[Fot] Put-in-Bay races

[Duncan Charlton]

This year's featured marques at the Put-in-Bay, Ohio vintage races (August 27-29th) were Turner, Morgan 3-wheelers and Triple-M MGs.  Put-in-Bay races are for pre-1963 under-two liter cars and are run the old fashioned way, around hay bales.  Great atmosphere -- one friend said he'd been going to vintage races for 25 years and this one was the best recreation of old-style racing.  There were about 40 racers, I think, but a lot of spectators, including the local islanders, came to watch the racing on the taxiway and runway at the temporarily closed airport, and spectators were allowed a great view from up close at the airport terminal building.  The schedule for registered racers and spectators was pretty full for three days straight although racing occurred only on the second day because the airport is needed every day by the mail plane and the plane that takes high school kids to their school on the mainland (racing was on Wednesday). The local police led a quick two laps around the original race course, run on the island's streets.  I drove that 5000+ foot-long straight many times and could barely imagine flying down that long stretch, past people's front yards.  Corners were, of course, very tight and trees and boulders lined the original course.  The awards luncheon was on the second story of a restaurant situated right on the wharf, so we got a great view of tall ships coming and going in preparation for the bicentennial celebration of the battle of Put-in-Bay (a.k.a. the battle of Lake Erie) where Admiral Perry defeated the British Fleet in 1813.

Allen Goode put on a good show at the vintage road race revival at Put-in-Bay with his 1963  #44 TR4, coming in second to a Porsche RSK.  Nice folks -- I met him and his wife in the paddock where I had my Morgan 3-wheeler (I came in a distant last in the all-Morgan race in our stock V-twin powered Morgan against modified Ford-powered Morgan trikes, two of which ran away from the pre-war supercharged MGs).

Local boy Rich Hahn got into the exhibition group with his '66 TR4 and Cornell Babcock ran his '58 TR3.  Malcolm Taylor was there in a 1960 TR3 too.

It was a long, long haul for us (coming from Texas) but perhaps I'll go again someday, next time probably with our 1952 Morgan Plus 4.

Photos and links to photo sites are found at the Put-in-Bay Road Races Reunion Facebook page (link here:) http://tinyurl.com/og6vo4f 
 --my photos here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/charl10/
...and there is more information at: pibroadrace.com

Duncan Charlton
1952 Morgan Plus 4
#6 red
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