The International Motor Racing Research Center’s collection documents amateur and professional motor racing in the United States and abroad. It contains material related to racing series held throughout the world including open-wheel series such as Formula One and IndyCar; enclosed wheel series featuring sports, stock and touring cars including Le Mans and NASCAR; various types of endurance racing; and other motorsports encompassing rallying, hill climbing as well as motorcycle and kart racing. The Center’s collections document races held on roads, dirt and paved tracks, airport runways, off road and even on ice.
National Speed Sport News Archives
The archives of National Speed Sport News, the nation’s leading motorsports newspaper, were donated to the International Motor Racing Research Center in August 2011. Since then, Center researchers have used the NSSN archives for almost every project, making the National Speed Sport News archives the Center’s “go-to” source. See more.
Associated Press Collection
The IMRRC’s Associated Press Collection is one of the first collections donated to the Center. It comprises 76 photographs, almost all black-and-white, taken across the United States and Europe between 1933 and 1973 by Associated Press/World Wide Photos photographers. See more.
Perry Bishop Collection
Perry Bishop of Scottsdale, AZ, donated a far-reaching collection in 2014. In addition to almost 200 images, the collection includes magazine articles, race programs and cover prints from multiple issues of SCCA’s Sportscar magazine. See more.
Women of Speed: Legacies in Motorsports
The IMRRC celebrated the contributions of women behind the wheel in motorsports in an exhibition mounted in conjunction with the centennial of American women’s suffrage in 2020. These portraits depict some of the women drivers, at all levels of racing, represented in the Center’s photographic collections who dared to compete in the male-dominated sport. See more.
Rob Alen Collection
Donated in December of 2020, the Rob Alen Collection contains 28 original posters from international races and automobile exhibitions dated from 2013 to 2020. Included in Alen’s collection are posters from races at Monaco, Mille Miglia and Le Mans, and exhibitions at Monaco, Paris and Geneva. See more.
Irv Dolin Collection
Irv Dolin is a celebrated motorsport photographer whose work appeared in many of the most prestigious motor racing publications of his era. This remarkable collection came to us from the Burnside Motorsport Archive in 2019. See more.
Mark Scarano Collection
Mark Scarano of Endicott, NY, donated a collection of postcards in 2013. Some carry inscriptions and postmarks. The subjects are generic and specific, including beach racing in the Ormond-Daytona races in Florida in 1908 and 1919. See more.
Werner Winter Collection
Werner Winter is a German publisher and former Automobil Club von Deutschland (AvD) official, long associated with Nurburgring and its successor venue for the German Grand Prix, Hockenheimring. He chose the IMRRC as the repository for his working papers. Winter’s collection of the Nurburgring magazine, dating from 1927 through his own tenure as publisher in the 1970’s, is stunning – comprised of 76 meticulously preserved individual issues of this prestigious periodical, famous for dramatic cover art, with lavish illustrations and photography accompanying its fine articles and written features. Together with pristine-condition race programs for nearly every race held at Nurburgring from May 1928 to August 1975, these beautifully designed and illustrated publications constitute what may be the most complete collection of Nurburgring printed materials extant. See more.
The David Crowther Collection
A collection of racing programs, rules/regulations, club directories and rosters, results sheets and communications with competitors dating from 1961-1982. The rules and regulations are primarily from the Canadian Automobile Sport Club, Ontario Region and include General Competition Rules, Solo Events, Rally and Ice Racing Regulations. Most of the race programs and race materials are from the Trophy Races at Harewood Acres, 1968-1970. Crowther competed in several of these Trophy Races and continued racing into the early 1980s.
The Robert Strebler Collection of Race Programs
A collection of race programs dating from 1971-2015. Venues covered include Belle Isle, Detroit; Michigan International Speedway; Road America; and the Wisconsin State Fair Park Speedway. Races at the Wisconsin State Fair Speedway are particularly well covered, with several programs dating from the early 1970s from the Tony Bettenhausen 200 Mile National Championship Race and the Rex Mays Classic 150 Mile Championship. This collection was a valuable addition to our race program collection.
Other materials in the Center’s collection document the careers of drivers; car owners, designers and engineers; and racing writers and announcers. Notable collections include materials related to the careers of drivers Mark Donohue (1937-1975), John Fitch (1917-2012), Ed Hugus (1923-2006), and Butch Leitzinger (b. 1969). The Center holds design drawings of noted car designer and engineer Lee Dykstra and the archives of NASCAR announcer Al Robinson. The work of authors and motorsports historians are reflected in the research papers of Michael Argetsinger documenting his work on biographies of Walt Hansgen and Mark Donahue; materials related to Gary Doyle’s books on drivers Jimmy Murphy and Ralph De Palma; the manuscript for Alessandro Silva’s book on the history of open wheel racing; and the papers of motorsports journalist Greg Rickes and automotive art historian John J. Zolomij. Other racing notables such as Dr. Frank Falkner (1918-2003), a medical scientist who served on the Cooper and Tyrell formula one teams; racecar owner Chapman S. Root (1925-1990) of Daytona; and motorsports journalist Brock Yates have donated papers, printed materials and graphics compiled over the course of their racing careers.
Graphics depict races, cars, race tracks and circuits, drivers, racing teams and crashes from the early 20th century to the present. Image collections consist of a wide variety of formats capturing still and moving pictures in photographic prints and negatives, born-digital photographs, slides, posters, lithographs, original paintings, postcards and film. Photographers who have donated significant collections to the Center include local Watkins Glen race photographers Bill Bauman and Joe Cali; Art Eastman, editor of Vintage Motorsport from 1988 to 1996; photojournalists Randy Barnett (1927-2006), Robert D. Fischer and Kathie J. Meredith; and free-lance motorsports photographer Al Steinberg. The work of Canadian photographer W.H. Murenbeeld, local motorsports artist Robert Gillespie, and distinguished amateur photographer and filmmaker Lester “Andy” Gerard is also well-represented. Inventories of our dvd and video collections are available.
The Center also holds materials collected and produced by car enthusiasts and clubs focused on specific marques (Bentley, Corvette, Ferrari, MG, Porsche, Rolls-Royce, and Shelby). Other organizations for race fans such as Friends of Auto Racing Seeking Cooperation of Racing Enthusiasts (FOAR SCORE) donated their archives to the Center.
The Research Center has an excellent library collection related to the history of motorsports. It holds published works including reference and rare books, periodicals, race programs, media guides, and rule books. Of the more than 4000 motor racing reference books available to readers at the Center, almost a third relate to marques. IMRRC’s book collection also includes more than 500 biographies of drivers and racing personalities. The Center’s library contains thousands of automotive and motorsports magazines and newspapers with more than 250 unique periodical titles represented. The Center’s collection also contains the archives of racing publications including National Speed Sport News and Area Auto Racing News. The Center holds more than 10,000 programs documenting races from the 1930 to the most recent racing season with examples from different series and tracks around the United States and the world.
A wide range of other genres and formats of material have a place on our shelves. Races tickets, hero and collector cards, sponsor decals, calendars and other types of printed ephemera comprise a substantial part of the Center’s collection. In addition, the Center maintains a small but significant collection of racing artifacts such as helmets, jackets, trophies, flags, pins, patches, dash plaques, glassware, decanters, and model cars.