I lived in Corning, NY for 23 years. I used to brag that my kitchen was 17 miles from Watkins Glen International! In the Village of Watkins Glen is the International Motor Racing Research Center (IMRRC). They have all sorts of books, memorabilia, magazines, event programs, etc. that people can come to see or review for research. They also have enough open space where they can display a historically significant race car in the building. Often when the owner comes to retrieve the car after displaying it for a few months, they will do a presentation on the history of the car. Anyway, I spent many pleasant hours at the IMRRC. A few months back I was on their website and a group called GT Motorsports posted a link to a podcast on a legendary supermodified race car that ran at Oswego Speedway, north of Syracuse. I never got to go there, but Oswego is one of those famous venues with a long history. When I was a kid in Toledo, Ohio in the early 60’s, supermodifieds ran at my hometown track of Toledo Speedway. That was junior high and high school time for me.
There was a note on the podcast website asking for people to share their stories about motorsports. I wrote up a document covering a lot of the places I’ve been, races I’ve seen, and people I’ve met and sent it in. The result was that I was asked to be interviewed for one of their podcasts. Who Knew? So, the show went live on July 17th and is a few minutes over an hour in duration. It can be heard at the links I was given below. I had trouble with the Apple link for some reason, but the Spotify and YouTube ones worked well. However, Patreon requires a subscription.
Article: https://www.gtmotorsports.org/a-view-from-the-grandstands-racing-fandom/
Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/deeann-hopings-view-from-the-grandstands/id1520501489?i=1000662386565
Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/0LRCvuctNlRUrpxP83clYv?si=18311c6650ea41cf
YouTube: https://youtu.be/2vWEfpZdNmk
Patreon Behind the Scenes: https://www.patreon.com/posts/bts-deeann-s5e18-104356531
Sometimes I guess we are just in the right place at the right time! It was really a fun time and memories continue to come back. Across all of the changes in my life, my interest in motorsports remains one of the constants.
Note that we have a Motorsports! Group here on TGH. I encourage members to have a look and consider joining.
The interview was recorded on ZOOM and I used a background image of a sprint car from Toledo. It took my hometown guy, Rollie Beale, to the 1973 USAC Sprint Car Championship against luminaries such as Lee Kunzman, Pancho Carter, Tom Bigelow and Johnny Parsons.
How wonderful for you to be able to share a trip down memory lane, thank you. I loved it. If you recall I too am a big motor sports fan, having done my share of racing stock cars on dirt and ashphalt in my younger days at local tracks. I did ok with what I had but never won. From then on Iwas and am purely fan based. Mostly NASCAR now and Trans Am but my interests in F1 and Indy are slowly returning. I had no idea we had a Motorsports group here. Checking it out now.
Roberta from that movie is my all time favorite movie character thanks for noting that performance John Lithgrow in that role is fabulous