Save the Date! Society of Automotive Historians – 2025 Annual Awards Banquet

A number of automotive-history activities are planned. We hope you will join us for a weekend of car talk and celebration.

(DAY 1) Saturday, September 20

Tour the Sloan Museum of Discovery – History and Durant Automotive Galleries
1221 E Kearsley St, Flint MI 48503
[1 mile from Factory One]
1PM – 3PM
$10 special rate

Tour of the Kettering Archives at Factory One
5PM-6PM
Free of charge

2025 Society of Automotive Historians Annual Award Banquet
Saturday, September 20, 2025
Durant-Dort Factory One
303 W. Water St., Flint Michigan 48503
6PM-9PM
Menu and cost TBA
Speaker: Jim Secreto, retired Detroit automotive photographer and collector extraordinaire of automotive advertising art. Using examples from his collection, Jim will talk about automotive illustration before the digital age.

(DAY 2) Sunday, September 21

Golden Memories Car Show – Exclusively for original or authentically restored vehicles produced in 1975 or earlier
Flint Cultural Center [1 mile from Factory One]
1310 E Kearsley St., Flint MI 48503
9AM-4PM
Free of charge

LODGING

Special-priced rooms are available for September 19 & 20 at two local hotels.
Mention the Society of Automotive Historians when making reservations.

Hilton Garden Inn Flint Downtown
110 W Kearsley St, Flint, MI 48502
810 233-9110
Short walk to Factory One
$139 per night
Reservations must be received by Friday, August 29
to receive special group rate.

Hyatt Place Flint-Grand Blanc
5481 Hill 23 Dr. Flint MI 48507
810 424-9000
12-minute drive to Factory One
$119 per night
Reservations must be received by Friday, August 29
to receive special group rate.

If you have questions or would like more information, contact Chris Lezotte. 

Thanks to a grant from a generous long-time donor, the IMRRC has embarked on an ambitious digitization program, beginning with a selection of films from archives. Among the first group of films converted are 8 and 16mm examples that, naturally, feature racing in Watkins Glen in the 1950s and 1960s but also other venues such as Indianapolis, Bridgehampton and Lime Rock. These films and other s will be made available on the IMRRC’s YouTube channel.

Example of the Assorted Races from the Mal and Charlotte Currie Collection (99A008) on 8 mm film. All races from 1964.

• Glen Classic: Jim Hall in #66 (he won the race) and Tex Hopkins
• Watkins Glen Grand Prix/USRRC: Janet Guthrie (car #15) and in orange searching for something
• US Grand Prix: Jim Clark and Graham Hill (the latter won the race that year)
• NASCAR: Richard Petty parking his car (#43)

The new issue of the SAH Journal has five issues in one #328 through #332, 80 pages vs. the usual 16 pages.

SAH Forums

Additionally, there’s a dedicated forum for the SAH within the AACA forums page. If for any reason this link doesn’t work on your platform, just go to:
forums.aaca.org then scroll down… just after the AACA section there’s a section header that says: “Other Automobile Enthusiasts” and “The Society of Automotive Historians” is the only group in that new section just before the Buick section. Click on The Society of Automotive Historians and you’ll enter the SAH topics page. Anyone can view all the posts on the forum, but like all forums, to post one needs to sign up. To sign up, just go to the upper right of the page and you’ll see the instructions to sign up, which will allow you to post on the all the forums on the site.

Searching for information on designer Jack Garnier

Jack Garnier was the last head of Nash Styling. He passed away in 2007, but I’m trying to find out information about his career before AMC and Nash, and also any photos of him or examples of his work as a car designer. Contact Patrick Foster: +203-877-6717 or email oldemilfordpress@msn.com

