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Purpose:
An interactive panel discussion with selected racing legends of the Glen.
For a quick overview, here is a small pictorial sample of a previous year's event.
Location:
Lafayette Park, 4th St., Watkins Glen.
Time: 3:00pm
Cost: No Cost
The Speakers:
NOTE: These were the speakers for 2009. Information for 2012 will be posted later.
Legends speakers are all experts about this car and will enjoy sharing their insights with you, so join us at Lafayette Park on Fourth Street, at 3 p.m.
- Lyn St. James is one of the most famous and successful women in the history of motorsports. She made history on a regular basis throughout her career and Watkins Glen International played host to one of the most memorable moments in history of a female driver and her career. The most notable being St. James becaming the first woman to win an IMSA GTO race while driving solo by reaching victory lane in the 1985 Serengeti Drivers New York 500. To this day, she remains the only woman to have achieved this feat.
St. James’ other accomplishments reach across numerous racing series including the IndyCar® Series, CART, SCCA, Trans-Am, and IMSA. Her accomplishments on the track are almost too many to list; raced in the 1989 and 1991 24 Hours of Le Mans, won the 1987 and 1990 24 Hours of Daytona as a GTO team driver, competed nine times with one win in the 12 Hours of Sebring, first woman to be named Indianapolis 500 Rookie of the Year (1992), set world-record on closed-course for women reaching 225.722 mph during 1995 Indy 500 qualifying weekend, 7 Indy 500 starts, 53 SCCA Trans-Am races with 7 Top-5 finishes, and 62 IMSA GT races with 6 wins, 17 Top-5, and 37 Top-10 finishes.
- Leo Mehl first visited Watkins Glen early in his career as a Goodyear Race Tire Engineer working on Carroll Shelby’s Cobras, and as boss of the Formula 1 Team in the Era of Sir Jack Brabham, Sir Jackie Stewart, Denny Hulme, Graham Hill, and Mario Andretti.
As General Manager of Goodyear’s Worldwide Racing Program from 1974-1996, he has visited Watkins Glen on many other occasions throughout the years, overseeing tire performance of Sports Cars, F5000, NASCAR, and Indianapolis-type cars.
Mehl joined Goodyear as a tire compounder in 1959 and moved into the racing department in 1963 when Goodyear began to look at a bigger involvement in the sport. He played an important role in developing the tires with which Goodyear won the Indianapolis 500 that year and later that year was posted to Goodyear's European headquarters in Wolverhampton and was made head of European Racing, replacing Fred Gamble. In October 1971 he became chief engineer of all Goodyear Racing activities and three years later took over as Director of Racing. His final promotion was to be head of all Goodyear competition activities in 1979. He retired from Goodyear in 1996 and became executive director of the Indy Racing League and a vice-president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway. He remained in that role until the end of 1999 when he retired from the sport.
- Robert Couch of Sequim, Washington, was born in New Preston, CT in 1950, into the world of a family owned Automobile dealership. In addition to owning the dealership, his parents were members of the Naugatuck Sports Car Club and competitive long distance rally racers – a huge influence in his passion for cars.
At age 16, Mr. Couch worked as a mechanic in his father’s garage, primarily working on Saabs. He served briefly in the Air Force before moving to Europe as a Formula 3 mechanic. After returning to the States, Couch was hired to manage a huge collection of rare automobiles. Admired for his exquisite detailing, Couch was lured away by another collector and asked to seek out rare vintage cars. In 1977, he purchased a rare Morgan factory race car and spent the next 3 years restoring it. Because of the rarity of the Morgan, the car was invited to compete in the first Chinetti invitational concours at Lime Rock Race Track, in 1980. It won the event, and the rest is history. Mr. Couch is now regarded as the premier Morgan restorer in this country. A survivor of brain cancer, Mr. Couch remains a passionate Morgan enthusiast.
- Richard "Dick" Powers has been a car and racing enthusiast most of his life.
Possibly his interest began to form when as a boy of 8, his dad took him to his first car race at the Glen in 1951. His racing interest continued and in the 60’s and 70’s he was a member of the Race Communications Association and SCCA as a corner worker at many races. For the last 15 years he has raced an MGA in vintage events at the Glen, Lime Rock, Road America, Laguna Seca and Sebring among other tracks. In 2004, he was honored, by his fellow MG Vintage Racers, as the co-winner of the Collier Cup.
Powers also enjoys driving vintage sports cars including Alfa Romeo, Austin Healey, MG and Morgan. His ’58 Morgan +4 can be seen in the Concours d’Elegance on Franklin St.
For over 30 years, he has been a member of the Western NY MG Car Club, serving
in many capacities including Chairperson and the Western NY Morgan Owners Group of which he is currently President.
Since retiring from the University of Rochester, he has spent much time with his car hobby, but also writing articles about racing, cars and car people. He also serves on the board of the Foundation of New York State Nurses.
NOTE: These were the speakers for 2009. Information for 2012 will be posted later.
For more specific information, contact:
Lew Durland at 607-272-6869 ext. 5599 or email
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