History

[edit] History
After a few decades of such events three sons of Barron Collier—Barron, Miles, and Samuel—founded the Automobile Racing Club of America in 1933. That organization became the Sports Car Club of America in 1944. Throughout its history, American race car drivers such as Briggs Cunningham, Lake Underwood, Carroll Shelby, and Mark Donohue were among the contestants at these road racing events.

American purpose-built road courses include: Barber Motorsports Park, Miller Motorsports Park, Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Lime Rock Park, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, Road Atlanta, Portland International Raceway, and Virginia International Raceway.

Additionally, racing over public streets is making something of a comeback; the most famous race of this sort currently held is the Long Beach Grand Prix, hosted annually in Long Beach, California. Other famous street circuits in North America include events held in St. Petersburg, Florida, Montreal, Québec, Vancouver, British Columbia (no longer held), and Toronto, Ontario.

Airport runways figure into several part-time road courses in North America: Burke Lakefront Airport in Cleveland, Ohio hosted a Champ Car race through 2007, the St. Petersburg course uses the runway of Albert Whitted Airport as its main straight, and Sebring International Raceway, home of the prestigious 12-hour race in March, was formerly a military airfield in Sebring, Florida. More recently, the Edmonton Indy is held on the runways of Edmonton City Centre Airport in Edmonton, Alberta.