International Motor Racing Research Center

Join Lou Martin (pictured) behind the camera trackside, on board, and at night for 1978 races at Islip Speedway, a .2 mile (320 meter) oval track on Long Island. Islip hosted a regular calendar of all sorts of short-track race events featuring stock cars, late models, modifieds, midgets, and bombers. It was the smallest track to host the NASCAR Grand National Series (1964-1971) and the venue for the first demolition derby in 1958. Built in 1947 on the site of Long Island’s fi...rst municipal airport, it was one of more than 40 tracks on the island during its racing heyday. Like many, it succumbed to pressures of development and closed its gates in 1984. The Islip Speedway clip linked below was recently donated to the Center by Barbara and Carmello Crisafulli of Brooklyn, New York. They gifted 84 reels of 8mm amateur films shot by their late friend Lou Martin, a regular spectator and enthusiastic fan of short-track racing, of events at Islip and nearby Freeport Speedway during the 1978 season. Funding provided by Tom Schmeh, former curator of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame, enabled us to digitize a sampling of footage from this donation. Grainy with age and home movie in style, the films provide a lively and intimate glimpse of an era past. You can see the footage here: https://buff.ly/35pA7BL

A new donation of Lynk & Co. model cars delivered to the Center earlier this month celebrates the Chinese manufacturer’s recent success in international motorsports competition. Lynk & Co., a Chinese-Swedish automobile brand, in collaboration with Cyan Racing claimed the FIA World Touring Car Cup title in 2019 at the season finale at Sepang in Malaysia. The victory marked a historic first - the first world title in motorsports for a Chinese manufacturer. They returned to clai...m a second title in 2020. The models capture in miniature the blue #100 racer (03 TCR) driven by French driver Yvan Muller and the gold, Chinese-market, compact sedan (03+), Lynk & Co.’s high-performance streetcar. They were donated by the Co Club@ Guiyang Nuo Face, a Lynk & Co. car owners’ club located in China’s Guizhou province. It is one of 271 owners’ clubs with a combined membership of over 400,000. A club member, Hexiang Juday Zhu, donated the models on behalf of the club. They were hand-delivered to the Center by Mengjiang Huang, a friend and fellow racing enthusiast, attending Cornell University as a graduate student in Biomedical Engineering.

Robert Edwards of Purcellville, VA, a dedicated supporter of the IMRRC and participant in the annual Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival, finished a years-long project recently: a 1:32 scale slot car track of Watkins Glen International. Bob had contacted the Center several years ago to obtain engineering drawings of WGI and our staff was able to provide drawings of the redesign of the track in the early 1970s. Bob made a video of a walk around the track that you can find at the link below. Congratulations, Bob, on finishing your project! We're so happy we were able to help all those years ago.

#FLXGives is more than halfway through! Our friends and neighbors at the Watkins Glen Public Library are participating, too. They have worked incredibly hard this year giving our local community safe access to library materials and computers, while also coming up with virtual entertainment and activities for kids while they were out of school. Every donation will directly support the library's collection, services, and programs. You can learn more about what they've achieved this year and plans for the future here: https://www.flxgives.org/organi/watkins-glen-public-library

#FLXGives is TODAY, and we are asking you to join us in our efforts to make this the most awesome day of giving our community has ever seen! Could you take five minutes to give to the IMRRC? Even $5 will help! After that, you can give to other nonprofits that do work you support or just kick back and watch how high the giving can go at https://buff.ly/38ShDNx! Your donation of any amount will help us continue to collect, preserve, and share the history of motorsports.... Here’s how you can make a HUGE difference today: - Make a donation to the IMRRC: https://buff.ly/3pyv9vF - Spread the word by sharing this post. Thank you for your support!

Catch Kip and the Corvette at Grist Iron Brewing on Seneca Lake, today from 12-4. Make sure you try the mac and cheese and tater tots! Tickets to win the 2020 Corvette Stingray are still available here: https://buff.ly/2QONzYM

Seventy years ago this fall, road racing in America took a large step forward. Only two years earlier the sport of racing in the streets had been revived at Watkins Glen, New York after a long absence in this country. For its third annual event, September 1950, the race was placed on the world calendar by the Paris-based FIA and billed as the International Sports Car Grand Prix of Watkins Glen. J.C. Argetsinger, son of Cameron and Jean Argetsinger, tells the story of the 1950 Grand Prix in Watkins Glen: https://buff.ly/2J3IsU5

Motorsports photographs by Kathie J. Meredith currently on display in the exhibition "Trackside Stories" at the Arnot Art Museum are now available online as part of the New York Heritage project. The collaborative project provides a portal for historical collections documenting every aspect of the State's diverse people and places. Visit "the Glen" during one of the most exciting eras in the circuit's history from 1968 to 1972 through the IMRRC's new digital collection. You can find it here: https://nyheritage.org//trackside-stories-kathie-j-meredit