Watkins Glen, New York · US
A historic road course in the Finger Lakes wine region. The 3.4-mile Grand Prix circuit is known for its high-speed esses and the legendary Boot section.
Set in Watkins Glen, New York, Watkins Glen International is a permanent racing circuit. A lap covers 5.552 km (3.45 miles) and 11 corners, run clockwise. Among its named corners are The Esses, The Bus Stop and Toe of the Boot.
The circuit opened in 1956 and holds FIA Grade 2 licensing. NASCAR, GT and Road Course all race here. It holds roughly 38,900 spectators.
The first race was a law student's idea. Cameron Argetsinger, studying at Cornell and taken with European road racing, mapped a 6.6-mile course over the streets and country roads around Watkins Glen, mostly paved with a stretch of dirt and gravel. The first Grand Prix ran on 2 October 1948, and within a few years crowds reached 200,000.
It ended badly. In 1952 a car left the road into spectators, killing a seven-year-old boy and injuring others, and racing through the village stopped. The organisers bought 550 acres on a wooded hilltop south-west of town and built a permanent 2.3-mile circuit, opened in 1956 and deliberately laid out to imitate the country roads the race had grown up on. It went on to hold the United States Grand Prix from 1961 to 1980.
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