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Watkins Glen’s Circus Era: When Formula One Came to Town · BREAK/FIX the Motorsports & Vehicle Enthusiast Variety Show

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Brake Fix's History of Motorsports series is brought to you in part
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by the International Motor Racing Research Center, as well as the
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Society of Automotive Historians, the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of
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Commerce, and the Argettsinger family.
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Formula One at Watkins Glen.
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The Circus Days by Dr.
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James Miller.
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James Miller has had a long time interest in media technology and this
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led him to the historical study of the automobile as an underappreciated
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site of media consumption.
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From there, the highly digitized modern race car presented itself as a
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possible precursor of future mobility.
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This was also an excuse to intellectualize the pleasure of motorsports, which
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has resulted in a connection with the IMRRC and membership in the
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International Motor Press Association.
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Miller is a professor emeritus of communications at Hampshire College,
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a former member of the graduate faculty at UMass Amherst, and a
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member of the Porsche Club of America.
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Formula One raced at Watkins Glen for 20 years, from 1961 to 1980.
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This was a still early time in post war Formula One, when nearly
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everything was smaller scale, sponsorship was just beginning, a
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DIY ethos ruled the paddock, and U.
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S.
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media attention was limited.
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Yet these 20 years mark a crucial midway point between the Glen's
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original road racing and the modern, corporatized Formula One that has now
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developed into a global media spectacle.
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To mark 75 years of Watkins Glen Motorsports, this presentation offers a
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sketch of this distinctive time and place with emphasis on the local community
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engagement that made those glorious 20 years of Formula One possible.
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Our next presentation is by Professor Jim Miller, and it's
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a very much appropriate one.
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Formula One at Watkins Glen Circus Days.
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So, Jim, when you're ready.
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Thank you.
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So, sports car racing on the streets and roads of Watkins Glen
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took place between 1948 and 1955.
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It was the realization of a fantastic dream of Cameron Argettsinger.
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He'd summered on the nearby family farm and learned to drive on these same streets
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and roads when he was just 12 years old.
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Argettsinger teamed up with the village mayor, a newspaper man, a garage operator,
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the owner of the Seneca Lodge, and a bunch of other local business leaders,
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racing they thought would be fun for the Northeastern elite who could afford
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to do it, and the spectacle would extend the local economic benefits
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of tourism further into the autumn.
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The races were successful beyond expectations, drawing
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thousands of spectators.
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The first permanent track was built in 1956 and a second in 1971.
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In 1961, Formula One came to stay for 20 years.
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This presentation is part of a larger historical study
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of Grand Prix auto racing.
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Last year, I presented a model of F1's developmental stages with a media
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orientation and an emphasis on the U.
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S.
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Watkins Glen seemed to me to be a worthwhile case study of
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what I'm calling the Circus Era.
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That'll be my focus today, although I can only skim the surface of what
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I've learned since last November.
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Let me begin with three key observations, which will help you
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appreciate the details that follow.
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First, the 13 years of racing at Watkins Glen very much prefigured
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the Formula One experience.
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In terms of organization, success, community involvement, sanctioning
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issues, and financial challenges.
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My second takeaway is related to the first.
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F1 at Watkins Glen was a fluke of historical circumstances that came
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together almost kaleidoscopically.
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It was at once a logical step in the modernization of Formula One.
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A remarkable local achievement in a situation whose apparent
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strengths were equally the source of its eventual failure, that is,
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bankruptcy and the loss of the U.
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S.
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Grand Prix.
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A last observation is that there's no denying the importance of F1 at the Glen.
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Nearly half of all U.
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S.
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GPs attend F1.
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Watkins Glen hosted the race longer than any other American venue.
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Teams, drivers, the press, fans, all agreed on the special charm and
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beauty of the place, the warmth and skill of race organizers, and the
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joyous participation of the villagers.
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It was unique, and also more generally influential, in what people call the
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Watkins Glen Effect, meaning, Encouraging other early circuits, like Elkhart Lake,
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Lime Rock, and perhaps Bridgehampton.
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Nor is the past forgotten locally.
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For 30 years, the village has hosted a one day Grand Prix festival.
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That's a kind of reenactment of those long ago times.
