GIGP2002


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2002 All British Gathering

and the

Grand Island Grand Prix Reinactment

at Grand Island, NY

July 26-28, 2002

Celebrating 150 years of Grand Island History and the 1952 Grand Prix Race reinactment.

Last year we toured down to Buttermilk Falls State Park and joined the Twin Tiers Sports Cars Club and the MGCC / CNY (and one guy from Canada towing the MGA) for a hard to beat day of picnicking and camaraderie. After this event we (the old board of 2000-2002) were wondering what we could do to top it. Allen Hess suggested making the All British Gathering for 2002 part of the Grand Island Auto Event weekend celebration. And as they say, the rest is history.

The All British Gathering 2002 was coupled with the Grand Island Sesquicentennial Celebration and from the start the MGCC / WNY involvement was well received. The weekend of July 27th was dedicated to automotive events that occurred at the 100 year celebration in 1952. Back then 73 cars and drivers competed in the Grand Prix of GI. Three drivers from that race were able to join in with the 2002 Grand Prix re-enactment in which several MGCC / WNYers managed to participate.

In the 1952 race, Bruce Norton (Rochester, drove a Crosley-Super Sport), Tommy Hoan (Hamilton, Ont. drove a MG TC) and Jim Ottman (Kenmore, drove a Singer, see SPOKES, Volume 44 Numbers 7 & 8 for Jim Ottman's story).

Friday night the Holiday Inn crowd of auto enthusiast met for a mixer to start the weekend off. A tent was set up, a band played and pizza was provided. Just a short distance away was a view of the east branch of the Niagara River.

Friday night's mixer....

Holiday Inn's parking lot is filling up...

The Import Auto Show had about 100 cars on display including the cars that raced in the re-enactment. The British Car Club of WNY and the Buffalo Octagon Association were well represented and helped to sponsor the events. The MGCC / WNY had 17 cars on display. The results were: http://www.mgcarclub.com/wny/gigp2002/carshowr.htm

And a few of our 14 award receipents......

Bruce Norton, Tommy Hoan and Jim Ottman.

Wining and dining.

Jack introduces the guest speaker, Brock Yates.

Brock Yates

Grand Island Grande Prix racing....2002 style.

The race was staged in several 4 lap sets with police escorts as the auto show continued. The old course was used and nobody had a good time as you can see from the bugs on their teeth.