There are a handful of SCCA® events that are steeped in lore. All but achieving cult status, SCCA Neohio Region’s Longest Day of Nelson is most certainly one of them, with the first Nelson 24-hour race taking place in 1980. Ask anyone that was racing in that half of the country around then, and they’ll likely have a tale to tell. Looking to hear another saga of near failure from the Longest Day? Hagerty (SCCA’s official insurance provider) has a great one for you.
Penned by Gary Witzenburg, this particular tale begins mid-race, as Gary laps the field, running out front with nary a worry in the world. “What a treat it was to be the fastest car on course,” he wrote. “Slower cars (usually) moved out of my way, and even the quickest ones proved easy to catch and pass. With no one looming in my mirrors, I could concentrate fully on navigating slower traffic. The Porsche 924 was a joy to drive, hugging the bumpy asphalt of Nelson Ledges in fast turns, powering out of slower ones with commanding ease.”
But, this being the Longest Day, things didn’t stay so peachy.
Gary’s good fortune came crumbling down with hub issues that put them many, many laps down while battling SCCA hot-shoe drivers like Don Knowles, Bill Fishburne, D.J. Fazekas, Fred Baker, and more, plus writers from Road & Track and Car & Driver magazines. The article tells of the team’s woes – including a minor issue where part of the exhaust fell off but “didn’t hurt the performance of the car” – while weaving in some history:
“Twelve years earlier, in 1968, the hard-working and slightly daft enthusiasts who ran this old 2.0-mile Nelson Ledges road course near Warren, Ohio, had a crazy idea: a 24-hour motorcycle race. It attracted just nine competitors that first year but soon grew into a huge success. They had another idea a few years later: bundling old tires together and stacking them in front of the track’s guardrails. It wasn’t long before the clever ‘tirewall’ invented at Nelson Ledges was easing collisions, preventing injuries, and preserving sheetmetal and lives nationwide.
“Then the staff of Nelson Ledges decided to launch a 24-hour enduro for SCCA unmodified ‘Showroom Stock’ cars for endurance racing on a budget. A few modifications to the car – driving lights, heavy-duty brakes and shocks, a comfortable racing driver’s seat – were allowed, and the track’s piggy bank was busted for a token $2,460 prize money. Quaker State Motor Oil kicked in another $9,140 while Marchal, Cibie, Hella, Ford, and Mazda posted contingency funds (for use of their products). The first ‘Longest Day’ – aptly named because the event happened on the weekend of the summer solstice – 24-Hour race was on for 1980.”
Want to know how Gary’s race ended? For that, you’ll need to head to Hagerty’s site.
Photo courtesy Hagery/Bob Fischer