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And the Argett Singer's family, The gift of the International Motor
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Racing Research Center collects and preserves precious materials that
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document the past, available to anyone.
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This was a period when F1 began to become something recognizable to our own time.
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Regular circuits and countries became legacy venues.
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Familiar teams established themselves.
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Champion drivers emerged, and there were serious technological advances.
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The sport also became more commercial and actually depended on sponsorship,
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which changed car livery from national colors to corporate and product designs.
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While new organizations like the GP Drivers Association and the F1
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Constructors Association challenged both the authority of the FIA and the
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independence of local race organizers.
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It was also an extremely dangerous time.
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When nine drivers were killed, two of them here, these fatalities provoked
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drivers into a sustained program for safety that improved tracks and racecars.
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Here's a schematic representation of the circus era study as it's coalescing.
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I won't be talking about the media component today due to lack of time.
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My overall aim in this is to move outside the usual motorsport historiography
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into a more lived cultural context, a kind of arms length ethnography.
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The most abstract and all encompassing frame here is the carnivalesque.
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By this I mean a zone of sanctioned fun, but crucially, where
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inversions of the normal take place, where fantasy becomes reality.
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So, speeding is prohibited, except here, where it's demanded.
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Where mythical gods turn into superhuman drivers.
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Where everyday safety and security are abandoned in favor of embracing danger.
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And where celebration, without inhibition, prevails.
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takes place.
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Think of the bog.
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A side note, and there could be many of these, during this period, another
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related carnivalesque phenomenon, the Outdoor Music Festival, emerged.
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Holistic leisure, somebody calls it, complete with on site camping,
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merchandise, food, and all the rest.
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In July of 73, there was Summer Jam, featuring the Allman Brothers, the
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Grateful Dead, the band, and 600, 000 rock fans, and it took place here.
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Calling this the circus era goes beyond an affectionate metaphor.
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In fact, the circus and the county fair are predecessor
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cultural forms to Formula One.
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They afford ready made structures and cultural practices that
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racing took as its own.
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Both are mostly rural and small town.
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Fairs were meant to educate farmers about the latest agricultural techniques,
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and that required entertainment to get their attention, which looked
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a lot like circuses, some version of the rings and the midways.
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Locals collaborated to maintain an annual fair, and they mixed it up with the exotic
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outsiders that circuses brought to town.
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Fairs sought to be community building.
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Circuses displayed advanced technologies, like electric
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lighting and travel by train.
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Fairs involved competition, animal building, and canned fruit.
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Circuses were mobile encampments, while fairgrounds had permanent buildings.
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Fairs most popular events were Included horse racing, which gave
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way to auto racing with circuits and grandstands auto thrill shows
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were a kind of circus spinoff.
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There's a great deal more to say about how circuses and faires
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foreshadowed automobile racing and maybe F1 in particular during
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this period, just not today.
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Watkins Glen is a rural village whose population during the
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circus era was about 2, 500.
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People descend mainly from English and Irish immigrants and there's
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a sizable Italian community.
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The area then was mostly agricultural with a significant salt producing industry.
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Situated at the southern tip of Seneca Lake, Watkins Glen
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has a long history of tourism.
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Steamboats and the railroad brought the well to do to elegant hotels and a
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spa near a two mile long gorge, which at the turn of the 20th century Became
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a popular New York State Park was and it is pleasant working class town of
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small businesses and modest homes.
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Its biggest neighbors include Ithaca, home of Cornell and Elmira,
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where there's a small airport.
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There is nothing in any of these rather commonplace features, even hints that
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someday Watkins Glen would become globally synonymous with the pinnacle
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of international road racing and produce a 75 year heritage of motorsports.
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The invention of road racing at Watkins Glen was a top down affair.
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It would come to involve the genuine enthusiasm and active support of
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townspeople, but it was mostly the work of a social elite, men with the experience,
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education, time, and means to organize, operate, and compete in sports car racing.
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There was a core of local founders.
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They were informed by pre war racing in the U.
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S.
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and Europe, and savvy enough to gain sanctioning to close the streets
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and roads, To stop the trains to attract contestants and all the rest.
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Drivers were gentlemen sportsmen with serious money, fame, or both.
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They might have played polo or sailed in regattas.
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They attended the dropout of Ivy League schools.
