Watkins Glen Founder Dies

[Don]

He Turned Watkins Glen Into a Racing Hot Spot

By Stephen Miller, The Wall Street Journal
Last update: 12:35 a.m. EDT April 26, 2008

Zipping along western New York country roads in his sporty Packard Darrin in 1948, Cameron Argetsinger imagined a European-style road-racing course. A few months later, enthusiasts gathered for a car race attended by a few thousand mostly local fans.That was the start of the Watkins Glen race course, in a rural village that became an internationally known racing mecca. A retired lawyer who died April 22 at age 87, Mr. Argetsinger managed the racetrack for more than two decades, during which he established the first successful U.S. Formula One race.

"The people came from Europe, beautifully dressed women," says Mayor Judith H. Phillips, who remembers seeing that first Grand Prix in 1948.
Before racing, the village at the southern end of Seneca Lake (population in 2000: 2,149) was known mainly for its salt mines, vineyards and a dramatic gorge, a favored pit stop for honeymooners en route to Niagara Falls.The 1948 Grand Prix, often cited as the rebirth of American road racing after World War II, began as an amateur event sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America. It was contested by a motley collection of 15 racing hobbyists, including the cartoonist Charles Addams, who, sporting a deerstalker cap, entered his old Mercedes-Benz."We accepted just about anything that looked like a car," recalls Bill Milliken, a racing engineer and friend of Mr. Argetsinger. Mr. Milliken rolled his Bugatti during that first race, and Mr. Argetsinger named the spot Milliken's Corner. It is still a named part of the Watkins Glen track.

It was Mr. Argetsinger who persuaded the car club to certify the race, got the village and state to permit it and arranged for the New York Central Railroad to suspend service through Watkins Glen during the race. This was critical because the 6.6-mile route crossed the railroad tracks. "He had a very strong personality, even though he was just a little guy," recalls Mr. Milliken.

Close friends called Mr. Argetsinger "Cam," perhaps a providential name for a racer. But despite starting in several Grand Prix races at Watkins Glen, he never came close to winning.Mr. Argetsinger's initial route sent racers down rutted country lanes and through the center of the village. Frank Griswold won the 1948 race in an AlfaRomeo coupe, edging out veteran road racer Briggs Cunningham's Buick-powered Mercedes at the finish.

In 1949, attendance was up to 20,000, and by 1950, 100,000 were on hand to witness the race's first fatality, Sam Collier. Mr. Milliken watched from behind as Mr. Collier's Ferrari fishtailed into an apple orchard. Mr. Argetsinger had mandated that all entrants use the then-rare seat belt. Mr. Collier complied, but his belt failed.

Two years later, a seven-year-old boy was killed when a car plowed into spectators, then separated from the cars by a mere rope. Amid an uproar over safety, the race moved to an interim course and then to a twisty circuit designed by Cornell University engineers. It was touted as the safest race course in the world.

Mr. Argetsinger, who had by then graduated from Cornell Law School, became executive director of the village's Grand Prix Corp. He set about attracting more ambitious races, and in 1961 landed the Formula One United States Grand Prix. The gold standard of international racing had previously failed to gain a toehold in the U.S., at Sebring in Florida and Riverside in California. The story was different at Watkins Glen, where Mr. Argetsinger deployed a genius for organization to bring together racers from around the world, including such luminaries as Jackie Stewart, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti.

Watkins Glen became a center for road racing in the U.S., although it never threatened the oval-track Nascar circuit in terms of attendance. In 1966, the race offered prize money of more than $100,000, then the largest purse in the history of Formula One. Mr. Argetsinger, dubbed the "dynamic little Napoleon of Watkins Glen" by the New York Times, ran a tight ship.By 1969, Mr. Argetsinger decided that the Watkins Glen race course should be run more like a real business but was rebuffed by the village when he tendered an offer to take it private. He resigned and took a job with a car company in Texas, and eventually became executive director of the Sports Car Club of America, in Denver. In 1977, he returned to Watkins Glen, where he practiced law and lived in his family's lakeside 19th-century farmhouse.
Mr. Argetsinger's celebrity within the village was such that a local magistrate agreed to vacate any speeding ticket he incurred within 30 miles of the village -- and there were many.

Lacking Mr. Argetsinger's organizational expertise, Watkins Glen spiraled into insolvency and declared bankruptcy in 1981, the last year in which the Formula One Grand Prix was held there. Two years later, Corning Glass Works revived the Watkins Glen race course in partnership with International Speedway Corp. Today, Watkins Glen International is host to several races each year, including the Centurion Boats at the Glen race, one of only two road-course races on the Nascar schedule. There is currently no Formula One race in the U.S.

Mr. Argetsinger served on the advisory board of the revived race course and in 2002 was named president of the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen. Watkins Glen International will celebrate its 60th anniversary over the July 4th weekend, when the Cameron R. Argetsinger trophy is awarded to the winner of the Camping World Grand Prix at the Glen.Of Mr. Argetsinger's nine children, four raced professionally.

[ROUSHAC]

Very sad to hear of his passing.