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The Center has no corporate "angel" or government funding, and your sponsorship does far more than just keep the lights on. It funds research and the cataloging and preservation of important records. Please consider supporting the Center by becoming part of our Sponsorship Team in 2015. |
The International Motor Racing Research Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3) charitable organization. 610 S. Decatur St. Watkins Glen, NY 14891 |
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| | Historian Bill Green Speaking January 24  International Motor Racing Research Center Historian Bill Green will kick off the 2015 Center Conversations series on Jan. 24, launching a monthly schedule that will include programs on Can-Am, racing in the Pacific Northwest and the famed Syracuse Mile.
The Center's second annual model car show is also being planned. Green, who additionally serves as historian for Watkins Glen International, will speak about "Racing Things: Patches, Programs, Credentials and Other Things." The talk will be at 1 p.m. and is free and open to all. The Center is located at 610 S. Decatur St., Watkins Glen. Green is a noted authority on Watkins Glen racing history and boasts a vast personal collection of "racing things" that was inaugurated when he bought a program at the first race in Watkins Glen in 1948. The collection today comprises more than 3,000 hard and soft cover books, racing posters, photographs, motorsports magazines and full race results of Watkins Glen 1948 to present. Since 1948 he has missed only two Watkins Glen race seasons: 1966 and 1967, when he was stationed in Morocco with the U.S. Navy. He made up for the misses by attending Formula One races in England and Germany. Green's presentation tops a diverse 2015 Center Conversations schedule. Learn more by clicking here. |
 Carol and Burt Levy at the Racing Research Center in December 2013. (photo by Angelo Lisuzzo)
Burt Levy Offers Immortality ... Author, race-car driver and award-winning motorsports journalist Burt "BS" Levy is raffling off an opportunity to be, or name and co-create, a supporting character in his upcoming novel, "The 200mph Steamroller Pt. II: The Italian Job." The Racing Research Center is a beneficiary of the raffle, selected to receive half of the proceeds. The book is the sixth and penultimate book in Levy's highly acclaimed "The Last Open Road" series. It is the second volume of a highly fictionalized parody on the Ford Motor Company's attempt to buy Ferrari and subsequent assault on the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 1962-66. It is scheduled to launch at The Hawk vintage racing weekend at Road America in Elkhart Lake, Wis., July 16-19.
"I've always looked for innovative ways to publish and promote my books," Levy says. "After 'The Last Open Road' was rejected by just about every major publisher in New York, my wife Carol and I took out a second mortgage to publish it ourselves in 1994. It sold out two printings, got great reviews and was ultimately picked up by a prominent New York publisher. But, we weren't pleased with the results. So, for the sequel, 'Montezuma's Ferrari,' I thought why not fund a book project the same way my racing is funded: with sponsorships and advertising?
"We wound up raising enough money to not only publish the new book, but to buy back the rights and remaining copies of 'The Last Open Road' from the New York publisher."
"Montezuma's Ferrari" won a Benjamin Franklin Book of the Year Award for that idea. "Now I have an even crazier idea," Levy says. "And, this time, half the proceeds will go to the very worthy International Motor Racing Research Center." The raffle winner will get to name and supply physical details and character traits (along with endearing and/or annoying personal habits and real or imagined history) and be involved in deciding where and how that character will be woven into the story. Raffle tickets are $5 each, five for $20, 15 for $50 and 40 for $100 and are available online by clicking here. The drawing will take place at midnight on Jan. 24 during the running of the Rolex 24 at Daytona. Levy also will offer three second prizes (a $250-value sponsorship in the new book) and 10 third prizes (a free copy of the new book). |
Joe Marotta, track announcer at the Syracuse Mile since 1970, visits the Racing Research Center on Jan. 15. Here he stands next to the display honoring Chris Economaki, a man whom he greatly admired. Marotta will be part of the Center's Nov. 14 program on the Syracuse Mile, one of the longest continually operating tracks in the nation.
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~ Center Conversations: Bill Green on "Racing Things: Patches, Programs, Credentials and Other Things," Saturday, Jan. 24, at 1 p.m. Free. ~ Center Conversations: Tony Vickio on "Shifting Gears, Tales of pistons, paint cans & personalities," Saturday, Feb. 21, at 1 p.m. Free.
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