SCCA Archives &
Legacy Stories

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.

The SCCA Archives housed at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, NY, contains the history of amateur and professional American motorsports as represented in the official records of the SCCA since its founding in 1944.

While the SCCA Hall of Fame memorializes the accomplishments of outstanding individuals, beginning in 2023, the SCCA Legacy Stories initiative will expand this tradition by capturing meaningful histories and stories from a broader representation of our Club.

SCROLL DOWN TO DONATE HISTORICAL ARTIFACTS TO THE ARCHIVES OR SUBMIT YOUR STORY TO THE LEGACY STORIES INITIATIVE.

  • 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 detail 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.

  • The collection contains thousands of profiles of amateur club drivers who have made up the core of SCCA’s membership. The profiles contain information on a driver’s racing record, sponsors, car models and classes, profession, hobbies, and other details. Also found in the collection are a few real standouts, like the driver profile of Daytona winner Bobby Rahal, and NFL great Walter Payton.

  • 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, 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.

  • Regional publications document the activities of more than 100 SCCA regions across the United States, from the 1950s to the early 21st century. The collection includes newsletters ranging from glossy, professionally printed magazines to mimeographed sheets. They contain a wealth of information about regional races and club activities. Charming drawings and cartoons, and photographs from local tracks enhances the articles, meeting minutes, race schedules and results, standings, party announcements, and lists of new members.

  • The Archives holds a fascinating history about the role the SCCA and its members played in the advancement of automotive design and engineering. The first successful all-plastic chassis and the first fiberglass-reinforced epoxy chassis to race produced additional speed and better fuel economy.

THE ARCHIVES THROUGH THE YEARS

1944-2023

Fearing history would be lost, SCCA Hall of Fame member Harry Handley saved materials destined for the dumpster during the SCCA office relocation from Connecticut to Colorado. The SCCA Archives – and Archivist position – were thus born. Harry served as Archivist until his passing in 1996.

Donate a collection

CONTACT
BOB EDDY, SCCA Foundation Archives Committee Chair
beddy@sccafoundation.org
(515) 240-0262

The IMRRC is a 501 (c)(3) charitable organization. Proper paperwork will acknowledge receipt of donations. Staff is not permitted to determine the value of donated items.

NEW!

Share your story

The SCCA Foundation has launched a long-term SCCA Legacy Stories initiative to capture first-hand accounts of how we got to where we are today.

The mission of SCCA Legacy Stories is to preserve and share the history of our Club in order to build connection, insight, and understanding of SCCA’s beginnings, development, challenges and solutions for the benefit of future generations.

Working with the SCCA Archives team at the IMRRC, we want to collect stories and share them in a way that future readers and viewers can understand and appreciate the relevance years and decades from now. While the SCCA Hall of Fame memorializes the accomplishments of outstanding individuals, this Legacy Stories program is intended to capture other meaningful histories and stories from a broader representation of our Club.

With funding from the SCCA Foundation, the SCCA Archives were relocated to the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen, NY. 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.

The 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 – 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.

Says Research Center Executive Director Tom Weidemann, “Space is our number one issue at this point so we have a plan to expand the current building to include a room dedicated to the SCCA Archives” as well as other recent acquisitions.

SCCA members and family are encouraged to donate and preserve SCCA racing memorabilia for future generations through the International Road Racing Research Center (IMRRC) at Watkins Glen. 

Prior to shipping any items, please contact the SCCA Foundation Archives Committee Chair, Bob Eddy, listing the intended donation contents. The donor will be contacted by either the Archives Committee Chair, Executive Director or Board Chair to discuss the nature of the donation (e.g., periodicals, documents, trophies, etc.).

The SCCA Foundation will work with IMRRC to determine donated items fit within its overall collection. Subsequently, the SCCA Foundation will advise the donor of items of interest. The donor has two options:

  • Donor can send only items requested by IMRRC, thereby saving shipping costs. 

  • Donor can elect to send all items, alleviating the effort of sorting through items by donor, but increasing cost of shipping.

Note: based on the donated items and the needs of the donor, the Foundation may elect to reimburse donor for shipping costs. Any agreed to shipping reimbursement must be made in writing in advance of shipping items.

Ask an SCCA Archivist

The SCCA archives are preserved and maintained for the benefit of club members and the greater motorsports community. SCCA archives staff at the IMRRC welcomes inquiries about the people, racecars and events that make up the rich history of the Club. Requests may be submitted via email to research@racingarchives.org. 

The research service is free of charge to SCCA members – just include your region of record and membership number in your email. While there is not charge for members for the service, please consider a tax-deductible donation of any amount to the SCCA Foundation or the IMRRC to help offset the costs of research, scanning, and preserving the materials in the archives.