Longtime race steward John Bornholdt will share memories and stories from his long motorsports career at the International Motor Racing Research Center on Saturday, October 14.
The 1 p.m. talk, titled “From a Steward’s Point of View,” is part of the Center’s monthly Center Conversations talk series, and is sponsored in part by the Watkins Glen Area Chamber of Commerce. The talk is open to all at the Racing Research Center, located at 610 S. Decatur St., Watkins Glen, New York. A $5 donation for admission is requested to help defray costs.
Bornholdt served as a race steward for more than 50 years, starting in 1952 at Sebring, and worked in series ranging from SCCA to Formula One. Currently a member of SCCA’s Professional Court of Appeals, Bornholdt is one of only two people who have been honored with the Woolf Barnato, David Morrell and SCCA Hall of Fame awards.
Bornholdt was a spectator at the open-road races at Watkins Glen and Bridgehampton beginning in 1951, and his first opportunity to officiate came as a pit steward at Sebring in 1952, continuing there for the next decade. He joined the SCCA’s Washington, D.C. Region in 1955, working as a pit steward at the first Marlboro Speedway race.
The founding Regional Executive of the South Jersey SCCA Region, Bornholdt worked virtually every race at the Vineland Speedway road course from 1958 on. He was a steward at United States Road Racing Championship races, then chairman of stewards for many Can-Am, Trans-Am and Formula 5000 races. During the mid-1950s he was also a pit crew member of a AAA Eastern Sprint Car team.
Bornholdt was the American steward at U.S. Formula One races from 1970 through 1991. He was series chief steward for the single-seat, five-liter Can-Am series, and then spent 17 years as Chief Steward for the Toyota Atlantic series. He also served as a judge for CART and ChampCar.
Away from the racetrack, Bornholdt worked for 45 years at RCA, becoming a program manager of large radar projects before retiring in 1996.
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