We welcome AutoMobilia Resource magazine—a new advertiser to the SAH Journal

• NICOLAS-JOSEPH CUGNOT AWARD, ENGLISH
  The Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Award, English is presented each year for one or more books that best advance the understanding of the history of the automobile in the English language. Consideration will be given to traditional automotive histories – books focused on cars, automakers, individuals, and events – as well as social histories of the automobile, which examine the effect of the automobile on society, culture, and everyday life.
• CARL BENZ AWARD
  The Carl Benz Award recognizes excellence in the presentation of automotive history appearing as an article in a periodical. Articles in all commercial, club, and academic periodicals are welcome to be nominated. The article must have appeared in a publication with an on-sale date within the previous calendar year.
• RICHARD AND GRACE BRIGHAM AWARD
  The Richard and Grace Brigham Award is presented to the commercial, institutional, or club automotive history periodical that represents the most exemplary editorial, graphic, and historical content published in the previous calendar year. Periodicals with an online-only presence are also eligible. Award evaluations are based on issues for the entire calendar year, rather than a single issue.
• E.P. INGERSOLL AWARD
  The E. P. Ingersoll Award is given for the best presentation of automotive history in media other than print. Film, television, video documentaries, oral histories, sound recordings, podcasts, websites, blogs, social media, cell phone and tablet apps, computer software, and art are eligible for consideration.
• JAMES J. BRADLEY DISTINGUISHED SERVICE AWARD
  The James J. Bradley Distinguished Service Award is presented by The Society of Automotive Historians to museums, archives, and libraries for exemplary efforts in preserving motor vehicle resource materials.
• FRIEND OF AUTOMOTIVE HISTORY AWARD
  The lifetime Friend of Automotive History (FOAH) Award recognizes an individual who has made a profound individual contribution to the automotive history community and the historical record.

June 15th is the nomination deadline for the Nicolas-Joseph Cugnot Award, Language other than English (LOE), and the Richard P. Scharchburg Student Paper Award

The Society of Automotive Historians is pleased to announce the first SAH/Kettering Travel-to-Collections Grant recipient. Jennifer Eaglin PhD, an Associate Professor at Ohio State University, will use the grant to continue research for her upcoming book Auto Americas: A Hemispheric History of the Automobile. Congratulations to Dr. Eaglin!

Upon the completion of her travel-grant research stay, Dr. Eaglin will be presenting her findings at 12:15PM Thursday, June 5, 2025, on the Kettering University Campus in Flint, Michigan. SAH members are welcome to attend this presentation. If you are interested in attending in person, please email Chris Lezotte by end-of-day Thursday, April 3 so that the Kettering staff can arrange for additional space and parking.

The SAH/Kettering Travel-to-Collections Grant was established to offer support for scholars and students to use the Kettering University Archives collections for automotive research. The decision committee is composed of both Kettering faculty and SAH members. More information on the grant, as well as the submission process, can be found here. Further information on Dr. Eaglin can be found here.

The Society of Automotive Historians thanks member David Schmidt for serving on the inaugural SAH/Kettering Travel-to-Collections Grant selection panel.

THE PRESENTATION TO THE RECIPIENT OF THE INAUGURAL SAH/KETTERING TRAVEL-TO-COLLECTIONS GRANT WILL BE HELD JUNE 5, 2025 ON THE KETTERING UNIVERSITY CAMPUS – SAH MEMBERS ARE INVITED TO ATTEND.

America’s Packard Museum invites US-based SAH members to register to borrow books from their Turnquist Library. The Library holdings consist of over 3,500 books and more are added on a regular basis. The Library is named in honor of two Packard historians and friends of America’s Packard Museum, Robert and Sonia Turnquist. Seach the Library here. Register to borrow books here.

“My Travels On Racer Road: Can-Am and Formula 1 in their golden age” by Pete Lyons Foreword by Sir Jackie Stewart Epilogue with Mario Andretti Publication date: March 2025 US price: $90.00 CDN price: $120.00 ISBN: 9781910505878 Format: 240x210mm portrait (9.4in x 8.3in) Hardback Page extent: 560 Illustration: 550 photographs, including color

LONDON (March 18, 2025) – “My Travels On Racer Road: Can-Am and Formula 1 in their golden age,” by Pete Lyons, is now available in the U.S.

