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We were saddened to hear of the passing of long-time IMRRC friend and supporter Tim Meddaugh in February. Tim was an avid racing fan and a 55-year member of the SCCA.

The Symposium has provided a platform for excellent in-depth and thought-provoking presentations on the successes, struggles, and contributions of unheralded women racers and car owners across various auto racing disciplines. The green flag for this roundtable discussion will wave with panelists (Lauren Goodman, Buz McKim and Chris Lezotte) integrating these prior presentations into a brief historiographical discussion of women in motorsport.

In the late 60’s New Zealand Motor Racing found itself in a bind. A few years earlier the Tasman Formula had been written to keep the local fleet of older 2.5 litre ex F1 cars in play. But now the more modern Formula 2, and even a few of the National Formula 1600 cc cars, were embarrassing the older ones. Visiting cars from Europe were either bigger engined ex 1.5 litre F1  cars, or new designs for the upcoming 3 litre F1 with capacity reduced engines, leaving Motor Sport New Zealand with a dilemma.  Whichever way you looked at it, it was going to be expensive.

Grassroots and bootstraps strategies were used by early racing pioneers in West Virginia beginning in the 1930s. Tom Adamich, co-author of the auto racing entry in the West Virginia Encyclopedia and other related articles/publications will profile several events and individuals who innovated and dominated on the dirt tracks, ball diamonds, and other unique race courses that dot the hills and valleys of the great state of West Virginia.

Steve Post currently is one of the pit road reporters for MRN’s race coverage. He is the co-host of Winged Nation, an audio and television program on MAVTV covering sprint car racing.

This presentation examines the 2023 alliance between Leidos, the international high-tech engineering firm, and NASCAR to build a “Next Gen” Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV).

Mackenzie Kirkey’s presentation focuses on NASCAR driver Curtis Turner, the efforts of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to unionize NASCAR drivers in 1961, and the tactics used by NASCAR’s Founder and President Bill France Sr. to try and thwart their attempts.

Buz McKim’s presentation explores the racing career of NASCAR’s iconic founder William “Bill” France and the origins of NASCAR in the late 1940s and early 1950s.

It appears that Maserati in the 1950s identified their competition cars by their engine numbers, not their chassis numbers, and that this process allowed for the individual cars to have carried more than one identity. This has implications for the provenance of these cars.

The 1940 Mille Miglia is an anomaly in the long history of the race. The previous classic editions, held between 1927 and 1938, were run on the thousand-mile figure-of-eight open road course covering half of Italy.