Story by Isaac Cohen, Photos by Darrel Ellis and Miranda Christen

Hi. My name is Isaac Cohen and I am nine years old. On Sunday, June 7, my grandfather, Michael Cohen, took me and my dad, Josh Cohen, to Family Day at Waterford Hills. We drove to the race track in Grandpa Michael’s silver Porsche 996 cabriolet. I asked him if I could shift the gears, but he said I had to sit in the back seat.

After my grandpa paid at the entrance, we drove in and then took a left and parked on a hill between turns two and four with lots of other Porsches. Fred Young directed us to our parking space. Then we walked to the fence and watched a race that was in progress. Grandpa Michael saw a lot of SEM/PCA members and introduced them to me and Dad. They included Gretus Hoogestraat, Greg Gallagher and his daughter Meg, Tom Fielitz, Lisa Molson, Miranda Christen and some guy named Chipmunk (Chris Braden).

Then the fun began. Tony Mac drove his BMW M3 race car up to the hill so people could see his car and he let me sit in the driver’s seat. That was cool! Later, Merritt Scott Collins brought her Porsche 924 race car to the hill, and she let me sit in it too! And guess what—both of them won their races! In fact, Tony set a track record for class T1, turning a 1:11 lap time.

At lunch time, we drove parade laps around the track. That was fun! Grandpa Michael put the top down and sitting in the back seat, I would throw my arms in the air and feel the air rush by. It was really neat except there were two problems: Every time Grandpa Michael stepped on the gas and floored it, my head would hit the hard cover that went over the convertible top. The other problem was the car in front of us was slow and I wanted to go faster.

It was cool seeing all the different race cars – so many kinds, so many colors and so much noise. I thought my eardrums would pop from the loudest ones. It was neat to be able to stand by the fence or sit in the grandstands at Hilltop and be so close to the cars and the action. The coolest part was when the race cars would slow down for turn four and turn left to go up to Hilltop. Some of the cars would be on three wheels and their left rear wheel would be off the ground and stop spinning because the driver had his foot on the brake pedal. I also liked seeing some of the cars drift and there was some really close racing. I took lots of pictures and movies with Dad’s cell phone.

When we left the track after seeing all of the races, I really wanted to drive a go kart. I asked Grandpa Michael and Dad if we could go karting. I never drove one but I really wanted to try. Dad googled “go kart tracks” and found one on the way home. Each of us raced for six laps. Dad was fastest, but I was really good.

This was a really, really fun day!!