There are many former race tracks across the Empire State, and one of them is an old race track in Watkins Glen, the county seat of Schuyler County, NY. Not a flat for thoroughbreds or an oval for trotters, but the original “open-circuit” Grand Prix track.
As the victors of the Second World War settled down after a few seasons at home they looked for some new entertainment. An early autumn festival in the marvelous Finger Lakes Region seemed like a siren’s call that extended the waning summer; the final rose of the season.
A Cornell Law student, who spent his formative years at the family vacation home on Seneca Lake, pitched a novel idea to Watkins Glen’s Chamber of Commerce. The fall foliage would highlight a 6.6 mile track envisioned by Cameron Argetsinger, with a start/finish line directly in front of the Schuyler County Courthouse in the village business district, which proceeded around the waterfall filled namesake glen.
This route utilized state and county roads, paved and gravel, with distinct elevation changes. After leaving Franklin Street, which carries NY-Route 14 down the main street of the village, the course crossed Glen Creek and turned 90 degrees, up the steep slope and climbing past the New York Central Railroad’s Brockport Branch, utilizing a grade separated crossing, the road passed beneath the tracks that provided commercial prosperity to the community and fine vantage to race photographers.
The Grand Prix racers then crossed the Glen on a picturesque stone bridge on a curve. Next it wound downslope, toward the village and the shore of Seneca Lake.
The Grand Prix track then passed dairyman Archy Smith’s hairpin corner and onto Station Road, and once again crossed the New York Central Railroad line; however this crossing was at grade, which combined with the downslope, allowed the speeding autos an airborne leap while developing further acceleration into a descending bend at Friar’s Corner, encouraging the drivers “to go in deep” and maintain maximum speed through the next wide curve.
A sharp turn at the Flatiron Building necessitated slowing by applying the brake and down-shifting, followed quickly by a right turn onto Franklin Street to complete the circuit. Stacked hay bales lined the course, with the idea being they would protect the drivers and spectators if a sports car went out of control.
Road racing enthusiast and fledgling attorney Cameron Argetsinger was able to appeal to the 1948 sensibilities of the merchants who made up Watkins Glen Chamber of Commerce. He proposed an additional event held during the European festivities; a parade of non-racing and vintage autos termed the Concours d’Elegance, to precede the proposed Grand Prix.
The first Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948 was everything the planners could have hoped for, with endorsement by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and seeing 30 entries for the first running reduced to 15 through time trials and engine trouble.
The 52.8 mile contest saw toolmaker Frank Griswold, in his fixed head Alpha-Romeo “Two-Nine” coupe, average 63 mph over the eight laps of the Glen’s torturous open course, with sportsman and yacht racer Briggs Cunningham finishing second in his Buick powered Mercedes known as the “Bu-Merc,” of his own design as no American-built sports car existed. Event founder, Cameron Argetsinger, finished ninth in his MG.
The New York State Police, in charge of security, estimated that a crowd of 10,000 lined the asphalt, brick and gravel stretches of the track, where no mishaps occurred, save one. During a qualifying race, Denver Cornett of Louisville, Kentucky flipped from the White’s Hollow stone bridge, landing unhurt in the creek below. Relieved spectators exhaled collectively and re-named the span for him. The 1948 success at the Glen earned a new location on the global racing map.
The engineers designing for the Allies realized the Second World War had transitioned from emergency designs, toward efficiency designs. This logic launched an improved overhead-cam V-8 Cadillac engine in 1949. The greater bore and shorter stroke realized during tank development revolutionized automobile design, and was immediately “shoe-horned” into sports cars.
With capabilities increasing so quickly, the 1949 Grand Prix was increased to a 99 mile event, or fifteen laps around the Glen’s original track. Briggs Cunningham, who had finished second the year before and would distinguish himself as an America’s Cup yacht racer, was again runner-up after leading eight laps.
Miles Collier, who along with his brother Sam from Boynton Beach, Florida had competed at Le Mans, France, won the second edition of the Glen Grand Prix, where NYS Police estimated the crowd at 100,000 spectators. The Chamber of Commerce offered no purse, only trophies to the winners, and was spinning hay-bales into gold.
The success enjoyed by the Grand Prix in Watkins Glen was not unnoticed in other Empire State communities. In 1949 Bridgehampton, in Long Island’s Suffolk County, revived the interest displayed there prior to World War I, using the Glen-model of holding competition events on public roads.
In the September 9, 1950 New York Times, auto racing journalist Arthur J. Richards reported that, “Spectators will see the race from bleachers at the start and finish, and from vantage points along the course, rooftops, treetops and hillsides. The most sought-after seats will be where accidents are most likely to happen, at sharp curves.”
