Covid Reduces Participants in Great Lakes Basketball Competition

Put-in-Bay School Press Release  9:00am Thursday, December 2, 2021

This weekend Put-in-Bay School was to host three other Great Lakes Islands basketball teams for the Third Annual Great Lakes Islands Tournament.   Unfortunately, two of those islands, Mackinac Island and Washington Island, had to cancel at the last minute due to positive Covid tests on their respective teams.  A revised schedule of basketball competition is listed below.

Friday, December 3rd

5:00pm            Tree Lighting – Downtown – All Teams

6:00 pm.          Girls – Beaver Island v Put-in-Bay

7:30 pm           Boys – Beaver Island v Put-in-Bay

Saturday December 4th

10:45 am         Boys – Put-in-Bay v Beaver Island

12:00 pm         Girls – Put-in-Bay v Beaver Island

1:15/30 pm     Trophy Presentation

Cleveland Toledo Chicago Rail Corridor Under Review

On Tuesday, November 23, Rep. Kaptur sent a letter to the Federal Railroad Administration expressing her strong support for an application submitted by the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency (NOACA) for a $2.56 million grant that would be used to fund a comprehensive analysis by NOACA of the Cleveland to Chicago rail corridor.

 

The corridor, which runs through Cleveland, Elyria, Sandusky, Toledo, Bryan, Waterloo, Elkhart, South Bend, Gary, and Chicago, is a critical linchpin of the nation’s transportation network, connecting the industrial Midwest to America’s coasts and international shipping lanes.

 

NOACA’s study would identify investments that would be needed to improve passenger and freight rail travel, and reduce congestion along one of the nation’s busiest corridors.

 

“The Bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act offers a once-in-a-generation opportunity to revitalize our dilapidated infrastructure – and rebuilding our nation’s rail corridors will be a top priority,” said Rep. Kaptur. “Through the visionary leadership of the Northeast Ohio Areawide Coordinating Agency, we hope to take the next step that will empower us to better connect our ports and manufacturers to markets, bring together the economic hubs of the Midwest, and drive new investments and job growth throughout the region.”

 

“NOACA is thrilled to have this opportunity to submit the Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements grant to improve the AMTRAK multi-modal transportation system within the Cleveland-Toledo-Chicago corridor,” said NOACA Executive Director and CEO Grace Gallucci. “I am optimistic about the collaboration with our state representatives, Metropolitan Planning Organizations, and Department of Transportation agencies representing our Great Lakes region.”

 

Rep. Kaptur’s full letter can be found here.

Sports Car Races Coming September 20-23, 2022; Feature MG and Triumph

Put-in-Bay, OH 11/29/21 – Officials of the Put-in-Bay Vintage Sports Car Races today officially announced that their 2022 event is planned, once again, for the last full week of September, from Tuesday September 20th to Friday morning September 23rd.

MG T-Series Paddock – No IDs on the drivers but this photo graced a Cleveland Plain Dealer Sunday pictorial in 1957 by PD photojournalist Dwight Boyer.

The Put-in-Bay Sports Car Races take place on Ohio’s South Bass Island where small-bore sports cars raced through the streets of the village of Put-in-Bay from 1952 to 1959 and one last time in 1963. Beginning in 2009 with a modest “reunion” then real racing in 2012, today’s Put-in-Bay Vintage Sports Car Races take place on a challenging 1.2-mile hay bale-lined course at the island’s airport.

TR3 1959 is the E Production Triumph TR3 driven by the colorful Reed Andrews of Cleveland Heights, OH. (Jerry Horan photo).

Featured marques for the 2022 event will be MG and Triumph, and the event will be an official MG Vintage Racers “Focus Event” meaning that group will pull out all the stops to entice MG drivers from far and wide to make a special effort to come and enjoy the “Holy grail of old school vintage sports car racing.”

TR3 Spin in the #22 TR (with the MG license plate) is John Tewich of Cleveland. (Stu Kerr photo).

Notes long-time PiB event coordinator and MG racer Manley Ford, “2022 will mark 70 years since the first Put-in-Bay Road Race back in the fall of 1952 when most of the entries were MG TCs and TDs.”  Manley quickly adds, “Then by the mid-‘50s Triumph TR2s and TR3s became the preferred British entry, dominating E production, so it just made sense to add the TRs into the mix for 2022.  Should be a blast!”

MGA #53 is Robert Wheaton of Cleveland, OH on the grid for the F Production race in 1958. (John Atkinson photo).

Following the event’s traditional pattern, Tuesday September 20 will comprise an all-entrant’s car show and tours of the original 3.1 mile road course, then racing will take place on Wednesday and Thursday the 21st and 22nd at the Put-in-Bay Airport.  Mixed in to the event are numerous social gatherings and the not-to-be missed “rocker cover races”.

Renowned for its unique island setting, relaxed atmosphere and “competitive but respectful” race environment, one entrant recently remarked, “It’s like they threw a party and a race broke out.”  Look for registration to open in early January 2022.