The Northeast Corvair Council, which is an association of CORSA Chapters in the region, was formed back in the 1970s for the purpose of conducting weekend gatherings centered around on-track driving events at Connecticut’s Lime Rock Park. The NECC began conducting similar performance-related events in conjunction with CORSA conventions over a decade ago.
These events do not take place every year and not with every convention, instead taking place where there is a suitable facility close to the convention site and where the local convention committee supports the idea.
Unfortunately, for 2012, there will be no such event. The principal reason for this is that there is no suitable facility available. Lime Rock Park, a beautiful facility and the closest to the convention city, is way too costly. The NECC ran at Lime Rock annually until being priced out of the place a few years ago. And trust us, we are talking waaay too costly.
Other options were considered, such as New Hampshire Speedway, which has a very nice road course, and even Watkins Glen, but neither of these facilities offered the right mix of location and price.
An additional factor is that when the NECC has conducted track events in conjunction with past conventions, the track event was the only thing the NECC was doing. Here, the NECC will be doing the entire convention and as a result its full resources are needed in Sturbridge.
Even without a road course track event in 2012, the convention will offer something for every Corvair-related interest, including high-speed performance. Convention plans at present include conducting the autocross on an oval race track, as was done at recent conventions in Cedar Rapids and Buffalo. So there will be an opportunity to wind out one's Corvair.
By the way, there used to be a well-regarded road course at the Thompson Speedway in Connecticut, only an hour’s drive from Sturbridge. But that course, shown in the photo below, has been decommissioned for decades and what remains is now part of the oval track’s pit and paddock area. The Thompson road course was the first permanent road course to be used by the SCCA, back in 1951. Wish it was still there...