As Sir Jackie Stewart states in the book’s Foreword, “Pete Lyons was one of the best journalists in Formula 1 at the time I was racing.” Lyons himself writes that when he became obsessed with motor racing, “It felt like my true road.” He witnessed Chaparral, Lola, McLaren and Porsche create ever-more-monstrous Can-Am beasts to be tamed by the likes of Jim Hall, John Surtees, Bruce McLaren, Denny Hulme, Mario Andretti and Mark Donohue. His cameras, notebooks and typewriter also were there when Tyrrell, Lotus, McLaren and Ferrari were the dominant forces in Formula 1, with Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi, Niki Lauda and James Hunt the World Champion drivers.

Immersed in this golden age of racing, Lyons brought a unique blend of evocative description and fastidious factual detail to his craft, putting his devoted readers at the heart of the action. This captivating memoir will transport the reader back to those times.

• Early travels, including criss-crossing the USA in his family’s pre-war Rolls-Royce and by Vincent motorcycle in the late 1950s, then discovering Europe’s racing scene as an impecunious wanderer in the early 1960s.
• Breaking into professional reporting from 1964 for the UK’s Autosport alongside his father Ozzie Lyons, with assignments embracing IndyCar, endurance sports cars, Formula 1 and more, and getting to know the great names in these worlds.
• Falling in love with the Can-Am upon its inception in 1966 and following this “big-banger” racing closely for seven seasons, during which “Riding with Revvie” — laps with 1971 series champion Peter Revson in a McLaren M8F — was among the highlights. Lyons’s travels “on racer road” took him all over North America by Volvo station wagon, Ford van and Honda CB750 motorcycle.
• Embarking in 1973 upon four seasons of global travels with the Formula 1 “circus” and all the diversions that came with that, including time spent with Emerson Fittipaldi at his home in Brazil and a British rallying odyssey as Denny Hulme’s navigator.
• Around Europe, Lyons’s means of travel included his Chevrolet Corvette Stingray, a VW camper van that doubled as mobile office and hotel, and rented private aircraft that he flew to races himself.
• In his post-nomadic life, Lyons has been plying his trade ever since as a writer, photographer and editor.

About the Author: Born in 1940 in New York State, Pete Lyons is an international motorsports reporter, photographer and award-winning book author in the fields of Formula 1, Can-Am, endurance sports cars, IndyCar, Trans-Am and many more forms of racing. In his decades-long, worldwide career, Lyons covered events on all six populated continents for numerous enthusiast publications, including Autosport, AutoWeek, Car and Driver, Racecar, Road & Track, Vintage Motorsport and many others. He is also the author of 20 published books including, for Evro Publishing, Shadow: The Magnificent Machines of a Man of Mystery, which won ‘Specialist Motoring Book of the Year’ at the 2020 Royal Automobile Club Motoring Book of the Year Awards (UK) and ‘Best Book’ at the 2021 Automotive Heritage Awards (USA).

Evro Publishing books are distributed in North America by Quarto Publishing Group USA. Books can be ordered from Quarto by email: sales@quarto.com; phone number: 800-328-0590; or website: www.quartoknows.com Please use the relevant ISBN number when ordering.

“My Travels On Racer Road: Can-Am and Formula 1 in their golden age” is available in the U.S. from specialist and online booksellers, as well as on evropublishing.com.

Pete Lyons’s new memoir is also available directly from the author, complete with his personalized signature, at his website: https://www.petelyons.com/my-books.

For more information about this book, or to request a review book and/or an interview, please contact Judy Stropus at jvstropus@gmail.com.

WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (March 10, 2025) – Jordan Taylor, driver for the No. 40 Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing V-Series.R GTP Team in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, has been named the 2025 Annual Membership Chairperson for the International Motor Racing Research Center, located in Watkins Glen, New York.

Image courtesy of Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing

Taylor, 33, of Forest City, Florida, joins a stellar roster of past membership chairpersons, including Brian Redman, Helio Castroneves, Mario Andretti, Lyn St. James, Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, Sir Stirling Moss, among other illustrious icons of motorsports.

