Stopwatch

The selection of motor racing's early "national champions" was not very scientific and has endured a number of revisions over the years. Famed motor racing historian Don Capps proposes that revisionism used in American football might help explain what happened.

The 12 Hours of Sebring is one of the three most iconic sports car endurance races in the world, along with the 24 Hours of Le Mans and the Rolex 24 at Daytona. The Sebring event has been held uninterrupted since 1952 but its future wasn't always assured. The 1972 race looked to be the last - until a trio of heroes stepped in to save it.

The 1989 Camel GT season was hotly contested between the TWR Jaguars and the powerful Nissan GTP ZX-Turbos run by the highly successful Electramotive team. Nissan had won the six races leading up the Portland round in August that year. And they would have won that race as well, if not for highly unusual circumstances at the end of the race.

Martin Raffauf recounts a few of the highlights of the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1981 when he was a crew member on the winning Bob Garretson Porsche 935.

A.J. Foyt was drafted into Preston Henn's Porsche 935 in the wee hours of Sunday morning during the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1983. He didn't tell the co-drivers. Find out what happened next in this account excerpted from the book: “IMSA 1969-1989: The Inside Story of How John Bishop Built the World’s Greatest Sports Car Racing Series,” authored by Mitch Bishop and Mark Raffauf, available now from Octane Press and wherever books are sold.

The 1976 24 Hours of Daytona was a race plagued by unusual and unforeseen circumstances that stalled much of the 72 car field and brought the race to a grinding halt for the better part of three hours. The following account of the race is excerpted from the book: “IMSA 1969-1989: The Inside Story of How John Bishop Built the World’s Greatest Sports Car Racing Series,” authored by Mitch Bishop and Mark Raffauf, scheduled for publication in January 2019 from Octane Press.

This is part two of world-renowned motorsports writer Doug Nye's account of an interview he had with Mario Andretti during the U.S. Grand Prix weekend in October 1974 at Watkins Glen.

World-renowned motorsports writer Doug Nye had the good fortune to sit down with Mario Andretti during the U.S. Grand Prix weekend in October 1974 at Watkins Glen. This is part one of Doug's account of the interview that covered the early part of Mario's amazing career.

Luigi Chinetti is best known to American racing fans as the owner of North American Racing Team (N.A.R.T.), a team that fielded many a Ferrari with world-class drivers in U.S. sports car events. Chinetti himself only raced once in America - at the very first Sebring endurance event in 1950. This is the story of how it happened and the Ferrari 166 coupe he drove, owned by Briggs Cunningham.

Peter Sachs, a member of the IMRRC Historians Council, remembers the 1962 French Grand Prix, a race in which Dan Gurney collected an unexpected win. Reposted with permission from the Klemantaski Collection.