John Bishop, the man most responsible for the establishment of professional sports car racing in America, has died at the age of 87. As executive director of the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA), Bishop’s vision took the club down the path to professionalism in the 1960s, forming first the United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) and then guiding the creation of the popular Can-Am, Trans-Am and Formula 5000 series. When the politics swirling within the organization became too restrictive for his role as an agent of change, however, he resigned.
He wasn’t on the sidelines long before NASCAR founder Bill France asked him to form a new sanctioning body, the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA), which grew gradually but then found its popularity burgeoning with Bishop’s creation of the dynamic Grand Touring Prototype category.
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