Taylor’s duties for the year include being an advocate in support of the IMRRC’s mission to collect, preserve and share the global history of motorsports, and to help create sustainability by drawing in new generations of motor racing fans.

“I am a huge fan of motorsports, obviously, growing up around the sport and being around sports car racing in particular, as long as I can remember,” said Taylor, son of IMSA team owner and three time World Sportscar Champion, Wayne Taylor. “I’ve always been a fan of the history of the sport, especially my dad’s generation, and the different evolutions of race cars. For me, just being a big fan of the sport makes this assignment exciting for me.”

Taylor’s racing career began in 2011, competing for Autohaus Motorsports. He then moved to Corvette Racing from 2012-2017. Now racing for Cadillac Wayne Taylor Racing in IMSA, Taylor and the team won the 2024 12 Hours of Sebring, and were third at the Rolex 24 At Daytona. During his tenure with WTR and Cadillac Racing, he’s collected two overall Prototype championships (2013 and 2017) and two overall Rolex 24 wins (2017 and 2019). Prior to his return to prototype racing, Taylor captured two GTLM championships in 2020 and 2021, a third in GTD-Pro in 2022 and a GTLM class victory at the 2021
Rolex 24.

“I’m probably one of the younger people who has been honored with this position at the IMRRC,” added Taylor. “I think I can connect to the younger generation, who may not appreciate the history of the sport as much as the older generation. I’d like to help my generation get up to speed.”

Mark Steigerwald, Executive Director of the IMRRC, welcomed Taylor, saying, “We are honored to have Jordan join our team as this year’s membership chairperson. I’m confident his passion for the sport as an advocate for the Center’s mission will reach all generations of motor racing fans who can appreciate what the Center is doing to preserve the sport’s rich history.”

LONG BEACH, Calif. (February 24, 2025) – Firestone returns as presenting sponsor of the expanded Road Racing Drivers Club annual legends dinner in Long Beach, California, on Thursday, April 10. The 2025 gala will celebrate the 50 years of racing on the streets of Long Beach, California, and will honor Mario Andretti, Al Unser Jr. and Brian Redman – legendary drivers from the Grand Prix’s rich history.

The “RRDC Celebration of 50 Years of the Grand Prix of Long Beach Presented by Firestone” is the RRDC’s 15th banquet honoring auto racing’s most influential leaders and iconic events. This is Firestone’s 14th year as presenting sponsor of the RRDC gala, and the brand has been affiliated with the Grand Prix of Long Beach for almost three decades.

The dinner and gala will be held at a new venue – the Westin Long Beach Hotel at 333 E. Ocean Blvd. – one day before the start of the 50th Anniversary Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach, the third race of the 2025 NTT INDYCAR SERIES.

All proceeds of the dinner will benefit The Mark Donohue Foundation, which supports the RRDC’s SAFEisFAST initiative, and the Grand Prix Foundation of Long Beach, which supports charities in the Long Beach area. The Foundation’s proceeds from the gala will go to Long Beach City College’s Automotive Technology Program.

Tickets may be purchased on the RRDC web site rrdc.org. All are welcome. This event is expected to sell out, so early reservations are recommended.

“Having Firestone support the RRDC Long Beach dinner for more than a decade is a true privilege,” said RRDC President Bobby Rahal. “This year’s gala is very special, as it celebrates the 50 years that racing has taken place annually on the streets of this great port city.

“Firestone has an unrivaled heritage in motorsports dating back to the first Indy 500® in 1911. We always welcome Firestone’s support, and salute the brand’s long-standing success and contributions to the sport.”

“Each year, the Road Racing Drivers Club event is a highlight of the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach weekend,” said Grand Prix Association of Long Beach President & CEO Jim Michaelian. “And this year is especially meaningful as we join with the RRDC in honoring three true legends of the sport—Mario Andretti, Al Unser Jr., and Brian Redman. Their contributions to Long Beach motorsports history have inspired generations of drivers and fans alike, and we are thrilled to celebrate their incredible legacies during this special evening.”

