Well, a thousand miles there and another thousand to get home – and we won the “2019 944Fest Far Away Award” for that. And yea, we towed Sparky behind the 924S944.com Nissan Titan. Still – a long ride.
Nelson Ledges is a very historic track and the perfect place for 944Fest. Nestled in the farm country of northeastern Ohio, the track is surrounded by Small Town America. Roads are arrow-straight over rolling hills, and you need to make sure that you don’t run into an Amish buggy on the streets.
The course has lots of runoff area with challenging turns showing multiple lines -depending on your car and configuration. The Northern Ohio PCA held an HPDE that weekend, and they welcomed the 944Fest folks for a Friday turn on the track in addition to the Saturday-Sunday HPDE. Sparky took a session on track and did very well for a stock 924S on stock tires.
Saturday was a challenging poker run rally in the area around the track. Clues were provided, but you really needed to know the area to find where the cards were stashed. We found Bob and Ava in a great Series I 944 to follow, and even though we found all the cards, a hand of two pair – Aces and Eights, by the way – wasn’t good enough to win. The Dead Man’s Hand to be sure.
Barbecue, door prizes, keg of beer, and awards finished the day. The first award was the Far Away Trophy, and we were proud to take it home.
Lots of great 944’s were in attendance, including a couple of LSx conversions, some dedicated HPDE cars and even some race cars.
On another note, we decided early on to stay at an AirBnB location instead of camping or a hotel/motel. We found a farm Mesopotamia, Ohio with a great two-bedroom cottage, lots of parking space for truck, car and trailer, a full kitchen, living room and dining area, all for $119 a night. While a little bit higher than your normal Motel 6, it was homey, comfortable and safe. Great place.
Well – already looking forward to next year.
