Back when our corporate headquarters was located in Burbank, there was a store just up the street from the shop called Autobooks. It’s where we would escape to when we needed to kill some time and clear our heads.
The founder of that store was a man named Harry Morrow who had a great history as an engineer, racer, and even automotive journalist.
He was a man who loved open-wheel racing, especially of the wee, 500cc-powered variety. His work with that class, which has launched the career of many legends garnered him such praise that an award was named after him. The club that hands out the neat trophy has renamed the award.
Learn about it and its history from the press release below:
MORROW AWARD NOW “500cc CLUB of America TROPHY”
The unique award named for one of the original 500cc Club of America’s founding fathers will now carry the newly re-formed club’s name as well.
Formerly named for a bookstore that Morrow began in Burbank in the early 50’s, the award, as of 28 March, has been officially re-christened: “The 500cc Club of America – Harry Morrow Award.”
As it has since its inception, its presentation will honor the people who have kept his and the club’s spirit alive to this day.
The Award is inscribed: “Autobooks founder Harry Morrow lived and breathed to promote and race 500cc formula cars. His influence on West Coast road racing was immense, his enthusiasm boundless. Presented To the Person Who Best Typifies The Spirit of 500cc Formula Car Racing”
“There’s no cash award associated with this award,” said 500cc Club leader, Tom “Rigger” Cecil (himself a recipient of the award). “But no amount of money would make having one’s name on this one any sweeter. Racing wasn’t about money in Harry’s day. It was for honor and sport, that’s what this award is all about.”
Although the name-in-title sponsorship of this award is no longer a commercial position, provision has been made for individuals and businesses to “sponsor” the trophy’s “travel expenses” as it voyages to various prestige vintage racing events across the country and perhaps over to Europe for a visit to an event or two in England and on the continent. “Harry would really get a kick out of the fact that he’s still remembered, and for ‘his’ trophy to visit England … Well … that would be very cool,” Cecil concluded.
Formula III: single-seater cars, with 500cc motorcycle-derived engines, tiny open wheels and spidery frames, where the beginnings of the post-war sports/racing car movement that sprang up in England and gave men like Stirling Moss, Tony Brooks, Raymond Mays, Bruce Kessler, and even Bernie Ecclestone their starts in motorsports.
Aircraft engineer, designer, writer, entrepreneur, early Road & Track staffer, Harry Morrow, was tuned-in to the beat of the new wave of racing and championed the mini-GP cars from his vantage point on the West coast. He owned at least couple of the little himself, and worked on everyone’s, often to the detriment of his own chances on the racecourse. He was a truly unique character. Harry Morrow was a racer.
The list of awardees of this trophy includes John Streets, Bob Wenz, Peter Becker, and as mentioned above Tom Cecil. On 28 March, racing great Bruce Kessler’s name was added at the “Legends of Riverside I” Film Festival and Gala.
