WATKINS GLEN, N.Y. (June 11, 2014) – Vintage race car driver Murray Smith will speak at the International Motor Racing Research Center on Saturday, June 21.

Smith also is the organizer of the acclaimed Lime Rock Historic Festival, presented annually on Labor Day weekend at Lime Rock Park in Connecticut. Smith’s talk is part of the monthly series Center Conversations. It is free and open to all. The Center is located at 610 S. Decatur St., Watkins Glen.

Smith will speak about the magnificent cars he has driven over the years, as well as the significant vintage and historic motoring events he has organized.

He has specialized in racing historic race cars, from Alfa Monzas to Brabham and Lotus Formula One cars, as well as all kinds of sports racing cars, from pre-war Bentleys to Porsche 956s and 962s. Smith has competed many times successfully at Watkins Glen, racing in Jaguar D-type and Lola T70 cars.

He also was on the team finishing fourth overall in a Camaro in the 1986 IMSA Firestone Firehawk 24 Hours event at Watkins Glen. Born in Scotland, Smith studied at the University at the London School of Economics and had a successful career in advertising. Upon retirement, he began a new career as a consultant on motoring matters to major clients such as Chrysler, Rolex, Tudor, Ralph Lauren and Louis Vuitton.

In 1996, Smith founded and organized the international automobile show the Louis Vuitton Classic at Rockefeller Center in New York. In 2002, he was the founder and organizer of the annual Legendes Historic Racing event at Mont Tremblant in Quebec.

Smith took over the organizing reins of the Lime Rock Historic Festival in 2009.

He is past chairman of BMP, the organization that runs the four major British championships – Formula 3, British Touring Cars, GT and Superbikes – and he also is a past member of the FIA Formula One Management Commission. Smith is a regular contributor to Sports Car Market magazine on vintage and historic racing.

Upcoming speakers in the Center Conversations series are Cary Agajanian, son of legendary racing team owner and race organizer J.C. Agajanian on July 19; Steve Zautke on the Milwaukee Mile on Oct. 18; and on Nov. 8, Michael Martin on the United States Road Racing Championship race series of the 1960s.

All talks will begin at 1 p.m.

The Racing Research Center is an archival library dedicated to the preservation of the history of motorsports, of all series and all venues, through its collections of books, periodicals, films, photographs, fine art and other materials. For more information about the Center’s work and its programs, visit www.racingarchives.org or call (607) 535-9044.