Region History
Detroit Region History Timeline Info from DRSCCA Golden Anniversary Book prepared by the 50-Year Anniversary Committee (Suzanne Royce, Chairman)
1944 Sports Car Club of America was incorporated as an organization in Connecticut. 1947 George Gaston of Detroit became a subscribing member of Sports Car Club of America, Inc., Connecticut.
1948 January – An ad was placed in the Detroit News looking for sports car enthusiasts interested in forming a club.
1948 February – The first meeting of the Detroit area sports car enthusiast was heldin the bar and parking lot of Little Harry’s Restaurant on East Jefferson.
1948 March – George Gaston is named the first Regional Executive of the newly formed Detroit Region, SCCA, Inc.
1948 May – The first official event of the Detroit Region, SCCA, is run at Partington’s Pasture.
1948 The first running of the Watkin’s Glen Grand Prix.
1949 January – At the SCCA National Convention the membership voted to no longer offer subscribing memberships, and that it was no longer necessary to own a sports car to obtain a regular membership. 1949 First Watkin’s Glen Concours d’Elegance was won by Paul Farago (Detroit Region) with blue, custom bodied Fiat which sported a 1948 Cadillac grille.
1949 October – The first running of the Detroit Region’s Press On Regardless Rally.
1949 Detroit Region had forty-two members of which sixteen had “sports cars”.
1950 Press On Regardless (POR) Rally was placed on the National calendar.
1950 Detroit Region started charging $5 annual regional dues to defray operating costs. National dues were $10.
1952 Detroit Region members put on a racing show at the State Fair Grounds when bad weather forces NASCAR to declare the track conditions unsuitable for them to run.
1953 Detroit Region pushes for Technical Inspection to be used to keep things even in legality between pro and amateur drivers, as well as checking safety related items.
1953 SCCA had 16 National races, run all across the country, listed to determine the National Champions. Detroit Region had 3 drivers competing in the series. There were 20 classes authorized for the National races.
1954 SCCA Contest Board felt that all races should be timed rather than mileaged so that events could be run in a more timely manner.
1954 Detroit Region becomes the first region to hold an SCCA Drivers’ School.
1954 Detroit Region members showed well in the National Racing Championship. Rich Lyeth (Ferrari) came 2nd in D-modified and Ralph Durbin (MG) was 3rd in F-Production.
1954 Detroit Region hosts the first International Dawnbuster Rallye. Starting in Grosse Pointe, it crossed under the river to run 255 miles of muddy, Canadian trails through the night.
1955 Detroit Region became the first region to form a Regional Competition Committee. Drivers’ School became mandatory for a racing license from Detroit Region.
1956 Detroit Region hosted the SCCA National Convention for the first time. (The second was in 1957 and the third in 1966).
1957 Twenty-one Detroit Region members competed at the Put-in-Bay races.
1958 Waterford Hills road racing course opened.
1959 Last Put-in-Bay race.
1961 Start of the Divisional Championship Racing Program. Detroit placed in the (largest) MidWest Division with 37 regions and 709 licensed drivers.
1969 Entry fee for the Detroit Region event at Waterford was $20, and the WMR National at Grattan was $35.
1969 23 Detroit Region drivers receive invitations to the American Road Race of Champions at Daytona in November. The ARRC was the predecessor to the Run-Offs and alternated between Daytona and Riverside.
1970 POR received an FIA sanction – a first for an SCCA rally.
1975 POR was an FIA World Rally Championship event.
1982-1988 Detroit Region hosted the United States Formula One Grand Prix on the streets of Detroit around the Renaissance Center.1984 Detroit Region provides the core officials and staff for the United States Formula One Grand Prix in Dallas, and for the FIA F3000 event in Curaçao in 1985.
1989-1991 Detroit Region rovdes the core officials and staff for the United States Formula One Grand Prix in Phoenix.
1989-1991 Detroit Region hosts the CART “Indy cars” race in the streets around the Renaissance Center.
1992 Detroit Region hosts the CART “Indy cars” race on Belle Isle for several years.
1998 Detroit Region celebrates its Golden Anniversary!