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They were widely known in popular culture.
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They had resources for serious play.
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A modest 1948 MGTC cost twice the price of a basic Ford coupe.
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Many of them had experienced the Depression in comfort.
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They all, of course, had survived the war and were looking to live full lives.
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Some were heirs and were especially influential.
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The Collier brothers grew up on an estate next to the Rockefellers.
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The boys built a racetrack out of its service roads.
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In the years just before the stock market crash, teenage Sam built and ran a summer
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theater featuring vaudeville in movies.
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It's seated 66 and was financed by his father.
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The patriarch made his money in streetcar and subway advertising
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and then bought more than a million acres of southwest Florida, where
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Collier County is named for him.
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Briggs Cunningham is in a league of his own.
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His influence on American post war road racing is probably as
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immeasurable as his personal wealth.
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It was Cameron Argettsinger's dream to race cars through the roads where his
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family roots were generations deep.
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His father had gone to Ohio, where he became an officer
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of a Youngstown steel mill.
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Father and son drove Packards.
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At age 20, Cameron was co owner of a Packard dealership.
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After the war, he was a married father, and between college and law
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school, he seems to have been able to devote himself to road racing.
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It would not be unkind to call this a vanity project, one whose
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success was directly linked to Argettsinger's philanthropy.
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From the start, he sought to bring Formula One to the Glen.
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Many teams, as many as 60, circulated through F1 during the circus era.
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Maybe 15 could be considered significant.
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What are today called team principles were then some combination of owner
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manager, fundraiser, and designer.
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Colin Chapman was a university trained engineer.
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A number of these owners were former drivers.
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Bruce McLaren designed, built, and drove his own cars.
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Sometimes a mother company manufactured road cars.
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whose main purpose was to pay for racing.
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Ferrari and Lotus are examples.
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These men shared a single minded dedication to the sport.
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Frank Williams called it a lifelong compulsion.
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Ginny Williams wrote this about her husband of nearly 40 years.
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I'm quite certain he never visualized himself as one of the
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world's leading constructors.
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His motivation was simply his love of Formula One racing.
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He was addicted, no lesser word will do, to all aspects of the Grand Prix circus.
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He didn't really mind whether he was on the trapeze or cleaning out
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the cages, so long as he was there.
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The owners were idiosyncratic.
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Williams never ate on race day.
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He didn't drink or smoke.
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He was a serious runner, keeping very fit.
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His future wife loaned him her inheritance, infuriating her father,
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who stopped Jenny's monthly allowance.
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Williams barely made his own wedding, and lived his first
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married year without furniture.
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There were an eviction and a baby at about the same time.
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His personal driving was so dangerous, he was called a hooligan.
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Teams often operated on a shoestring and with a DIY mentality.
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Enzo Ferrari disdainfully called them garagistas.
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It took Williams a good decade before his team found success.
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He started by buying and selling used race cars and parts.
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Sharing a London bachelor pad.
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Creditors circled and mechanics were paid by barter.
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Ford would loan the team a van, and Frank would sell it for cash.
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Drivers avoided his team.
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Maybe out of pity, Ken Tyrrell loaned an engine.
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But Williams made his team feel like a family.
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People worked for him for ages.
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And eventually, of course, during the circus era, Williams won 11 races and a
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driver's and a constructor's championship.
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Things got only better after that.
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But running a team was hit or miss then, and teams very much reflected their
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owners quirky, impassioned personalities.
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There's disagreement about who first remarked that F1 drivers are
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like interchangeable light bulbs.
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But you see the point.
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During the circus era, there were a great many drivers who passed through the sport.
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Teams then didn't identify, train, and advance them.
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Careers were short, several years at most.
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And only a few rose to the glow of celebrity.
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Among scores, even hundreds of dimmer bulbs.
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For most, even those who became stars, a driver's life was often
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one of struggle and danger.
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Jackie Stewart was three times world champion.
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Eventually, he ran his own team.
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He led the successful fight for driver safety.
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Roman Polanski made a film about him, and George Harrison recorded a single.
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He provided TV race commentary, and was a spokesman for Ford and Rolex.
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The King of Jordan was Stewart's buddy.
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Stewart's calls his F1 experience and the life it engendered a rocket ship ride.
