RacingNation.com
Home / Motorsports News / IMRRC Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of First F1 Race At Watkins Glen

IMRRC Celebrates 50th Anniversary Of First F1 Race At Watkins Glen

WATKINS GLEN, NY – The green flag waved high Tuesday for the International Motor Racing Research Center’s year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first Formula One race at Watkins Glen.

With an historic Cooper Climax T51 Formula One car as the room’s centerpiece, Center officials announced a year of exciting events and activities that will salute this important history of the local community and international racing.

At the helm of the year-long celebration is honorary chairman Mario Andretti, America’s Formula One World Champion in 1978. Andretti, long a member of the Center’s Drivers Council, also will be serving as chairman of the Center’s 2011 Sponsorship Team campaign.

The first U.S. Grand Prix at Watkins Glen was on Oct. 8, 1961. Innes Ireland won that race, the first-ever World Championship Grand Prix for Team Lotus. Twelve additional different drivers would earn the checkered flag over the ensuing 19 years.

“My first Formula One race at Watkins Glen – in fact, it was the first time I ever saw the circuit – lives in my memory,” Andretti recalls. “Colin Chapman asked me to join Team Lotus for the 1968 United States Grand Prix in the team’s third Lotus 49-Ford. I was able to capture pole position and the experience helped influence my eventual move to a full-time commitment to Formula One and my World Championship in 1978.”

He describes the USGP years at Watkins Glen as “encompassing many of the great moments in American racing history.”

The Center will be recapturing those moments through displays and exhibits of materials including every race poster for the full run of the race series, the original paintings by English artist Michael Turner used for program covers from 1969-80, photographs and film of drivers and races, and popular memorabilia such as tickets, passes, buttons, stickers, clothing, trophies and plaques.

“Formula One put Watkins Glen on the international racing map, a place of respect it holds to this day,” Center President J.C. Argetsinger said. “The local community is proud of this rich and exciting history, and visitors to the Center prove time and time again that the Watkins Glen years are important to their racing memories, too.”

A series of Formula One cars will be in the spotlight at the Center through the year, starting with the Cooper Climax T51 now on display. Sir Jack Brabham pushed this car over the finish line at Sebring in 1959 to clinch his first of three World Championships. The car is owned by racing author Joel Finn, a good friend of the Center.

The Racing Research Center is noted for the quality of its monthly speaker series, Center Conversations, and the 2011 list promises Formula One fans some fascinating sessions.

The talks will kick off on Feb. 26 with Center historian Bill Green and motorsports author Michael Argetsinger. They will set the stage for Formula One in Watkins Glen with a look at Formula Libre, the precursor races, and then focus on Oct. 8, 1961, through film and slides.

Celebrated motorsports writer Pete Lyons will speak on April 16, discussing his years working in Europe covering Formula One.

On May 7, racing great Bobby Rahal will talk about his racing experiences in Formula One and at the Indy 500, which is celebrating its 100th anniversary this year.

In July, the Center pays homage to the American drivers who competed at Watkins Glen, with a talk by Kevin Hughey, a Watkins Glen native and race historian in his own right.

Tributes to Mario Andretti and Phil Hill, America’s World Champions, will be among other programs during the year. Details will be announced as they are confirmed.

On Sept. 9, Watkins Glen will shut down its main streets for a daylong party honoring the village’s racing history. The Grand Prix Festival is a much-anticipated event, and Racing Research Center always has a big role.

The highlight this year for the Center will be the launch of a new motorsports book by Michael Argetsinger. This book, “Formula One at Watkins Glen: 20 Years of the United States Grand Prix 1961-1980,” is a venture between David Bull Publishing, the Center and Argetsinger. All profits will go directly to the Center.

The 160-page book, now in development, will include approximately 250 color and black and white photographs with detailed captions and connecting narrative that will illustrate the Watkins Glen Formula One story.

“In preparing the book we are considering photographs from a great variety of sources and welcome all submissions,” Argetsinger said. “The greatest contribution has been from the Research Center where, with the assistance of archivist Mark Steigerwald and historian Bill Green, I have reviewed 37,000 images specific to the context of the new book.”

“Formula One at Watkins Glen” will be on sale at the Center, at the downtown Grand Prix Festival and at Watkins Glen International during that weekend’s Sportscar Vintage Racing Association’s Glenora Wine Cellars U.S. Vintage Grand Prix.

The Argetsinger book project and all the entertaining and educating components of the Center’s year-long celebration of the 50th anniversary of the first Formula One race at Watkins Glen are emblematic of the International Motor Racing Research Center’s mission to be the world-class leader in the collection of materials representing the documentary heritage of amateur and professional motor racing worldwide.

Share Button