The Lopata family, promoters of the Forge Invitational Musclecar Show, has donated its rare collection of auto films to the NASCAR Media Group.

Ken Martin Senior Manager/Archive Developement worked to procure the extensive collection, which included films from the 1950s, '60s and '70s. The bulk of the collection included stock car films from the first Daytona 500 in 1959, plus Daytona 1961,1967 and 1968. Also included are 1959, 1965, 1969, 1970 and 1972 Darlington races, and races from Atlanta, Riverside, Talladega, Charlotte and Rockingham from that same era.



Tim Lopata (left) is shown delivering the historic films to Ken Martin
of the NASCAR Media Group.

Other films in the collection include:
- Rare films of 1964 Ford futuristic cars, including the new Mustang, along with excerpts of the prototype car;
- GM cars from the 1900s to 1977 and a film from the 1940s on general design;
- One of the longest running films of the first Indianapolis 500 in 1911 which was previously released to Old Cars Weekly last year (CLICK HERE see the film online); www.oldcarsweekly.com/article/1911_Indy_500_Race_video/
- And, a film from Ford on motor racing from 1969 which included stock car, drag racing,Trans Am and Indy racing along with a film of the 1969 indy 500.

"We wanted to get the film into the hands of Ken before the grand opening of the NASCAR Hall of Fame www.nascarhall.com in May," said family spokesman Tim Lopata. "We had spoken to other people about donating the collection but I felt Ken and NMG were the best people that could preserve and promote our collection. Hopefully a lot of people will enjoy these rare films from a great era of racing."

 

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