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That's because he began as a mechanic in his family's rural garage.
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Climbing the ladder he says, I drove whenever, whatever, wherever possible.
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For his first Monaco race, To save money, he drove the round trip from Scotland.
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And while he felt he was up against the sons of rich fathers, he referred
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to death on the track as akin to an air crash and a medieval battlefield.
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Today's drivers, Stewart says, have no understanding at all.
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of what we experience.
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Mechanics are the essential grunts of Formula One.
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They may be dedicated to their team and enjoy a winning relationship with
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a driver, but their anonymous life is hard, with 14, 16, and even 18
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hour days not uncommon in the past.
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Steve Matchett, a Bennington mechanic for eight years during 90s, offers
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these unromantic recollections.
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He recalls wearing bubble wrap on his feet during winter testing in the UK,
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plus a t shirt, race shirt, sleeveless sweater, heavy knit sweater, duck down
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body warmer, and wet weather anorak.
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The long hours, the all nighters, and the hectic workloads that we are sometimes
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forced to endure are terrible facets of work in F1, and at times, I felt
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we were little more than slave labor.
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The reality is this.
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Formula One, for all its associated passions, is a job of work,
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another way of earning a living.
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The Grand Prix Drivers Association gave Watkins Glen its Best Stage Grand
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Prix Award in 1965, and 1970, 1972.
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Ginny Williams said that Watkins Glen was my favorite place in the world.
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Jackie Stewart remembered the glorious colors of autumn in the Finger Lakes.
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Rural America in the fullest sense, and unlike the other
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places we'd be traveling to.
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The team stayed at the Glen Motor Inn.
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And because of the Canadian and Mexican races, Teams might
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remain there for three weeks.
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There was a charity golf tournament for drivers.
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Drivers fished on the lake.
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Bruce McLaren waterskied.
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Graham Hill said, In Europe, we don't stay in the same hotels.
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We meet only at the racetrack.
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Here, it's like a party.
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Well, there were actual parties.
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Before the race, at the Argettsingers home, where Bill Green screened
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race movies in the garage.
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Looking back, Bill Milliken said, The homespun hospitality led to
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permanent friendships and was never forgotten by drivers or teams.
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There was a post race party at the Seneca Lodge, where Francois
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Severe would play the piano, and James Hunt picked up waitresses.
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In between, there was a champagne party for drivers wives and girlfriends.
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When F1 was finished with the Glen, Rob Walker said, It makes
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me very sad to have to go.
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Local people sold parking places in their yards.
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Kids sold race tickets to the lines of cars streaming into the track.
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Church ladies prepared boxed lunches.
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Concession stands were staffed by locals, and some of that money paid for the
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annual high school trip to Washington.
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Ferrari mechanics overheard Italian being spoken in a store, which led
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them to cooking with the Italian speaking villager in her kitchen.
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Before there were proper facilities at the track, dealerships that ordinarily
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sold Detroit products turned their garages over to the F1 teams, and locals
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trucked the cars up the hill for the race.
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Rick Huey's experience with Tyrrell Racing epitomizes the easy collaboration between
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the visiting circus and the villagers.
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To put it way too briefly, as a teenager, Rick met Ken.
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This led to Rick's becoming an invaluable local man Friday.
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And then for 27 years, at several North American tracks, Rick worked
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when he could as a Terrell team member.
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Try that today.
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So, what remains to be studied?
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Well, there is the so called Watkins Glen Effect, a kind of ripple across U.
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S.
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road racing.
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Local participation was a distinctive feature here.
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More specific examples would bring this more to life, like names of lodgings and
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shops that catered to the race crowd, stories about volunteering, memories about
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F1 cars at places like the Chevy Garage.
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That sort of thing.
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But that's a tough challenge to get that kind of information so many years later.
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And some sort of limited comparison with F1 in Europe during this period
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would demonstrate either how unusual Watkins Glen was or how certain
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Grand Prix qualities were universal.
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I would just say that there's always more to be done.
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Thank you, Jim.
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Some questions for Jim.
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We talk a lot about the glory days, the glory days at Watkins Glen.
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What are ways that you can see us both preserving that
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heritage, but also adding to it?
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Well, I suppose there are different ways to come at that.
