FW: daytona speedway talk topic may 19 at imrrc

[Casey/Seneca Saw Works]

This will interest many of you.

 

 

 

 

Daytona Speedway Talk Topic May 19

(for immediate release May 8, 2012)

 

WATKINS GLEN, NY – Daytona International Speedway will be the focus of a talk May 19 at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen.

The talk by J.J. O’Malley, motorsports journalist and author and senior editor of publications for the International Speedway Corp., is the first in the 2012 Center Conversations series dubbed “America’s Great Tracks.”

The other sessions: Riverside International Raceway, June 23; Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Aug. 25; and Road America, Oct. 13.

O’Malley’s talk will begin at 1 p.m. It is free and open to all. The Racing Research Center is located at 610 S. Decatur St., Watkins Glen.

O’Malley knows Daytona well. His latest book, “Daytona Hot Shoe: The History of Short Track Motorcycle Racing in Daytona,” was released in March by Anthem Motorsports.

Among his eight other books on racing are “Daytona 24 Hours: the Definitive History of America’s Great Endurance Race” and “Daytona 500: 50 Years of the Great American Race 2008.”

O’Malley teamed up with Center historian Bill Green to produce “Watkins Glen - From Griswold to Gordon: Fifty Years of Competition at the Home of American Road Racing.” O’Malley is a former director of communications at Watkins Glen International.

He also currently works with the Grand American Road Racing series.

Daytona International Speedway, owned by the International Speedway Corp., is the flagship oval track for NASCAR. It opened in 1959 and since then has hosted the Daytona 500 NASCAR race, the signature event for both the track and the series.

The oval track is 2.5 miles long, with 31 degrees of banking in the turns. A 3.56-mile road course, which incorporates part of the banked oval, winds through the 180-acre infield and is used for sports car and motorcycle events.

The track seats 167,785, with additional space in the infield for fans.

The 480-acre speedway grounds also house the headquarters for the International Speedway Corp., a publicly traded company that owns the Daytona Speedway, as well as 11 other race tracks.

The “America’s Great Tracks” series carries on the mission of the International Motor Racing Research Center to preserve the history of motorsports in all series, at all tracks.

For more information about the Center and its work, visit the website www.racingarchives.org.

 

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For more information: Max Neal, Center Director of Administration, (607) 535-9044 or by email at m...@racingarchives.org