Cameron Argetsinger, 87, Founded Watkins Glen Racing

By Associated Press
April 24, 2008

Cameron Argetsinger, who started the road-racing tradition at Watkins Glen 60 years ago and helped lure Formula 1 to race there for two decades, died yesterday at his home in Burdett, N.Y. He was 87.

Argetsinger was a local lawyer who also served as president of the International Motor Racing Research Center for five years. Inspired by his love of fast automobiles and the natural beauty of the Finger Lakes, Argetsinger proposed an amateur road race called the Watkins Glen Grand Prix to the local chamber of commerce in 1948.

"As soon as I was able to drive, I just naturally felt the place to drive a sports car was Watkins Glen," Argetsinger, a law student at Cornell University at the time, told the Associated Press in a 2005 interview.

The chamber liked the idea, and Argetsinger selected a 6.6-mile course using mostly paved roads with a short dirt and gravel stretch, and obtained Sports Car Club of America sanction for the inaugural event. In that first race, he drove his MG-TC to a ninth-place finish and remained active as a driver through 1960.

Argetsinger brought full international races to Watkins Glen in 1958 and in 1961 the inaugural U.S. Grand Prix was run. The course is now a regular stop on NASCAR's top circuit.

After leaving Watkins Glen in 1970, he was executive vice president of Chaparral Cars and served as director of professional racing and executive director for SCCA from 1971-77. He also served as commissioner of the International Motor Sport Association from 1986-92.