Watkins Glen International

Motorsport track in the United States

The Glen Above Seneca Lake

A wooded hilltop circuit in upstate New York, the Glen hosted the United States Grand Prix for twenty straight autumns.

Watkins Glen International occupies a wooded hill a short way southwest of the village that gives it its name, where Seneca Lake comes to its southern end in upstate New York. Racing here started on the public roads. Cameron Argetsinger, whose family spent its summers in the area, organized the inaugural Watkins Glen Grand Prix in 1948 on a 6.600 mile course through the middle of town. In 1952 a car left the road and killed a seven year old spectator, and racing moved out of the village. In 1956 a permanent course opened on the hilltop, designed by Bill Milliken together with engineering professors from Cornell University.

Formula 1 arrived almost by accident. Sebring in 1959 and Riverside in 1960 had both failed to give the United States Grand Prix a lasting home, so in 1961 Argetsinger was asked to ready the Glen for the season finale on six weeks' notice. Innes Ireland won for Lotus, and the improvised arrangement then lasted twenty years without a break, from 1961 to 1980. It became an autumn ritual, the crowds arriving with the turning leaves, and the drivers' association named it the season's best organized Grand Prix in 1965, 1970 and 1972. Jim Clark and Graham Hill each won there three times, the best record at the circuit.

For 1971 the lap grew from 2.350 to 3.377 miles with the addition of the Boot, a loop that drops downhill through the woods, follows the side of the hill and climbs over a blind crest before rejoining the original course. The faster cars brought losses too. François Cevert died in practice in 1973, Helmut Koinigg was killed in 1974, and in 1975 a chicane was added to the Esses.

By the late 1970s the circuit could no longer safely handle ground effect cars, and after Alan Jones won in 1980 the race was dropped because the track owed the teams money. The Glen went bankrupt and closed in 1981. Corning Enterprises and International Speedway Corporation bought it and reopened it in 1984, and today, under NASCAR ownership, it remains a fixture of American road racing, its hill having welcomed stock cars, sports cars and IndyCar. The leaves still turn every autumn; they simply have different cars to watch.

Every Grand Prix here

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