Fans of the Watkins Glen, N.Y., road course believe an October, 1948, event there was the first organized post-WWII sports car race. Not so, as historians have unearthed data of a five-lap, five-mile race for sports cars, held earlier in mid-summer 1948, at the famous Langhorne Speedway’s one-mile circular dirt track north of Philadelphia. This sports car event was in support of the headline 100-mile AAA national championship race that day. A total of eight sports cars — many from the 1920s — including Mercedes, MG, Mercer, Stutz, Packard, Duesenberg and Jaguar, took part. Drivers were Phil Stiles, Otto Linton, Hempstone Oliver, George Caswell, Joe Seybe, Sam Bailey, Tom McKean and Dud Wilson, whose 1930 blown S Mercedes convertible beat out Stiles’s 1948 MG for top honors in the 5- minute, 14.98-second contest. Oliver (’57 MG), Linton (1926 A Duesy), Stiles and Wilson all led laps.        

Having attended all major Langhorne races from 1947 to the track’s closing, I was there for the abovementioned race, but do not recall the sports cars going at it. What I do remember, however, was Rex Mays waving off an incredibly fast 32.20-second qualifying lap, only to register a pokey 34-second tour next time around. Mays had become nationally known in U.S. racing since winning the 1934 Pacific Coast AAA championship driving a gasket-wearing Ford B-block rocker arm Winfield-engined car against the fleet of DOHC Miller Specials which populated the Legion Ascot era. That 1948 day Mays had arrived at Langhorne in his personal twin-engined, WWII twin-boomed P-38 fighter plane, landing in a grass field just northwest of the track. His racing mount, a Bowes Seal Fast Spl. with a centrifugally supercharged straight-eight Miller engine, was a huge thing. I recall discovering on its rear wheels were 1,000 by 20 Firestones. That’s a 10-inch wide tire on a 20-inch wheel. Most other cars that day wore 6:50 x 16 rear rubber. The term crew chief had not yet been created, but Pete Clark was in charge of this giant Bowes Seal Fast Special Fond memories for sure.    

One short. When David Reutimann drove to his first NASCAR victory in Saturday night’s Sam’s Town 250 Busch Series race at Memphis Motorsports Park, he had to weather 25 yellow flags, one short of the all-time NASCAR record of 26 caution flags set a few years ago at North Carolina’s Hickory Speedway. The Memphis triumph also gave Michael Waltrip his first victory as a Toyota team owner.

With the political battle for the U.S. presidency increasing in tempo, NASCAR fans are upset over a recommendation by a Washington, D.C. Democrat that fans heading south into the Red State wilds of NASCAR country to conduct research at two races, get immunized for several diseases before departure. A House Committee official at Homeland Security made the suggestion in light of staff plans to visit health facilities at Talladega Superspeedway and Lowe’s Motor Speedway. A staffer for Rep. Bennie Thompson (Miss. Democrat) sent an e-mail noting an “unusual need for those attending to be vaccinated against hepatitis A and B as well as more normal things.” It did not mention NASCAR or the tracks by name. Rep. Robin Hayes (N.C. Republican) complained in a published letter. The matter got wide publicity in the Southern press.

The keynote speaker at the recent Brain Injury Ass’n of Indiana annual conference was Ernie Irvan, now 48, whose driving career ended five years after a brain injury suffered in a 1994 Michigan Speedway crash. Irvan’s remarks dealt with methods to prevent traumatic brain injury. He said that if the SAFER Barrier and the HANS Device had been in use in 2001, Dale Earnhardt would still be racing today.
On the job again. Noted stock car mechanic Steve Hmiel was only out of work a matter of hours after his release from Dale Earnhardt, Inc., as Chip Ganassi, who with Felix Sabates owns racing teams every which way one looks, hired Hmiel, a former FoMoCo exec, as his competition manager.

The engine in Andy Pilgrim’s winning Cadillac in the Speed Touring Car series finale at Mazda Laguna Seca Raceway wasn’t fully cooled down before Cadillac officials announced it would no longer field a “factory team” in that ALMS series. Porsche narrowly edged Cadillac for the 2007 Touring Car Manufacturer Championship. Chevy lovers are concerned.

There will be a Memorial Service for the late driver-flagman Nick Fornoro at the Church of Our Saviour, 155 Morris Ave., Denville, N.J., this Saturday, Nov. 3 at 10 a.m. followed by a reception. More from Drew Fornoro (973) 726-0300. 

This year’s annual awards banquet of the American Racing Drivers Club midget series will be at Lobitz Catering Hall in Hazelton, Pa., on Sat. Nov. 24. Cocktail hour 5 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m. Ticket reservations are mandatory by Nov. 10 to Krissy Lauer at (410) 729-729-8878.  

How many race tracks have you visited? According to Fast Times, the Dayton (Ohio) Auto Racing Fan Club newsletter, Allan Brown, who edits the National Speedway Directory and who spoke at the DARF club’s September meeting, reports having visited  2,100 tracks! This year’s NSD says there are 1,398 tracks and strips now active in this country.

The West Coast Vintage Racers group has its annual banquet scheduled Nov. 30th at the usual Sayler’s Old Country Kitchen in Portland, Ore. More from PMB 421, WCVR,  44326 SE Woodstock Blvd., Portland, Ore. 97206.   

The Utah Motorsports Foundation, which over the years has raised more than $425,000 for racing families in times of need, will hold its 9th annual Night Out and Benefit Auction on Nov. 10th at Totem’s Private Club, 538 South Redwood Road in Salt Lake City. More from (801) 364-8132.  
My favorite among the many new racing books recently received is “Can-Am Challenger,” the illustrated life story of  British-born Peter Bryant, builder of the Shadow sports cars. The book also provides a great look back at the long-gone Canadian-American Challenge Cup sports car series. This heavyweight gem is available by calling (602) 852-9500. A close runner up is “Lone Wolf,” the autobiography (with help from Dave Argabright) of open-wheel ace Doug Wolfgang. This hardbound treasure can be yours by calling (317) 631-0437. Unfortunately my copy of Mark Yost’s natty-looking “200 MPH Billboard” was swiped before I could read it. Lastly, there’s the unique  “Eddie Sachs the Clown Prince” tome by Denny Miller. It’s a different kind of book, not a novel but a profusely illustrated succession of quotations by key racing figures of the day on the life and times of the most colorful driver ever to traverse the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Get your copy by calling (800) 839-8640. And, thanks Denny for the percolator.

Sen. Joe Biden (D. Del.) recently became the fourth presidential aspirant to rent the National Sprint Car Museum in Knoxville, Iowa, for a political rally.