“On Saturdays I would walk around the track and get in everywhere I could so that on Sundays I could be in just one place and watch the race,” Ken French of Rochester, N.Y., said, recalling races at such famed tracks as Mosport, St. Jovite and Watkins Glen.
Dan Gurney, driver for Oscar Olson, victor in the IndyCar Telegraph Trophy 200 at Mosport in June 1968. From the Ken French Collection.
French recently donated a collection of 90 slides documenting those races. The images range from 1968 through 1979 and include Formula 1, Trans-Am and Can-Am competition. French said he was strictly a fan, but a fan with good camera equipment.
An electronic technician nearing retirement, French said he picked the IMRRC for his collection because his family has no interest in the slides. “I knew I’d like someone to have them who would use them,” he said. French hasn’t yet actually visited the Center, but he’s planning to this summer, he said. The Center staff looks forward to meeting him and thanking him in person.