Watkins Glen - MGTCs

Photo: Automobile Magazine

The Cornett MGTC crossing the stone bridge at the top of the street race course recreates a racing moment from 1948, but not completely recreating that event.

When we first became owners of the duo red MGTC, one set up for racing, we were interested in learning more about the car and its racing history.  One document found through a search of the internet was "Four Harps and a Coffin," a magazine article in Automobile Magazine written by Sam Smith (link to article).  He drew his title from a description by Karl Ludvigsen, an automotive engineer and prolific automotive writer, that the MGTC's 4 wire wheels and the shape of the body were like four harps and a coffin. The car featured in the article was raced in the very first Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948 and became famous in that race.

Photo: Automobile Magazine

At that first race, Denver Cornett drove this MGTC across the stone bridge and into the tight right-hand corner too fast.  He slid off the road surface, the tires dug into the soft earth, and the car rolled down the hill into a creek landing upside down.  Spectators ran to the car.  One stated, "I wonder if he is dead?"  Denver yelled, "Why don't you turn the damn thing over and find out!"  The car was flipped upright, restarted, and Denver Cornett finished the race.  The big race was later that day and the MG had a bent wheel.  Briggs Cunnigham, a famous racer and car builder, loaned Denver two wheels from his wife's street car and Denver ran the second race, the Grand Prix.  He finished 7th in the Grand Prix, 2nd in his class.  Smith summarized in his article: "(The Watkins Glen Grand Prix) would likely not have been possible - or, at the very least, it would have been far less successful - without the MGTC".  There were eleven MGTCs entered in the 1948 Grand Prix, eight finished in the top ten.

Denver Cornett's history lives on 70 years later.  The old stone bridge is still there and the historic road course sign notes that it has been known a Cornett's Stone Bridge since that race in 1948.

The roads that made up the street race course remain and can be explored in your daily driver during a visit to the Village of Watkins Glen.  An earlier post documented some aspects of the road course and can be seen by clicking here.

There is a Concours show at the Watkins Glen Festival.  In that show was the original Denver Cornett MGTC.  After learning some MG racing history, we come face-to-face with it.

Denver Cornett continued racing the car for a few more years then retired it to storage as he moved on to race many marques.  He never sold it.  It only has 12,000 miles.  The car was brought out of storage a couple decades ago, was restored and has raced in some vintage races.  Denver Cornett II past away in 2006, but his son, Denver Cornett III, proudly shares this historic MG race car with others at events.

A second MGTC was in the Concours, another racer that raced on the old street course.  This car is original and presented as raced with no modifications.  All one needed to do to go road racing at the time was to buy an MG from the dealer and drive to the track.

The only item that is not original to the car as delivered new is that the tires have been replaced.  The white wall tire mounted on the spare is one of the original tires on which the car raced.  All MGTCs left the factory painted one color, but US dealers sometime repainted the cars when new to create the two-tone look in vogue.  This car began life in England yellow, but gained some British Racing Green wings.

All MGTCs were right-hand drive as in their native England, even those sent to the US.  The green leather is in great condition, considering that is is 70 years old.  The car has only 8800 miles.

The engine is stock, exactly the way it left the factory.  These cars moved from the showroom floor to the race track with no required changes.

The provenance (history and records) of a car can add a lot to its value.  This owner has a display of records of the car in races, including photographs.  This image captures the car, known as "Sweat Pea" making the corner onto the stone bridge in the 1951 Watkins Glen Grand Prix.

And, at Sebring, Florida, in 1950.  Note the white wall tire.

To Denny and David: Thanks for bringing these two MGTCs to Watkins Glen to share and for Maintaining the Breed.



A view of the old race track and the story of the Cornett Bridge is well documented on YouTube, narrated by Denny Cornett III.  Click on the link below.

YouTube Video

Watkins Glen - Grand Prix Race Track

Cam Argetsinger wanted to race his MGTC so he created a road course on some of the roads in Watkins Glen, where his family had a summer home.  They were roads that he had driven with his MG and he believed that a sports car race, similar to the races on street courses in Europe, could be successful.  All he had to do was convince the Village leaders and the railroad to close off the roads and stop the trains.  Against all odds, he was successful, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Racers run the track in a clockwise direction.  It is 6.6 miles in length.  The track map above does not tell the whole story.  The elevation change from the flat front straight by the courthouse to the stone bridge is 500 feet.  That is quite a climb.  More impressive is that the second half of the track is downhill, where cars can attain high speeds before coming into the tight left as they enter the downtown section at Milliken's Corner (named after Bill Milliken who entered that corner too fast and crashed there in the first race).

The start of the first Watkins Glen Grand Prix, 1948.  Crowd control was nonexistent

A little Ford rental car is no race car, but it did provide wheels to check out the old street race course.  The public roads still exist in the original configuration although they are now all asphalt paved.  Hard to comprehend racing on gravel and dirt surfaces.

