The International Motor Racing Research Center manages the Sports Car Club of America archive. In 2017, the IMRRC launched the first phase of processing two tractor-trailer loads of papers, publications and photographs documenting the history of the SCCA that were delivered to the Center’s off-site storage facility in nearby Montour Falls. With funding provided by the SCCA Foundation, the IMRRC hired two SCCA archive technicians, Rick Hughey and Joe Cali, to begin making the archives accessible to researchers, SCCA members, drivers, car owners and racing fans. They have made remarkable progress with the project. Significant portions of the archive, including drivers’ files, regional publications, race results, homologation papers, race programs, rule books and parts of the photograph collection, have been organized, rehoused and/or inventoried.
Inquiries about materials in the SCCA archive may be directed to IMRRC’s Head Archivist Jenny Ambrose at jenny@racingarchives.org.
Portions of the SCCA archive that have been used most often by our staff in responding to research inquiries are:
- Drivers’ files: These files contain applications for regional and national licenses from thousands of drivers. The applications often include a novice permit and log book with a photograph of the driver, list races in which the drivers participated and provide information about the completion of drivers’ schools.
- Race results: This series contains race results from over 2,500 drivers’ schools and regional and national races sanctioned by SCCA. The date, title of the race, sanctioning region/body, type of race, sanctioning number, and the name of the track are noted in the inventory. The results contain information from races all over the United States detailing the length and duration of the races held during the event, names of drivers, the region to which they belonged, car number, make of cars, and sponsors as well as their finishing place, number of laps completed and time.
- Regional publications: The SCCA regional publications document the activities of more than 100 different SCCA regions from all over the United States from the 1950s to the early 21st century. The publications contain articles about regional races and other activities, race results and information on cars and drivers. Changes in regional membership and officers are recorded. They are often illustrated with photographs, drawings and cartoons. The SCCA archives technicians organized these publications alphabetically by region, arranged them chronologically within each region and created an item-level inventory listing every issue.
- Rally collections: The SCCA rally collections document all kinds of rallying and include entry lists, results, instructions and route maps covering SCCA rally events throughout the United States over fifty years, from 1954 to 2004. Rally license applications, programs, rule books, and administrative correspondence and minutes of the Rally Board also make up a significant part of the rally archives. In addition, it contains photographs, materials on international rallies sanctioned by other groups, rally periodicals, dash plaques, rally car identification signs, bumper stickers, decals, and even some rally license plates. A full inventory is available.
SCCA archive technicians Rick Hughey, left, and Joe Cali.
A sampling of regional publications in the Sports Car Club of America archive.
The SCCA archive.
Boxes of Sports Car Club of America collection rule books after reboxing at the Welliver warehouse in nearby Montour Falls.