In previous years, the RRDC has honored individual icons of the sport: Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, Roger Penske, Jim Hall, Brian Redman, Mario Andretti, Bobby Unser, George Follmer, Emerson Fittipaldi, Johnny Rutherford. David Hobbs, Rick Mears, Jacky Ickx and Sir Jackie Stewart. These RRDC galas are acknowledged as highlights of the auto-racing social calendar, drawing fans and luminaries from all forms of motorsports.

Image courtesy of Grand Prix of Long Beach Mario Andretti won at Long Beach four times and is credited with establishing the race as a world-class event, winning the 1977 Formula 1 U.S. Grand Prix West and the 1984 race when the event switched to Indy cars.

Image courtesy of Grand Prix of Long Beach Al Unser Jr. is the winningest driver at Long Beach, with six victories (1988-91 and 1994-95) over a dominant eight-year span.

Indira Flack image Brian Redman won the inaugural Long Beach race in 1975, an SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 event, which set the stage for Formula 1 to race on the city streets for the next eight years.

About Firestone Racing:

The Firestone brand has participated in world-class motorsports events for more than a century, and racing has played an integral role in building and shaping Firestone into the time-tested, iconic brand it is today. Harvey Firestone, the brand’s founder and a pioneer of sports marketing, was one of the first to use racing as the ultimate proving ground for his tires. Ever since Ray Harroun’s Firestone-equipped Marmon Wasp won the inaugural Indianapolis 500® in 1911, Firestone has worked to constantly evolve and advance race tire technology. Overall, Firestone tires have carried the winner of the Indy 500 to victory circle 75 times – more than double all other tire manufacturers combined. Firestone has served as INDYCAR’s sole tire supplier since 2000, and the brand’s on-track success translates to durable, dependable performance and uncompromising quality on the open road.

About the RRDC:

The Road Racing Drivers Club was formed in 1952 as a way to give champion drivers a say in their sport, particularly in the areas of safety, and has evolved to serve the future of road racing by mentoring new drivers on both amateur and professional levels. The Club’s membership includes leading industry professionals, race officials and motorsports journalists, in addition to prominent racing names.

In 2011, the RRDC launched a free on-line training seminar – www.SAFEisFAST.com – featuring RRDC members and other industry experts in high-quality videos covering subjects from physical and mental preparation to driving techniques, driver safety to car setup and sponsorship. The videos are updated regularly. Each week, a professional from the world of motor racing answers readers’ questions on the site in a feature called ‘Ask a Pro.’ Bobby Rahal is President, John Fergus is Vice President/Treasurer and John Clagett is Secretary. The RRDC presents three annual awards: the Phil Hill Award, the Mark Donohue Award, and the Bob Akin Award. Membership in the RRDC is by invitation only. Additional information on the organization may be found at www.rrdc.org.

About the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach:

The Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach celebrates its 50th anniversary April 11-13, 2025, and is North America’s longest-running street race. Hosting more than 190,000 people over its three-day weekend, the Acura Grand Prix is second only to the Indianapolis 500 in popularity on the NTT INDYCAR SERIES calendar. Five additional racing series, including the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, compete during the weekend which also includes a variety of off-the-track activities such as concerts, a Lifestyle Expo, an exotic car show and more. For more information, visit gplb.com.

About the Grand Prix Foundation of Long Beach:

The Grand Prix Foundation of Long Beach, since its inception in 1991, has donated more than $4.2 million to Southern California charities. In addition, the Foundation donates tickets and hospitality packages to the Acura Grand Prix of Long Beach and tickets to the Foundation’s “Grand Prix Charity Days” events to charitable and civic organizations to assist them in their fundraising efforts or, in some cases, to bring the physically or mentally challenged to a “day at the races.” For more information, visit gpflb.com.

Road Racing Drivers Club rrdc.org

“From the Archives” 2025 Calendars are still available, a monthly calendar with 13 historically significant photos selected from our archives.  Perfect for your home, office, shop or garage!

SHOP THE STORE