WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (March 14, 2014) – Motorsports journalist George Webster will discuss the daring and exciting undertaking of driving for land speed records this month at the International Motor Racing Research Center.

The free talk will be on Saturday, March 22, at 1 p.m. Upcoming Center Conversations talk topics include model car collecting on April 12; Formula 5000 racing, featuring legendary Sam Posey as the honored guest, on May 10; vintage car event organizer Murray Smith in June; Cary Agajanian, son of great racing team owner and race organizer J.C. Agajanian in July; and the Milwaukee Mile in October.

Details will be announced as they are finalized.

“The Battle for the Land Speed Record in the 1960s: Campbell, the Arfons and Breedlove” will cover one of the greatest eras of this never-ending quest by man to move faster.
“My interest in the land speed records came from my role as editor of a small publication called Motor Miniatures in the early 1970s,” Webster said.  Given that I was editor of a magazine devoted to model cars, primarily 1/43rd-scale cast models, I thought I need to become a collector myself. I picked land speed record cars as my field to collect, mainly because so few models of these cars were on the market that I could have a nearly complete collection without filling my house with models.”

Webster, a retired high school teacher from Oakville, Ontario, has been working part-time as a motorsports writer and photographer since the mid1970s. He has covered road racing, NASCAR and CART racing for publications including Autosport Canada, PRN Ignition, National Speed Sport News and the website goracing.com.

The popular Center Conversations program has long been a cornerstone of the Racing Research Center’s educational outreach and oral history initiative. Noted authors, race historians, drivers, team owners and track officials have taken listeners behind the scenes of every race series over the years. Speakers have included Donald Davidson, historian at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Doug Nye, writer and historian; David Donohue, racer and son of famed driver Mark Donohue; Bobby Rahal, driver and team owner; and the
late John Fitch and Bill Milliken, both legendary figures in road racing.

The Racing Research Center is an archival library dedicated to the preservation of the history of motorsports, of all series and all venues, through its collections of books, periodicals, films, photographs, fine art and other materials. For more information about the Center’s work and its programs, visit www.racingarchives.org or call (607) 535-9044.