that was way cooler.

But anyway if I knew about it I would have gladly spent a day there.