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My particular interest here is regarding F1.
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I have a broader interest in sports car racing.
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And of course, NASCAR has been here now for a long time.
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So there's still racing going on.
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The research center, where I've spent many hours, Both going through materials
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and talking with generous people is this living archive full of material,
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which just speaking for myself in this project, I now feel a responsibility
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to bring this to life in some way and publish it and see that it's circulated.
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So perhaps people can remember a past.
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Maybe the larger question is, you know, is there a future for
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auto racing as we've known it?
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I had this kind of cockamamie model that I presented last year, which
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suggests that maybe the next chapter in the life of Formula One, at least.
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Might be a kind of a simulated hyper reality experience where we
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don't have to go to a race which actually isn't taking place anyway.
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Now that's pretty extreme speculation.
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Those would be my initial responses to your question.
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Vintage racing might be another way to help preserve and
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present historic race cars.
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Probably heard this, Sam Posey wrote a book, I think it was
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called The Mudge Pond Express.
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It's a little hard to find, but it really describes a lot of the
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escapades that went on back in the day.
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I haven't read Posey's book, but I live relatively close to Lime Rock,
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so the straight there is now named after him, and he lives in Sharon.
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The vintage racing is actually one of the principal activities during the annual
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Grand Prix Festival here in September.
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It's a good point.
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It happened a weekend earlier annually at Lime Rock.
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I have to say this, and I hope it's not offensive to anybody, but I
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think we owe Bernie Eccleston for the decline of Formula One racing here
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at Watkins Glen, and I really regret that we're moving to venues like Las
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Vegas, but money drives the world.
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Eccleston then was the leader of the Formula One Constructors Association.
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He was a Brabham team owner at the time, I think.
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His aim was to Get a better deal for the teams, and especially
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lining his own pockets.
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My recollection, and others would know this better than I do, is
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that he in particular put pressure, along with the drivers, on the
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track for more updated facilities.
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I think toilets in the paddock might have been one of the issues.
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As well as safety.
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One of the dynamics going on at the time was a kind of general upgrade.
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It was just too expensive, as I understand it, for Watkins.
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Now Bill, don't challenge any of my historical facts.
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What I'm going to tell you is the biggest rock concert was here.
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Bigger than Woodstock and bigger than the one that was at Ontario some years later.
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I worked here.
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And so did Rick Huey.
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Rick was around.
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Bunch of us others.
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When it came time for Summer Jam, You couldn't go nowheres in Watkins Glen.
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Montour Main Street was parked full of cars and there was cars
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all over the place in Watkins Glen.
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The only way you could go down through Montour Falls was down
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South Street, out and over the roadway to Burdett and all that.
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But it was the biggest thing in the world.
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And the pickup after that was a lot too of all kinds of things.
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Cars that would never, never go back where they had came from.
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And you'd find money on the ground.
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Food that was unable to be preserved because they didn't have enough ice.
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But anyways, Watkins Glen was the biggest one.
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Bigger than the other two that I mentioned.
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Okay, that's interesting because in July of 72, there was a music
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festival held at Pocono Raceway.
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And it was about a quarter of a million people or so showed up, and
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it was like a Woodstock type of thing.
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And that's just when he said that, and it's like, wait a
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second, Pocono had one as well.
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So it must just be a commercial endeavor for a facility.
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That takes in lots of people, has a lot of room, can hold campers, and I
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just wanted to see the construction.
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Well, those were the days, and these places are natural sites.
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The organizers here were serious professionals who had done other
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very successful gatherings.
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This got totally out of control, as I understand it.
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And as in many cases, Woodstock would be the prime example.
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Many people paid nothing.
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They just overwhelmed the place.
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My sense is that the local people were very upset by this
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invasion of 600, 000 people.
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The Pocono event did as well.
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Roads were blocked.
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It was a rainy weekend, so it was mud and a lot of gate crashing.
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And again, crippling the community because there was such an
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influx going to the racetrack.
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Although some of us have a certain age kind of remember those things fondly.
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We won't go there.
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How I'm trying to conceptualize.
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A historical moment and particularly in this place is convincing to you
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and whether you have suggestions for ways to fiddle with it Thank you, jim.
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That was wonderful.
23:33
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23:35
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