Fellow Racers, for years Karting has been considered the best path to becoming a race driver. But recently top iRacer Max Esterson showed there’s another route. Switching to cars, he won a Team USA Scholarship and then finished first and second in the world’s two most prestigious Formula Ford races. Has Sim Racing now become the best […]
Vic Elford, among the world’s most versatile race drivers ever, passed away Sunday (March 13) after a long bout with cancer. He was 86. Elford excelled in every form of motorsport he attempted from pavement to dirt to sand and gravel. Marshall Pruett penned a wonderful remembrance of the Londoner on Racer.com – a must […]
Road Racing Drivers Club President Bobby Rahal cordially invites you to attend the RRDC Evening with Rick Mears Presented by Firestone: Long Beach Hilton, Thursday, April 7 Seats $280 ($250 for paid-up RRDC members only) in advance (or $300/$270 after March 28) Reservations Required (to rrdc2@cox.net) RICK MEARS – THANKS! Google “Rick Mears” and, by rights, you should be […]
AUTOSPORT GIVES HUGE PLUG TO TEAM USA SCHOLARSHIP The Feb. 18, 2022 issue of Autosport National featured a five-page cover story on Team USA Scholarship, Jeremy Shaw’s on-going venture to introduce promising young American talent to the caldron that’s the European open-wheel ladder. This year, 19-year-old New Yorker Max Esterson dominated 21st Annual Walter Hayes […]
IMSA President John Doonan (right) and SCCA VP of Road Racing Eric Prill were guests on Brian Bielanski’s RacingWire Network Podcast, Feb. 4. They discussed how the two organizations are working together and how that partnership can expand. The two have worked together for many years when Doonan was head of Mazda’s motorsports department, the […]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (January 26, 2022) – Spencer Brockman and Scott Twomey were named the 50th and 51st recipients of the RRDC Mark Donohue Award. This unique award is presented annually by the Road Racing Drivers Club for outstanding performance, competitiveness and sportsmanship during the Sports Car Club of America National Championship Runoffs®. It is […]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 27, 2022) – Jeremy Shaw, motorsports writer, commentator and founder of the Team USA Scholarship, was named the 2020 recipient of the RRDC Bob Akin Award. He was honored at the annual Road Racing Drivers Club members’ dinner on January 26, prior to the running of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, […]
DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Jan. 27, 2022) – Scott Atherton, former President of the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), was honored by the Road Racing Drivers Club with the 2021 Phil Hill Award. The 2019 award recipient, RRDC President Bobby Rahal, made the presentation at the annual RRDC members’ dinner on January 26 prior to the […]
Fellow Racers, I’ll bet you that every Team Manager in this weekend’s Rolex 24-Hours at Daytona will tell their drivers the same thing before the race: “Go fast, but don’t wreck the car”. But how do you do that? In our latest video, a very elite group of champion endurance drivers (Patrick Long, Tommy Milner, Loic Duval, Nick […]
Hagerty announced this week that racing legend Chip Ganassi will serve as Honoree of The 27th Annual Amelia on March 3-6, 2022. Tickets for the 2022 event are available online now through the recently launched ameliaconclours.com website. Ganassi has touched every major form of North American motorsport plus the ultimate international road race, the 24 […]
The 31st annual Targa 66 gathering for high-performance sports cars and race cars returns to Palm Beach (Fla.) International Raceway on February 11-13, 2022. Founder and host Brian Redman has extended an invitation to owners of modern high-performance road cars and racing cars of all ages to exercise their cars on the 10-turn, 2.2-mile state-of-the […]
Thanks to the organizational skills of member Lisa Noble, the RRDC will hold its “annual” members’ dinner at the Daytona 500 Club in advance of the 60th Rolex 24 At Daytona. Although we missed having a dinner in 2020 because of the pandemic, we’re back this year in full sway, with awards and recognitions. The RRDC […]
Thomas Eugene McHale, T.E. to all who knew him, died Monday, Dec. 21, from the ravages of colon cancer. He was 68. Marshall Pruett remembered him fondly as “our anchor – our center – in a loud and noisy paddock filled with wanton self-importance. “Honda’s longtime manager of motorsports communications, the personification of calm and […]
