A big thank you to Watkins Glen International and Corning and the Southern Finger Lakes for providing this tire-squealing adventure. As always, all opinions are our own.
Watch: This could possibly be the most hysterically dumb thing we’ve ever done (and this is saying a lot!)
With spring in the air, the time had come to take our new (to us) camper van out for a maiden voyage.
We could think of no better way to properly break in our new baby than to run him around the track at Watkins Glen International!
One might call it a baptism of fire, or at least smoke, as in your brakes are starting to smoke.
This would be quite a test since Watkins Glen is no ordinary oval speedway, no sir, this Grand Prix course has eleven turns, including a full hairpin, so the brakes, tires, and our nerves would all be getting a good work out.
We weren’t sure that a motorhome, no matter how small, would be allowed on the racecourse, but our friends at the Corning and Southern Finger Lakes Visitors Bureau loved the idea and set everything up for us.
Actually, we aren’t that special, anybody can drive their car around the famed track as a part of their Drive The Glen program.
Admittedly, most people aren’t foolhardy enough to do it in an RV.
Even under the controlled conditions, following the pace car at non-Formula One speeds, it became abundantly clear after the first set of curves that this was no place for a top-heavy camper van.
David may have come in dead last, but felt the need for a victory lap anyway!
But our rig was a trooper, and managed the raceway without rolling over.
Many of his contents did not fare as well; there may be no better way to empty the cupboards of a rolling house than to take a series of eleven sharp turns at top speed.
Flying debris aside, we figure that since he took the checkered flag with flying colors (even if it was in dead last), he should be ready for just about anything we might throw at him in the future.
David & Veronica, GypsyNester.com
DELVE DEEPER and find more to do in the Fingerlakes Area of New York:
Watch us soar above it all while gliding in a sailplane
Kick some glass in Corning!
We drove our motorhome on Watkins Glen Speedway!
Go plum Western at the Rockwell Museum
See all of our adventures in New York!
A big thank you to Watkins Glen International and Corning and the Southern Finger Lakes for providing this tire-squealing adventure. As always, all opinions are our own.
YOUR TURN: How do you think David handled himself on the track? Does he have a future in RV racing?
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