Auto Racing Research Associates Searching for Young, Interested Potential Historians

Ringoes,NJ  - Auto Racing Research Associates…ARRA, is hunting for younger auto racing fans who may be curious about what it takes to be an auto racing historian and would love to contribute to the documentation and preservation of the history of our sport.  ARRA got its start back in the mid 90’s when eventual Founding members  Fred Voorhees and  Bill Braga Jr. began collaborating in the research of local dirt track drivers in the Northeast.  Since then, the group was officially formed and it has grown to over 40 auto racing historians spread across the country, representing many geographical regions and thus, moving the organization which at first concentrated on Northeast auto racing exclusively, to a national in scope research titan!

   President Fred Voorhees reminisces about its beginning.  “This entire research deal started for me back around 1994 when I began to roll around in my head, the win totals for Billy Pauch at all of the different tracks he had won at.  I easily totaled up over 400 wins and it seemed as if he would soon be hitting 500 career wins.  I decided to try to total up his wins so that when he did hit that mark, it could be properly celebrated” 

   In the meantime…Bill Brage Jr. had been doing research on the Northeast drivers himself and was working on a win list for modified driver Doug Hoffman.  He wanted to present it to his Dad Bill Sr. for his birthday since Bill Sr. was a big Hoffman fan.  Time was running out for the task and having heard about Fred’s research efforts, he got in touch to ask him to help finish the project.  And THAT was the genesis of Auto Racing Research Associates.  They quickly assembled a group of other racing fans and people within the sport that were specialized in certain areas of the sport.  Eventually three other Founding members came aboard and ARRA was officially formed.  Just recently, they took in two new members…..bringing the total of member historians to over 40. 

   “I beam with pride when I look at what ARRA has become….” stated Voorhees.  “…and it would be a shame to not have a longevity plan in place to assure that our work continues into the future.”  Age is another factor.  Though there are a handful of younger historians in the organization…for the most part, the membership are older racing fans.  “This group of historians have put way to much effort into making our website and our vast body of research to let it die on the vine if there is no one to continue the work beyond the memberships older guys ability to continue.”  And there is also another factor at work behind their search. 

   “I am getting up there in age…” admits Fred sheepishly.  “…..and currently, none of our members are in a position to take over the upkeep of our website.  Members are either still working and don’t have the time…or other members do not think they can handle keeping the site up to date or one of any other reasons.  This is my immediate concern.  Though I would love to bring in a few younger fans who would love to help out, it’s the website upkeep that I would like to have a back up plan in the event that something happens to me that would prevent me from running the website.”  Though Fred explains….”A new historian doesn’t have to have the desire to eventually take over the website…I would simply love to get younger blood into our group, but I think more important is the need for someone to come aboard and allow me to go through what is needed to work the website and have that person “in the wings” so to speak so that they are right there ready to take over in an emergency.  Not having someone to step right in in my absence would quickly be a disaster, especially if something happens in the middle of the racing season.” 

   So the search is two-fold in its purpose.  And a tremendous bonus for the new historians is being supplied with an incredible library of Area Auto Racing News racing papers to perform their research work.  “I just had Bill Braga deliver to me another load of Area Auto’s today, many of which were from back in the sixties.  This delivery will be added to the collection of other donations and at this point, I can now offer a new historian, an incredible collection of complete years all the way back into the late sixties and many papers even before that!  It took us older historians a long long time to amass our collections and here it is where we can drop into the laps of new historians, a library that we took all of that time to get together.  It’s an amazing opportunity! 

   If any younger fans…talking anywhere from late teens to thirties or forties….think they would be interested in the interesting and highly rewarding pastime of researching our sport, they are encouraged to get in contact with President Fred Voorhees to find out what is involved and what it would take to get started.  “If they have experience in computers and websites….it would be a bonus, but not needed.” adds Voorhees.  Fred can be contacted at fredjv1@embarqmail.com .

The two photos represent a single collection of Area Auto Racing News from the late sixties to present.  The pile of papers are from the sixties and were added to the ARRA surplus just today.  This collection awaits a new historian.