The Times further reported the traditional Concours d’Elegance would take place at 10 am at the “Sports Car Capital,” and 100 drivers and 100,000 spectators were expected to attend. Auto manufacturers and petroleum companies began exhibiting and advertising their products at the Glen, opening an unforeseen, yet very welcome additional revenue stream.
However, the hinge of fate swung in the opposite direction in the 1950s. In a preliminary race known as the Seneca Cup, held before the Grand Prix, Denver Cornett lost control of his racer on a turn and rolled over. Cornett’s Watkin’s Glen charm continued and he was again unhurt, but the car injured three spectators and a volunteer fireman from Trumansburg.
Later that day, Sam Collier, speeding for the lead on the first leg of the Grand Prix circuit near the railroad underpass, lost control after a tire blowout at a high rate of speed, in a car he was driving for Briggs Cunningham. He was evacuated unconscious to the hospital in Montour Falls where he died; his brother Miles would give up racing.
The 1950 Glen Grand Prix was won by New York City insurance broker Alfred E. Goldschmidt, who managed to qualify that day, edging out Briggs Cunningham in his Healey-Cadillac, who was runner-up for the third time in three tries. Third place was taken by Fred G. Wacker of Lake Forest, Illinois in his Cadillac-Allard.
The event for the first time was internationally sanctioned, allowing competitors outside the SCCA to participate. Estimates put the crowd at 125,000 to 150,000 spectators.
Major industry leaders took note of what was occurring at Watkins Glen, where foreign sports cars dominated. General Motors launched the EX-122 concept car in 1951, which would evolve into the first American sports car, Chevrolet’s Corvette. The factory stone shields on the headlights speak to the design purpose of this roadster.
The 1951 Glen Grand Prix was scheduled for 198 miles, or 30 laps around the original open course. However the preliminary events lasted longer than anticipated, and rather than risk the darkness occurring in any valley on its western side, the feature was reduced to the previous contested distance of 99 miles over 15 laps.
Briggs Cunningham hired a stock car driver named Phil Waters, nicknamed Teddy Tappett, to drive his new Cunningham Special C2-R, which took down the checkered flag averaging 77.65 mph over the challenging steep course and finishing ahead of John Fitch’s Jaguar. Cunningham himself finished fourth. Some made estimates of the crowd at 250,000 spectators.
Perhaps warriors of another age, who had stormed the beaches of Normandy or countless Pacific islands, were not frightened at the prospect of competing on a very narrow road course lined with mature trees and ditches with no guard rails, wearing only a leather helmet with limited protection from ejection or kick-back. It was a recusant age.
The sound of forty internal combustion power-plants transmitting their energy into rubber tires on road surfaces emanated once again in 1952 and echoed against the Old Corning Hill Road, past the White House ‘S’ turns and around the Schoolhouse Corner, across Cornett’s Stone Bridge, through the Railroad Straight and around Friar’s and Milliken’s Corners, toward the finish line.
However, the 1952 Grand Prix0 spectacle was unfortunately brief. While approaching the first turn of the second lap, two cars, driven by experienced competitors John Fitch and Fred Wacker, made contact. The Cadillac-Allard driven by Fred Wacker, President of the Sports Car Club of America, brushed the crowd with tragic results for a dozen fans.
Local resident Mike Fazzari took his two youthful sons to the Grand Prix, and seven-year-old Frankie was fatally injured. The Grand Prix was stopped, never again to be resumed on thestreets of Watkins Glen. Subsequent accidents at Bridgehampton led the NYS-DPW to prohibit competitive racing on public roads.
The Grand Prix continued, without interruption, over a 4.6 mile closed course on private country roads, moving to the present modern racing facility in 1956. The original Watkins Glen 6.6 mile Grand Prix course is listed on the National Register of Historic Places, with signage in place to guide today’s driver on the route of the historic road race from 1948-1952, and site of the present Watkins Glen Grand Prix Festival Parade.
Read more about the history of motorsports in New York State.
Illustrations, from above: Period post card of the Grand Prix being run on the streets of Watkins Glen; the original Watkins Glen Grand Prix Circuit 1948-1952; Founder of the Watkins Glen Grand Prix, Cameron Argetsinger, at the wheel of his Silverstone Healey. From the Official Grand Prix Program 1950; Sam Collier power-slides his MG around Milliken’s Corner during the 1949 Watkins Glen Grand Prix (from the Official Grand Prix Program, 1952); after leaving the village Watkins Glen Grand Prix racers speed up Old Corning Hill in 1950 (from the Official Grand Prix Program, 1951); and motorsports legend Briggs Swift Cunningham on the cover of Time Magazine in 1954.
Recent Comments