Before we were the South Jersey Camaro Club, Al Burr, future president of SJCC, put together the Camaro Corral during the GRAND-AM race at New Jersey Motorsports Park, July 22 – July 24. He needed 20 owners to sign up, but this future club of car nuts blew that number away. We where offered discounted tickets for the weekend which included special parking for the 3 days in the Camaro Corral, paddock tours that introduced us to GRAND-AM Camaro drivers Jeff Bucknum and Bill Lester, and a fun filled weekend of family and friends.
The GRAND-AM Camaro Corral weekend started out as a great day of qualifying for the racers, and capped off with our attendees putting some of their Camaros through some pace laps around NJMP. I’m told to stay away from Billy!
On Saturday, the group was treated to one of the hottest days of the summer, and some very hot Continental Tire Sports Car Grand Sport & Street Tuner series. The Camaro teams started out having a great day, but unfortunately, it didn’t end up that way. The bright spot was the 6.2 car of Joey Atterbury and Lawson Aschenbach finishing in 8th place. However, for us, having meet Jeff and the rest of the Mitchum Motorsports team (www.mitchum.ms) was a thrill. They were gracious hosts, taking time from their busy day to talk with a bunch of Camaro fans, even stopping by the Camaro Corral later in the day too continue earlier conversations and sign a few shock towers.
On Sunday, the group again was treated to another hot summer day in NJ, and more racing. This time it was the Daytona Prototypes and the Grand Touring Series. Before the racing began, we got a chance to meet with Bill Lester and Jordan Taylor of the Autohaus Motorsports (www.autohausmotorsports.com) team of the GT Class of the Rolex Sports Car series. Again this Camaro team was a gracious host to us, with many pictures, handshakes, and great all around conversation. On this day that Camaro team fared somewhat better with a 4th, 5th and 6th place finish (Autohaus, Stevenson. And Banner teams). After the race, we all met back at the Corral, where the members received goodie bags of stuff, and names pulled out of a hat for prizes.
Next year South Jersey Camaro Club is looking for bigger and better things for the GRAND-AM weekend at NJMP. We are planning on turning this Camaro Corral into a charitable event for our club, which the proceeds will go to one of our club charities. This is one club member that can’t wait for next year!