Al Unser, the second of four drivers to win the Indianapolis 500 four times, passed away Thursday at his home in Chama, New Mexico, after a 17-year battle with liver cancer brought on by hemochromatosis, a hereditary blood disease resulting in excess iron in the body. Unser is memorialized in numerous publications with remembrances […]
SIR FRANK WILLIAMS, 1942-2021 Although not a member of the RRDC, Sir Frank Williams is known to most of our membership and fondly remembered by those who called him a friend. His is a remarkable story of perseverance and sheer determination where his wife Virginia kept his doctors pulling the plug on the machine that […]
Two RRDC members – Greg Pickett and Paul Pfanner – are among the five-member 2022 SCCA Hall of Fame Class which also includes Charlie Clark, Howard Duncan and Mark Weber. GREG PICKETT There is longevity, and then there’s Greg Pickett. No other driver can claim to have won a Trans Am Championship race in […]
My life has been lived in two halves. The first was becoming a world champion race driver. The second was teaching the world to become champions. – Bob Bondurant Bob Bondurant, iconic racer and performance driving mogul, passed away Friday in Paradise Valley, AZ. He was 88 and survived by his wife Patricia. Racer.com traced […]
2ND ANNUAL ONLINE RACE INDUSTRY WEEK ANNOUNCED EPARTRADE and RACER are providing 55 hours, over 5 days, of Live Technical and Business Webinars from leading Industry Suppliers and Race Industry Leaders from around the world. The live webinars will run from 7:00am to 6:00pm PST, November 29 through December 3, 2021. The full schedule will […]
New York Teenager Becomes the Fourth Team USA Scholarship Driver to Scoop Top Honors since 2008 SILVERSTONE, England (Nov. 7, 2021) – Max Esterson produced a master class to seal victory in today’s 21st Annual Walter Hayes Trophy Grand Final at Silverstone, the home of the British Formula 1 Grand Prix. Esterson, 19, from New York, […]
BRANDS HATCH, England (Oct. 31, 2021) – The 50th Formula Ford Festival ended in sensational style this afternoon with a thrilling 20-lap Grand Final in which Team USA Scholarship drivers Max Esterson and Andre Castro finished second and third behind Englishman Jamie Sharp. It was the first time two Team USA drivers had finished on the […]
Bobby Rahal personally delivered his 1986 Indianapolis 500-winning March 86C to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum October 22nd. Rahal gave his mentor and friend Jim Truman the victory in his final appearance at the Brickyard. Truman lost his long battle with cancer 11 days later.
Twenty-two-year-old Kyle Kirkwood from Jupiter, Florida became the first driver to win titles in Indy Lights, the Indy Pro 2000 Championship and the Cooper Tires USF2000 Championship Road to Indy program. Along the way, he won thirty out of fifty races for an astounding 60% winning percentage. His ten wins in Indy Lights ties Greg […]
A CHECKERED PAST – AL UNSER JR. We’ve all heard of the hold that alcohol and drugs had taken on Al Unser, Jr.’s life – to the detriment of his career and family. It was inevitable that at some point he would publicly face these personal demons. That time has come. Unser sat down with […]
Six talented young American drivers will assemble this week at the new Polecat Training Center facility in Lynchburg, Tenn., as part of a continuing process to select two Team USA Scholarship winners for 2021. Following two days of assessments, which will include driving on the technical 2.1-mile road course aboard the Polecat Racing Academy’s well […]
JIM PACE TO BE HONORED AT CHATTANOOGA The late Jim Pace will be honored Oct. 16 in pre-race ceremonies for the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival’s Pace Grand Prix at the Bend to be run on a two-mile street circuit he designed inside a bend in the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga. Pace was event chair and […]
Four RRDC members are among the nine motorsports luminaries comprising the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America induction class for 2022: Helio Castroneves, Peter Brock, Jack Roush and the late Denise McCluggage (left to right, below) Castroneves, the latest member of the 4-WIN Club at Indy, is the open-wheel category inductee. Brock, designer of the […]
The Annual Lime Rock Members’ Lunch is set for Sept. 5th during the running of the Historic Festival 39. Here are the details: WHAT: RRDC Members’ Lunch WHERE: Lime Rock Park, Conn. At the Historic Festival 39 In the Lime Rock chalet – on the infield hill above the paddock WHEN: Sunday, Sept. 5, 2021 […]