Blind corners are the norm.  To race up to a corner you cannot see beyond at full clip took a large quantity of courage or a lot of hope.

On a straight section of the track, leading up to the railroad underpass, a memorial is alongside the road.  In 1950, one of the Collier brothers, Sam Collier, was killed while leading the race.  He was driving a Ferrari and flipped after leaving the paved surface.  The narrow roads make for difficult passing situations.

Sam and Miles Collier were the first to import MGs to the United States and raced them successfully.  In 1949, Sam raced a supercharged MG at Watkins Glen, finishing 1st in class and 3rd overall.  Miles quit racing not long after his brother's death and later died from polio.

The railroad underpass has been rebuilt since that first race.  It was probably narrower at that time.

The approach to the stone bridge.  Again, blind corners are the norm on the circuit.

Racers crossed the bridge, then had a tight right-hand corner.  After the first race, it became known as Cornett Corner to recognize Denver Cornett who flipped his MGTC as he slid off the road.

A few more of the corners.  As you look at the photos, where would you let off the throttle?  Would you brake?  At what point?

A detailed story of the races on the original street course at Watkins Glen was documented by a PBS affiliate.  That documentary is housed on YouTube and can be accessed by clicking on the link below.

Watkins Glen - The Street Years

Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival

European-type sports car racing began in America with a race in 1948 at Watkins Glen, NY.  This event, and the ones that followed, have made the tiny Village of Watkins Glen world famous.

Cam Argetsinger had purchased an MGTC and wanted an opportunity to race his car.  He convinced the village leaders to close public roads to create a racing course.  The track crossed over a railroad track, so he also had to convince the railroad to not run any trains on race day.  Odds against accomplishing that were slim, but Argetsinger was successful and created a whole new identity and industry for the small village of Watkins Glen.  This image is of Argetsinger driving his MGTC in that first race.

Only 5 races were held on the original street course.  Large crowds of more than 250,000 people made crowd control over a 6.6-mile course impossible and safety suffered.  A purpose-built race track was created a few miles from Watkins Glen which has hosted many races, including the Formula 1 races for 20 years, the longest tenure of any race track in the United States.

Twenty-five years ago a group of Watkins Glen citizens began a celebration of the original street races with a festival held in September.  The poster at left is available for purchase at http://www.grandprixfestival.com/Posters.html.

Watkins Glen is a community that celebrates its racing history every day, not just at the festival.  One cannot walk through downtown without being faced with reminders of the races that have been held on the original street course and at the International Speedway.

These murals were painted by the well-known automotive artist Robert Gillespie.  Here he has depicted a Bugatti rounding Milliken Corner, the same corner where the photo of Cam Argetsinger's MGTC was captured in the earlier image.

Successful racers are recognized with granite plaques embedded in the downtown sidewalks.  Zora Arkus-Duntov raced in the second Watkins Glen Grand Prix.  He raced a lightweight British car with a powerful V-8 engine.   Note that the engine was an Ardun, a combination of his hyphenated name.  The engine was a Ford flat-head with dual overhead cam heads designed by Zora.  His innovative abilities were recognized by General Motors who hired him to create another V-8 sports car, the Corvette.  For a story of the Ardun head, click here.

Of course, the person who originated the racing in Watkins Glen, Cam Argetsinger, gets recognition.  He continued to have a long career in racing leadership including heading the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA).

The Grand Prix Festival begins at Smalley's Garage with a simulated tech inspection of race cars.  When the races were held on the street course, 1948-1952, all of the races cars had to complete a tech inspection before being allowed on the race track.

The original Smalley's Garage not only still exists, it still operates as a garage, doing auto repairs as it did in 1948.

A wide range of activities are part of the schedule.  Oh, most deal with cars, but some deal with people around cars.  Here, famed British race driver and TV race announcer, David Hobb, signs a copy of his new book, Hobbo: The Autobiography of David Hobbs: Motor Racer, Motor Mouth.

There are beautiful cars to see, such as the Jaguar that is featured on the poster,

the OSCA that won the last race on the street course in 1952,

and an MGTC that raced in the first Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948.  More interesting cars than can be seen in a day in concours, road rallies, and just parked along the streets.

Jaguar was the featured car in 2018.  One of the Jaguar activities was a road rally.  It began at one of the region's wineries with a commemorative bottle of wine, followed with an 80-mile road rally of winding roads in the area, then 2 laps on the Watkins Glen International Speedway race track, 2 laps on the old street race course, and finally parking the cars as a group in a city park.  With 30,000 people in a village of less than 2,000 people, parking is at a premium.  Having a reserved space in the city park was quite a perk.  In this image the group of Jaguars gets the green flag to begin the 2 laps of the street course.  As in 1948, the start-finish line is in front of the courthouse.

After the Jaguars arrived at the park, a panel discussion was held on Jaguar racing.  David Hobbs and Davey Jones fielded questions from a moderator and the audience.  It was an informative and, sometimes, humorous interchange.

