Vanderbilt Cup Races

Today's Roslyn News cover page article features Sunday's Vanderbilt Cup Centennial Celebration:

The Sixth Annual Centennial Celebration of the Vanderbilt Cup Races, a festival of over 100 years of speed and glamour, will take place Sunday, Aug. 30 on the grounds of the Nassau County Museum of Art in Roslyn Harbor. The event will include live interviews with the car owners, as well as timed demonstration runs for cars with a racing heritage (dodging hay bales on the museum’s service roads). The Rallye Auto Group is presenting the event.

This year will include a celebration of the centennial of the Vanderbilt Cup victory of American driver Harry Grant in the ALCO Racer in 1909. This famous “Black Beast” would win the cup again the following year and then compete in the very first Indianapolis 500 race. The ALCO is now owned by Long Island car enthusiast, historian, and author Howard Kroplick of East Hills and is fresh from a restoration. Howard will be on hand to fire up the Black Beast’s 690-cubic inch engine and make several runs on our demonstration course.

The celebrations will also have a fine sampling from the extensive BMW motorcycle museum of Peter Nettescheim in Huntington, that will include the oldest existing BMW motorcycle in the world, the 1923 R32. Peter’s collection is the subject of the book The Art of BMW: 85 Years of Motorcycling Excellence.

Weather permitting...stay away Danny..., the event will be held at the Nassau County Museum of Art from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM.