City soars with triumphant return of coatesville invitational vintage grand prix

Photo Credit Pete Bannan, Daily Local News

By JEN SAMUEL | jsamuel@dailylocal.com | Daily Local News
PUBLISHED: September 19, 2021 at 2:27 a.m. | UPDATED: 9/19/2021 at 7:45 a.m.

COATESVILLE — Thousands of people united in the city to celebrate the fifth Coatesville Invitational Vintage Grand Prix.

People from across the Mid-Atlantic region came to the valley for the day’s festivities, which City Manager James Logan said the Grand Prix is the biggest community event of the year, excluding local school and student annual celebrations.
“It was a great event,” Logan said. “It’s a big event. It’s a fast event.”

Action began at 8 a.m.
The crux of the Grand Prix began at 9:15 a.m. when the drivers and owners of more than 50 vintage cars dating from 1900 to 1975, and vintage motorcycles from 1930 to 1975, competed individually while driving through a course which ran 2.2 miles through city streets.

Milwaukee Mile Sponsors included Brian Hoskins Ford and Coatesville Youth Initiative, said Lisa Thomas, event manager. She noted that, despite COVID, sponsorship for the Grand Prix doubled in 2021 compared to in 2019.

Organizers canceled the city’s annual Grand Prix in 2020 due to the pandemic shutdown, as previously reported.

“In addition to the Mid-Atlantic area,” Thomas said, “there were vehicles from New York State, Massachusetts and Virginia.”

Several thousand people attended the Grand Prix in Coatesville on Saturday, Thomas said.

“There were so many favorite moments from the day,” said Thomas, who works at Mid-Atlantic Equestrian Services. “The best part about the day was that there were so many people getting together in the City of Coatesville after the impact of Hurricane Ida and how many cars came to support the City of Coatesville, that was really the best.”
The Grand Prix is set to return next year, a few hours after dawn, on Saturday, September 17.

Read full article at:

https://www.dailylocal.com/2021/09/19/city-soars-with-triumphant-return-of-coatesville-invitational-vintage-grand-prix/