In 2004 a couple of vintage racers got together and said, "What if we started our own club" They started calling around to other racing friends and asking the same question along with "and if you did start up in a new club what would you want from it?"
Well, it seems that it boiled down to three things, Safety, Safety, & Safety. It seemed that everyone felt that if you got that part right, car safety, driver safety and a safe attitude, everything else would just follow. And it appears that they were correct.
Coming out of the gate in 2004 with one event in hand, the New Hampshire Vintage Festival, they quickly added the PVGP BeaveRun Historics and kept right on from there.
Now recognized as a premier vintage racing group they have a schedule that spans a nice locale and a full year. Ranging from the Northern tracks of Watkins Glen & NHIS to VIR, Starting on the East Coast in Southern New Jersey at NJMP going west to encompass Summit Point and BeaveRun. Developing a coalition of like minded clubs their members can race at places like Mosport and Roebling Road with all the advantages of club members.
Safety, Safety, Safety has been the mantra and with a enviable event record behind them it works. Boasting a in-house driver's school that rivals the best pro schools around, to a cadre of some of the best technical people in the business. Sharp minds and a very active driver's committee helps all of the drivers to have a safe and enjoyable race. Active member support gives our paddocks and race venues a relaxed and welcoming atmosphere. Add a few off season events to keep us all in touch and you have one of the finest vintage racing clubs you could join.
Thanks, Bob, Tivvy, Ralph, Mark, Brad, Chris, Bill, Kim, and all the others that have taken this club from an idea to a reality
Board of Directors
Rev 4.0 07/11/2009
Officers:
Mark Palmer - President mark@vrgonline.org
VRG Director and Secretary since the club started in 2004. Event Chairman, BeaverRun and Turkey Bowl. Participated in over 120 vintage events since 1991, in my 1957 MGA roadster. Do all my own car prep and maintenance. Driving Instructor for 6 years. Former President and Editor, MG Vintage Racers. Professional career in mechanical engineering, management, and sales. Married to Janet Westlund, who enjoys attending many of our races.
Bob Girvin - Vice-President bob@vrgonline.org
Active vintage racer for the last 22 years. Event Chairman for the Mt. Equinox Hillclimb for 19 years. Member of the VSCCA Driver Committee for the past 12 years. Mechanical design engineer and owner of a manufacturing company for 24 years. Retired since 1998.
- Driver Committee Chairman
Ralph Steinberg - Secretary ralph@vrgonline.org
Vintage racing since 1992. Race Chairman, Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix, for 3 years and co-chair prior to that. Qualified Technical Inspector, 7 years. Has owned and managed Cloverleaf Auto Service for 20 years, a vintage sports car repair, restoration, and race preparation shop near Philadelphia, PA.
Ed Valpey - Director ed@vrgonline.org
Ed's experience with motorsports racing began with a VSCCA license in 1982. Since then he has competed in Formula Fords, Spec Racers, and various vintage and rally cars. Ed instructs professionally, teaching members of various government agencies and independent contractors in counter-terrorism-related driving techniques. HIs collection consists of '50 J2 Allard, a '65 Ginetta G4R, a '72 Royale Formula Ford, and two projects: a '60 Ferret sports-racer and a '68 Camaro.
- Chief Driving School Instructor
William Hollingsworth - Director bill@vrgonline.org
Active in vintage racing since 1993.
- Newsletter Editor
Paul Bova - Director/Treasurer paul@vrgonline.org
Paul has been involved in Vintage Racing since 1999. He is a member of several vintage racing organizations; VRG, VSCCA, SVRA, and VSCDA. Paul serves as an instructor for VRG and has participated in the last three driving schools at NHIS.
Paul is also involved in other aspects of the automotive hobby, serving as President of the Connecticut Chapter of the Ferrari Club of America. He enjoys restoring cars, having restored two vintage Mustangs, a 1976 Camaro and a 1967 Volkswagen Cabriolet. He does a good percentage of the work on the two cars that he is currently racing, a 1959 Turner Mark 1 and a 1981 Crossle’ club Ford.
Paul and his wife organize and run a major charity concours called Festa di Ferrari, raising over $130,000 for charities in the last four years.
Darry, Paul’s wife, does the layout and production for the VRG newsletter, Paul functions as proofreader, sounding board and occasional contributor to the newsletter.
Tivvy Shenton - Director
Vintage racer since 1986. VRG Director and Chief Scrutineer since club’s inception. Apprenticed at Rolls Royce for 6 years. Professionally involved in race car fabrication since 1965 with Alan Mann Racing (Ford UK), Broadspeed Engineering (UK), SpecFab as owner under contract to Ford UK, Ford Germany, and BMW Munich. Founded Tivvy’s Autocraft USA in 1979, building pro rally cars and restoring/race preparing vintage cars.
- Chief Scrutineer
Mack McCormack - Director mack@vrgonline.org
Mack’s interest in things automotive began at age 16 when he restored a 1956 Austin-Healey 100/4. During college he sold the Healey and got hooked on Minis, an addiction that persists to the present. Mack first got into racing in the 80’s with EMRA, but then the demands of a career put motor racing on the back burner. In 1998 Mack joined SCCA and have been extremely active in Flagging & Communications. Mack has just stepped down as the Flag Chief for the New England Region, but is currently the Divisional Administrator for F&C for the Northeast Division of the SCCA. During the last ten years, in addition to SCCA Regional , National and Runoffs events, Mack has participated as a Marshal in numerous pro events including IMSA, CART, Grand Am and Formula 1. Since his retirement a few years ago, he has restored a 1966 Mini Cooper to vintage specs and has returned to vintage racing with VRG, SVRA, and VSCDA. While restoring his car, he also participated as a tech inspector for SVRA. Mack believes that VRG has a bright future in the vintage motor racing scene in the “greater northeast”. He aspires to the VRG vintage racing philosophy and believes that his previous experience is an asset to VRG as a member of the Board of Directors.
Steve Limbert - Director steve@vrgonline.org
Steve started racing in the SCCA after driver schools in 1972 with a Porsche speedster. For over 30 years he was a national competitor in the northeast, with invitations to the runoff some 25 times. He was very active in the SCCA at many levels including 2 terms as Area 2 Director, National Chief Steward, served on the National Court of Appeals, Flagger, tech guy and always a volunteer. He has also been a driver instructor at Pocono, Summit Point and most recently for the VRG at BeaveRun.
In 1978 he started Aircooled Racing, a shop that mainly builds vintage Porsche cars and does extensive engines and transmission work. Proper roll cage installations and other safety areas are also high on his priority; in 1998 he developed the Porsche only fuel cell for ATL. Presently he has a 911 and a 914-6 that are arrive and drive rentals.
In 2005 Steve went vintage racing and tried SVRA, HSR and others until he discovered VRG. The club’s philosophy and sportsmanship attracted him not only a competitor but as one who wants to give back to our club. He helps with tech and recently was the Race Chairman that helped to bring back the Jefferson 500 at Summit Point Raceway.
- Jefferson 500 Event Chairman
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