The Logbook

Book Review of The First Lady of Dirt: The Triumphs and Tragedy of Racing Pioneer Cheryl Glass. By Bill Poehler. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2024.

Superstitions, both good and evil, common and rare, affect all classes of people and their place in life and have been passed along generation after generation. Auto racing, from its very beginning, is not immune from superstitions – many of which can be described as bizarre and are present in today’s auto racing world.

Give me the keys! On the grid, courtesy of the Little Speed Shop.

Don Capps is currently engaged in research surrounding the sport and contests sanctioned by the AAA from its beginning, including the American national auto racing championships, until the Contest Board ceased operations at the end of the 1955 season.

On Friday, September 6, the 31st Annual Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival was held in the village. The daylong event honored the years 1948-1952, when cars raced down Franklin Street and around the State Park on a public road circuit of 6.6 miles in length.

The Gordon Bennett Cup, held for cars between 1900 and 1905 was the first international racing series. Stemming from an idea by American newspaper magnate, James Gordon Bennett Jr., the Gordon Bennett Cup was set to champion the international auto industry – by allowing national automobile clubs representing France, Germany, Great Britain, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the United States and Italy to nominate three entries each.

Rob Dyson, who started his racing career in 1974 at Watkins Glen International, In 1981 he won the Sports Car Club of America’s GT2 national championship, and began racing professionally in IMSA GTO and the SCCA Trans-Am in 1982.

Karl Mertins presents a “what if” story: what if Robert Eberan von Eberhorst in 1953 would have joined the newly formed Unione Automobili instead of an Auto Union that was only a shadow of its former self?

Zak Brown, CEO of McLaren Racing, was honored at a gala dinner on Thursday with the 10th annual International Motor Racing Research Center’s Cameron R. Argetsinger Award for outstanding contributions to motorsports.

The case of Pete Kreis, offers an opportunity to examine a case which resulted in two purposeful deaths at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.