The BMW CCA Allegheny Chapter hospitality and car corral at the 2026 Pittsburgh Vintage Grand Prix is in the books. While the memories live on, we’re already full of anticipation for the 2027 BMW CCA annual gathering in Pittsburgh next year. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves…
By Jason Kazian, BMW CCA Director of Marketing and Mirril McMullen, BMW CCA Club Racing President
Schenley Park is a gorgeous venue with great vertical topography in the city of Pittsburgh. The park straddles mature neighborhoods with great expansive trees, the Carnegie Mellon campus, and the University of Pittsburgh campus. The park holds a 2.33-mile perimeter road with 22 assorted tight turns, switchbacks and a four-lane highway straightaway. On the last two days of the PVGP, this turns into a sports car race course. As is the case every year at the PVGP, one can peer out from the clubhouse in Schenley Park on Thursday morning and think: “I could still play a round of golf,” however, the site quickly transforms just 24 hours later into a world class car show and racing venue.
A few Allegheny members joked about how we still needed more hay bales to make the circuit look more like the Goodwood Festival of Speed. This year’s wildfire smoke blowing down from our neighbors in the north made the early days of the event look more like Monterey than a humid Pittsburgh summer afternoon. At any rate, little did we know that the smoke, the lightning, the rain, the sun, the lightning, the rain on Saturday—yes in that order—would give us so much weather but hardly dampen the spirits of the event.
The Allegheny Chapter recreated a side-by-side staging of Tiffany Nolan’s 635csi and Melissa Cunningham’s E36 M3 which were featured in the most recent issue of BimmerLife magazine, and respectively owned by former club members. Seeing Tiffany’s BMW covered in mud while trying to exit the park after the downpour was quite the sight, especially considering the meticulous care former owner Michael Meehan took to ensure the car was always spotless. Tiffany likely cleaned the car immediately after to get it back to its pristine state.
Above: Melissa Cunningham’s E36 M3
Allegheny Chapter president Eric Zagrocki pondered how meeting new friends while equally missing those who couldn’t make it or are no longer with us was such an intersection of time and enthusiasm.
“Allegheny Chapter has been supporting the event since the early Nineties,” Zagrocki says. “The first few years of the PVGP were race only. The chapter always brings innovation to the event, especially when we are the Marque of the Year (MOY). We started the Black Tie for PVGP in 1998 when we were marque and had a CCA 2002 club race that year. We had three CSLs on track in 2009, in addition to 2002s. The 2009 running was highlighted by the Classic Club. Lothar Schuettler first showed his freshly restored 328 at our event. He towed the 328 behind his 502 Cabriolet. People still talk about that in the car show meetings. We celebrated the 50th anniversary of the 2002 in 2018. We had over 70 2002s in attendance. We also had three 507s parked outside the host hotel during the event. We have an annual hospitality tent, started the beer garden concept with Spaten, and are leading the way up scale with the AC restrooms. Since 2009, we have done a Friday drive to an interesting location outside of Pittsburgh and host a Friday evening reception.”
The weekend goes to the members and all the amazing cars that arrive for this show—2 Series, 3s, 4s, 5s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and a plethora of X models while not forgetting the Alpinas, Isettas, i3s and i8s, Z3s, Z4s and Z8s—over 250 cars in all graced the park and turned German Hill into the gem that it has become. According to Tiffany, there were 226 cars on display on Saturday.
We still recall the wonderful support offered by the BMW CCA National Office and the BMW CCA Foundation, and the countless smiles of youth walking away with merchandise and Hot Wheels is still on our minds as the next age of BMW CCA enthusiast is born.
We must thank Jim and Chris Williams, Zack and Melissa Cunningham, Tim Clark, Chris Wadsworth, and so many other volunteers who were still there Sunday evening cleaning up long after the track went quiet. Thanks to everyone who attended this year’s event. Thanks also to everyone who volunteered to help make it possible, and an especially large thank you to Tiffany Nolan for her dedicated efforts throughout.
All of this same excitement is in anticipation of the 2027 PVGP when BMW will be Marque of the Year and the BMW CCA will host O’Fest in Pittsburgh. Because there is no separate racetrack at Pitt Race anymore, the BMW racing will be vintage 2002s, E30s and Preservation race cars that have documented provenance. BMW CCA Club Racing is working with Allegheny and the PVGP race organizers on the planning already.We can’t wait to see you all in 2027 for an even bigger show.