WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (Sept. 28, 2015) – The International Motor Racing Research Center is partnering in October with the International Motor Sports History Section of the Society of Automotive Historians for an academic symposium on road racing.
The inaugural Jean S. Argetsinger Symposium on International Motor Racing History will be Saturday, Oct. 17, at the Racing Research Center, 610 S. Decatur St., Watkins Glen, at 1 p.m. The Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce is a sponsor.
This academic forum offers graduate students, professors and historians an opportunity to present on any subject reflecting the rich cultural history of road racing. The public is invited to attend, and pre-registration is not required.
Joe Freeman, car collector and owner of Racemaker Press, which specializes in books about vintage racing, will give the keynote address. Freeman is a past president of the Society of Automotive Historians.
Presentations will cover the topics of the 1928 Italian Grand Prix, the evolution of sports car racing in Southern Ontario post-World War II and sports car racing in the Canadian Atlantic Region.
Pat Yongue, a professor in the University of Houston English Department and an expert on women in racing, will be the symposium moderator. Yongue is a member of the SAH International Motor Sports History Section.
“This is the first step in what we anticipate to be both an exciting partnership as well as a means to develop and support scholarship in the too-often neglected field of international automotive competition. I am really delighted to see this finally happening,” Don Capps, chairman of the SAH International Motor Sports History Section, said.
The symposium, which organizers plan to be an annual event, is named in honor of Jean S. Argetsinger, who was present with her husband, Cameron, when he revived road racing in America after World War II and later brought the United States Grand Prix for a successful 20-year run at Watkins Glen. She was one of the founders of the Racing Research Center.
“The Center is not a museum, nor is it an entertainment facility. The Center collects, preserves and distributes automobile racing information, which makes for a fascinating history,” said Argetsinger, who is a member of the Center’s Governing Council. “The IMRRC welcomes the presence of these scholars of the sport.” Racing Research Center collections encompass race series and racing venues worldwide.
The Center is the repository for several organizational archives, including the Sports Car Club of America and the Road Racing Drivers Club. The Center owns the archives of National Speed Sport News and the archives of John Bishop, co-founder of IMSA. The international Society of Automotive Historians encourages research into any aspect of automotive history. The SAH actively supports the compilation and preservation of papers, organizational records, print ephemera and images to safeguard, broaden and deepen the understanding of motorized, wheeled land transportation through the modern age and into the future. For more information about the SAH, visit the website www.autohistory.org. To learn more about the International Motor Racing Research Center, visit www.racingarchives.org.