In 1948, four words on a postcard by Elmira Star-Gazette reporter Arthur H. Richards Jr., “Bring on the cars!,” helped launch a road race that transformed Watkins Glen and established its enduring role in American motorsports. On October 2, 1948, Watkins Glen hosted the first post-World War II American road race, with sports cars running a 6.6-mile course through the village, around the gorge in Watkins Glen State Park, and through surrounding farmland. Cars lined up behind the original start-finish line in front of the Schuyler County Court House on Franklin Street as spectators filled the streets. Conceived by Cameron R. Argetsinger, a racing enthusiast from Youngstown, Ohio, who summered on Seneca Lake, the event brought the style and prestige of European road racing to the United States, signaled the rise of American sports car racing, and featured a varied field of cars. The Junior Prix, a qualifying race for the Grand Prix later that day, opened the new circuit with 23 cars, including nine MG TC Midgets, older European factory-built cars, and homemade specials racing over asphalt, cement, and dirt roads, across hills, a stone bridge, and the New York Central rail line. Seventeen starters finished the first race, and Frank Griswold Jr. of Wayne, Pennsylvania won in an Alfa-Romeo, covering 26.4 miles at an average speed of 64.5 mph in four laps over 24 minutes and 33 seconds. Argetsinger’s vision for an international road racing circuit in the Finger Lakes depended on support from the local community and the racing world, including members of the Sports Car Club of America, Watkins Glen leaders, the Chamber of Commerce, journalists, boosters, garages, dealerships, and state, county, town, village, and park officials. Residents housed and fed visitors, admired the cars, and cheered the racers. Watkins Glen held the Grand Prix on public roads from 1948 to 1955, until the permanent circuit later known as Watkins Glen International opened on County Route 16 in the Town of Dix in 1956. Brick memorials on either side of Franklin Street mark the start-finish line used from 1948 to 1952.