The SCCA Archives contains the history of American motorsports as represented in the official records of the SCCA since its founding in 1941. SCCA Hall of Fame member Harry Handley compiled the collection during his service as the SCCA Archivist, a position he de facto created when the SCCA office relocated from Westport, Connecticut to Denver, Colorado. Having served as the first manager of Rally/Solo for the club, Handley is credited for originating the Archives and saving much of the club’s history from the dumpster during the relocation. He continued to serve in that capacity until his passing in 1996.
With funding by the SCCA Foundation, the SCCA Archives have been relocated to the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, NY. In what we hope to be the new permanent home of the Archives, the amazing collection of materials is being professionally reviewed, catalogued, sorted and preserved by professional Archivist Jenny Ambose with the assistance of SCCA Archives Technicians Joe Cali and Rick Hughey. Their first order of business is creating a full written inventory of the contents of every box in the collection. Materials will be transferred to archival quality containers as needed for preservation. The written inventory will include “finding aids” to allow digital searches for materials in response to inquiries from SCCA members and the public. In time, the digital inventory will be available online and searchable by anyone.
The SCCA Foundation is facilitating these activities with annual funding of at least $30,000 for the next four years. This makes SCCA member participation in Foundation fundraising particularly important – not only to meet the annual funding requirement but in the hopes of exceeding it since the more funding we provide the more archivists can be hired to work on the collection and the faster it will be available to everyone.
Research Center Executive Director Tom Weidemann was enthusiastic about the plans for incorporating the SCCA Archives into the materials already available. “Space is our number one issue at this point so we have a plan to expand the current building…,” he explained. “Ideally we’d like the new building to include a room dedicated to the SCCA Archives as well as the John Fitch Archives we just received.” The family of SCCA Hall of Fame member Fitch donated a significant collection of trophies, photographs, clippings, entry lists and race programs from 1949 to 1966.
Your financial support helps the SCCA Foundation ensure that this priceless collection of motor racing history continues to be preserved and remains accessible for future research projects and member inquiries.
- Regional Publications
- Thanks to funding provided by donors to the SCCA Foundation, this amazing collection of region newsletters is no longer lost to future generations. Instead, visitors to the IMRRC will find the publications sorted by region and date to facilitate research. In addition, the staff created an electronic catalog of the full collection which will be available online starting in January 2018 at:
- Dash Plaques
- The dash plaques tell the story of events held by SCCA regions across the country. An oval plaque with a lasso border memorializes “The Chisholm Trail National Rally” hosted in 1960 by the Texas Region SCCA and the Dallas Sports Car Club. A sliver and white rectangular plaque announces the “Schlitz Cup Series 1970” and is in an envelope on which Handley noted: “This series was the 1st National involvement in Solo II events & led to the establishment of the National Run-Offs.”
- SCCA Design & Engineering
- The latest revelation about the Archives is the fascinating history it holds about the role the SCCA and its members played in the advancement of automotive design and engineering.
- Driver Histories
- The SCCA Archives document the careers of thousands of SCCA drivers from occasional club racers to those who went on to professional careers. The collection tells the story of an amazing diversity of drivers who have participated in SCCA regional and national racing from the 1950s to the 1990s.