The RRDC Class of 2020 included eight regular members, four associate members and four honorary members. Here are the new REGULAR MEMBERS: ERIC BACHELART – Indianapolis, Ind. Is the 1982 Belgian Formula Ford 1600 Junior Champion; 1984 Benelux Formula Ford 1600 Champion and placed second in both the European and Belgian Formula Ford 1600 Championships; […]
If you watched this past Sunday’s British Grand Prix, I think you’ll find our latest video most interesting. The title “How to Stay out of Crashes” In the video, five Champion Drivers from top racing series around the world explain the key to racing wheel-to-wheel without crashing: “Know who you’re racing against.” As IndyCar driver Pato […]
The 2021 Goodwood Festival of Speed came off without a hitch in the face of discouraging odds given the state of the worldwide pandemic. Tour host Steve Austin of Portland’s Great Vacations called it “a brilliant, exciting, magnificent event that in most people’s books could never have happened.” Festival of Speed organizer and RRDC member […]
ANOTHER MILESTONE FOR TEAM PENSKE Josef Newgarden’s first-place finish in the Honda 200 at Mid-Ohio Sunday came on the 50th anniversary weekend of Team Penske’s first IndyCar victory – Mark Donohue on July 3, 1971, at Pocono. Newgarden, who had suffered recently from stumbles while leading, fended off a late-race charge by Marcus Ericsson for […]
Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford probably signed more autographs than any of the luminaries at the Speedway for the 105th running of “The Greatest Spectacle in Racing”. J.R. helped create the Official Souvenir Program cover for the race’s 2021 edition, hand-drawing the cars of four-time champions A.J. Foyt Jr., Al Unser and Rick Mears. Rutherford, […]
Helio Castroneves raised the Indianapolis 500 post-race festivities to a joyous new level in celebrating his historic fourth victory in the 105th running of the Memorial Day classic. After a couple of cooldown laps, “Spiderman” parked his No. 06 Sirius/XM Honda just past the yard of bricks and launched his now-traditional climbing of the fence, […]
Bobby Unser died Sunday of natural causes at his home in Albuquerque, N.M., his wife Lisa reported. He was 87. RRDC President Bobby Rahal commented on Unser’s passing: “We at the RRDC are saddened by the death of a national hero and icon, and one of our longtime members. Bobby Unser was a champion race-car […]
VIC ELFORD NEEDS OUR HELP RRDC members Marshall Pruett and Brian Redman are asking for our help: Our longtime member Vic Elford is in need of support “from the legions of friends and fans who’ve marveled at his exceptional talent and grace for more than half a century. “With the return of an aggressive form […]
Robert W. “Kas” Kastner, a giant in American motorsports, passed away Saturday at age 92. Kastner came up through the ranks from mechanic all the way to head of NPTI, Nissan’s dominant IMSA GTP program in the late 1980s and early ‘90s. An organizational wizard, Kastner headed up both racing teams and manufacturer programs, winning […]
LE MANS: TOM KRISTENSEN, by Tom Kirstensen with Dan Philipsen, is now available in the U.S. with foreword by Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich. Between 1997 and 2014, Tom Kristensen won the world’s toughest automobile race, the Le Mans 24 Hours, a record nine times and finished on the podium on five more occasions. Every time his car […]
WILLIAM JEANES’ THE ROAD TO PICKLETOWN The Road to Pickletown – A Southerner Confronts Cowbells, Clowns, Cuba, Christmas, and Mississippi; written by longtime automotive and auto racing journalist William Jeanes, is not what one would expect to come from the pen of a car guy. Yet, here it is – a selection of the many […]
LYN ST. JAMES IS 2021 AMELIA ISLAND CONCOURS HONOREE For the first time in 26 years, The Amelia Island Concours d’Elegance will celebrate a female honoree, the inspiring Lyn St. James, at the 26th Annual meeting, May 20-23, 2021. An accomplished race driver, St. James has used her celebrity to help advance the careers of […]
JUDY STROPUS TO BE ON “RACE TALK WITH TRISH” Our recently selected Motorsports Hall of Fame of America honoree Judy Stropus will be featured on “RaceTalk With Trish” on the Racing History Project Podcast Channel Wednesday, March 3rd at 6pm Pacific, 9pm Eastern. Call-in number – 425-436-6385 Access code – 5762616# (enter when prompted) Or […]
