Mid Ohio Track Days and London Cobra Show

[Garry Bopp]

Kudos to the Ohio Cobra Club! They are a great group of people that put on a terrific show! And the show is not even the best part ... the best is the fact that it is all done for the Cystic Fibrosis Charity. At the conclusion of the event Saturday night, the OCC presented a check for $50,000. to the Cystic Fibrosis group!

Kennie Pagan, Gary Dyck and myself hauled our cars up to Ohio to take part in the fun. This was my first time for these events but Gary and Kennie had been there before. Tuesday's drive to Ohio featured hours upon hours of rain and fog ... made for a long day, finally arriving at the Quality Inn in Bellville, OH after a 12 hour drive. Wednesday morning was "segment training" with lead and follow driving. Very informative and great training. The afternoon was "open track" time. I only did one session as it was getting very warm inside the coupe! Gary and Kennie were both struck with mechanical issues so didn't do any track time on Wednesday afternoon. Local folks from the Ohio Cobra Club helped Gary and Kennie get their cars back in running order, though it was a late night for them. Thursday morning was again "open track" with 30 minute sessions. We had a great time chasing each other around the track. Mid Ohio is a really beautiful facility and very well maintained. We were able to park our cars in pit garages between sessions. Only one car went off track during both days ... it was a coupe (but not mine) and he went off in a gravel trap ... made a huge cloud of dust but no damage except for lots of gravel everywhere under the hood and actually between the rims and beads of the tire on the side that hit the gravel.

Friday was a "cruise" day and the three of us did an informal cruise through the Hocking Hills area. Gary Dyck had led this tour in previous years so he was a great cruise leader and we didn't even get lost! Beautiful roads with lots of twisties and elevation changes and great fun. Lunch at Jimbo's biker bar and then back to the hotel. Saturday morning, 238 Cobras lined up at the Speedway gas station/truck stop. At 9:00 am, all the Cobras fired up and paraded into London with police escort so no stops for traffic lights or STOP signs ... pretty cool. We all got parked and attended a driver's meeting for those doing the charity "burnout" rides down main street. I got in line early on before it got hot. I did two runs and can honestly say that I have never drag raced down Main Street in any town, anywhere, before this. Truly a unique experience! A total of 520 rides were given at $10 a pop ... pretty nice chunk of change for the Cystic Fibrosis charity.

Garry

Here are some of my pics from the track and London show: (no, the Oscar Meyer Wienermobile did not race at the track!)

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[Garry Bopp]

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[Garry Bopp]

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[WIS89]

Garry-

Thanks for sharing the details of this pretty cool event. Looks like you had a pretty good time, and for a good cause to boot! Great pictures, and a fun read. Thanks!

Regards,

Steve

[smithtlw]

Gary,

It was nice meeting you and thanks for the inspiration you provided to me and my son. We had a great time and are looking forward to attending with our coupe! One of our goals was to look for color inspiration and even though we are leaning towards a red it is tough to beat black!

-Todd

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[Tom Veale]

Nice report! Yet another year has passed with my not attending. I've been wanting to do this event for 10 years.

My first race at Mid-Ohio was in 1990. It's a great track - more like Great America for auto enthusiasts! Excellent roller coaster ride with car control, weight transfer, tire patch control, brake control and suspension loading/unloading all wrapped into a 2+mile circuit. My last time there was with NASA in 2009 or 2010 I believe. That was in my Challenge Series car. In the past I raced there in a '53 Jag, '55 Jag Coupe, '59 Frog-Eye Sprite and a '61 Jag MkII. I have always loved that track.

I wonder, would my '33 be welcome at London or would I be an outcast?

Best regards, Tom

[Garry Bopp]

Tom,

Shell Valley had several examples of their hot rod on display ... so, bring it on!

Garry