The race cars entered at the Watkins Glen Vintage Races at the Speedway drove downtown to take part in the Festival.  No license plates, no mufflers, not street legal, but the fun must go on.  The featured car at the Vintage Races was the Mini, so many were in attendance.

The current vintage racers are lead on their lap by the Cornett MGTC which raced in the first Watkins Glen Grand Prix.








The Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival is a gear-heads dream of cars and history.  MG should be the featured marque in 2024.  Mark your calendars.

GT-43

A grand tourer (Italian: gran turismo) (GT) is a performance and luxury automobile capable of high speed and long-distance driving.  The most common format is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive two-door coupe' with either a two-seat or a 2+2 arrangement.  Wikipedia

GT is a European classification of cars often used to tour, rally, or race on the public roads.  The MGA coupes displayed above certainly meet the definition of a GT.  Although here, GT is used as a much simpler term, just an abbreviation for "get together."  It was the 43rd year the NAMGAR (North American MGA Register) has gathered to show and appreciate the MGA and other MG's built during that time period.

The featured car at the GT-43 was the MGA Coupe.  Since Jill's Little Blue Coupe is one of the few coupes made, and the fact that GT-43 was held in the historic and beautiful town of Richmond, Virginia, the decision was made to head north and join the other MG enthusiasts.

The Virginia Crossings Hotel, a beautiful facility built in the Jeffersonian style, was chosen as the site for GT-43.  With little time to make the event and then drive to Michigan to launch Last Dance, the coupe was trailered to Virginia.  The little Escape performed well with the MGA in tow.

Since the coupe was the featured car, a display of the coupes was organized on the front lawn of the Crossings.  The image at left is the cars on the left of the cannon, with the owners standing next to their cars.  The first car is Jim Cheatum's recently restored Mineral Blue Coupe.

And to the right of the cannon, four more coupes with Jill standing by her Mineral Blue Coupe.  This paint color was original to the coupes and was not used on the roadster.
















To welcome participants who have not attended a GT before, or those who have but have a new car, a show of First Timers is held.  This British Racing Green roadster set up as a cafe racer was one of our favorites.  It had just undergone a total restoration.

This car sported an original Judson supercharger with an external oiler.

Another favorite was this red 1500 roadster which was flawless.  It won its class in the big show.

There were over 160 cars displayed for the show judging, divided into multiple classes.  Right is a small class of two - two Twin Cams, an engine developed for racing.  One of these cars has a racing history.

One class is known as Premier.  It is comprised of cars that won their class in the previous couple of years.  The best of best competing with each other.

There is much more to the GT than a car show.  There were workshops, drives, visits to historic sites in Richmond and history lessons on MGAs.  The car in the image at right is famous for being one of the three-car MG factory team at Sebring in 1959.  It has a twin cam engine and a coupe body.

The car was prepared with a hood scoop, seemingly normal for a race car but a much different function on this car.  Hood scoops traditionally bring large amounts of cool air to the engine intake system.  This hood scoop is ducted to the driver's compartment, bringing cool fresh air to the drivers.  The MGA Coupe is known to be a hot car.

Workshops were held inside the hotel conference rooms on a wide range of topics from fuel and oil for classic cars to a full rebuild of an MGA.  The most famous of MG mechanics, John Twist, ran a workshop on tuning MGs while actually tuning participant's MGAs.  Many left the GT with better running cars.  Here John syncronizes carburetors using a hose and an ear.

A number of drives were held, mostly on back roads, with destinations of interest.  One was to a museum which wasn't a museum, but it was most interesting.

Richmond Auto Museum is in an older industrial area where a building that once housed a small manufacturing plant now home to classic cars.  The coupes were the first to arrive.

The main function of this museum is not to display cars, it is to store cars.  When you get into the classic car hobby, it is easy to purchase more cars than will fit into your garage.

Individuals can rent a space to store their car(s) freeing up space at home, maybe allowing them sufficient room in the garage so that it functions as a workshop rather than just storage.  There is a high-tech computer system for security and to keep track of comings and goings.

There is also a workshop in the museum, complete with a lift.  This Alvis was in the shop area during our visit.  When was the last time you saw an Alvis?  Was the rabbit hood ornament on all Alvises or just special models?

There is a formal meeting room at the front of the building.  As you enter the doors you are greeted by an MGTC.  Most appropriate, in our opinion.

The group from the GT enjoyed a box lunch after the tour of the "museum".  A Jaguar XKE was part of the room decoration.

Oh, to have such a facility close to home allowing the collection to grow!

A gathering of people needs something for fun and games.  At GT-43, one evening had valve cover races.  A valve cover, preferably off an MG engine, is modified into a race car powered by gravity.  There is a set of rules, but creativity is prized.  This racer was even prepared with a driver.

NAMGAR members and, in particular, those from the Central Virginia Chapter organized a great and enjoyable event.  Thanks!