IMRRC Center Conversations on Brock Yates Feb. 24

Brock Yates (C)

Brock Yates was racing's storyteller, but all the stories will be about him on Feb. 24 at the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen.

Pamela Yates, wife of Brock Yates who died Oct. 5, 2016, and their daughter Stacy Bradley will present "Looking at the World Through a Windshield" as part of the IMRRC's monthly Center Conversations series.

The Saturday talk, sponsored in part by the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce, will begin at 1 p.m. and is open to all. The Racing Research Center is located at 610 S. Decatur St., Watkins Glen, N.Y.

A $5 donation for admission is requested to help defray costs.

The talk will be live-streamed at www.youtube.com/user/IMRRC/live or via the Center's website at www.racingarchives.org/stream/. The talk also will be archived on the Center's You Tube channel.

"We can tell stories about the good Brock Yates and about the bad-boy Brock Yates," Pamela Yates said. "He had a marvelous life, which he lived the way he wanted to."

Yates wrote 15 books, including "Sunday Driver" and "Enzo Ferrari: The Man, The Cars, The Races, The Machine." He was associated with Car and Driver magazine for more than 40 years and also turned in years as a motorsports broadcast commentator.

His creation of the Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash in 1971 turned Yates into a pop culture icon. He wrote the screenplays for the successful films "The Cannonball Run I" and "Smokey and the Bandit II." He also compiled the stories of many of the Cannonball participants in his book, "Cannonball!, World's Greatest Outlaw Road Race," published in 2002.

Yates was a member of the IMRRC's Governing Council for nine years and established a collection in the archives.

"He just loved history. He was very open to and curious about everything," Pamela Yates said.

Yates was inducted into the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America in Daytona in June 2017. He joined the Watkins Glen Drivers Walk of Fame in September 2017, and his marker is located in front of the Center.