OK, this is kind of unbelievable and I should know my club history better but I have been doing some research and recently dug up a fellow that came out to our club meeting by invitation and had the pleasure of meeting tonight which has just blown my socks off.

This guy is a Corvette Racing Historian and has been traveling the country and collecting Corvette Racing memorabilia, stories and cars for 30 years. Well actually he wasn't old enough to drive when he started!!

His name is Domenico Idomi and is an unbelievable source of information. Anyhow, I was searching up information on Dr. Dick Thompson the Corvette Racing Legend as he was one of the original founders of my club, the Corvette Club of America and a member for years until he moved to Florida.

Dr. Dick Thompson. The ultimate weekend racer, Dr. Dick Thompson was the leader of a culture of racers whose dream was to buy fast cars and race them with minimal modification. This dentist-turned-driver piloted one of the first Corvettes at Pebble Beach in 1956, finishing first in his class. Later that year, he won the SCCA C-Class national championship, and the following year he took a production Corvette to first place in the GT class, 20 laps ahead of the pack. In 1963, he drove one of the five legendary Corvette Grand Sports to win at Watkins Glen. He worked with GM styling chief Bill Mitchell on the famed Corvette Stingray Racer.

Dominic has just recently purchased one of the original Dick Thompson Corvettes and brought with him many photos and examples of his meticulous research of vehicles.

One of his goals is to purchase the old Marlboro Racetrack in Upper Marlboro, MD and create a Corvette Racing Museum on that location.

Marlboro Raceway, Upper Marlboro, MD

Wikipedia - Marlboro Raceway

This old racetrack is 20 minutes from my house and I barely remember it ever existed. The older guys in the club remember it and have actually been there in the past.

More information to come as I dig it up.

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man thats really interesting about that track don and also dr thompson i rememder reading about him and his teammate back when i was a kid and the fact that 2 guys in my neighbhorhood also had vettes 1 was a 57 fi car and the other was a 62 fi car the 57 was a street car and the 62 was a road racer-scca i think that is what planted the seed for a corvette in feable little mind
keep us posted on this
ps i think his teamates name was lorenzo if i remember correctly

I've read about the Doc too. Played a big role in early Corvette racing history. I'm by no means heavy into Corvette history. I read it and forget it faster than I read it. Probably because of all those brain cells I killed the first 45 years of my life. Buying land and building a museum is serious business. I have a buddy that's been working on a projest like that for years with Nascar Race Cars and exotic sportscars. To offset the expense they're building an exotic sportscar storage facility with the museum. It is within shouting distance of the Miami-Homestead Speedway. Matter of fact we'll be going to this museum this weekend on a cruise with the PCA.

www.musclecarcity.net

cool

love this stuff

Yeah, why don't we start a nice history of Corvette racing?

that would bring the traffic up.

I just got off the phone with my Mom. She also grew up about ten miles down Rt. 301 from the track during the 50s. She knew more about the track than I did from a local perspective.

very cool stuff

SCCA for the last few years has put articles in SportsCar a couple times a year called "Ghost Tracks". Tracks that used to be. They interviews with people who ran them, track maps etc. Pretty cool.

There are two books out with that title.
I'm going to order the first book on pay day. It supposedly covers the Marlboro, Maryland racetrack pretty good.