Cameron Argetsinger, who died on 22 April, 2008, was a motor racing executive whose enthusiasm went as far as to create a new home for Formula One in America.

The world-famous Watkins Glen race track hosted the United States Grand Prix for nearly two decades and also hosts NASCAR, IndyCar, Champ Car and numerous other racing disciplines.

"It’s been said, and it’s not entirely wrong, that I did it because I had an MG-TC and didn't have a place to race it," Mr Argetsinger once said of his decision to start running races in Watkins Glen in 1953.

Cameron R Argetsinger was born in 1921 and grew up in Youngstown, Ohio. His father, who worked with a local manufacturing firm, was a racing fan and owning a sports car was an early ambition for young Cameron.

He studied law at Cornell University in New York before serving with the US Army during the Second World War, reaching the rank of lieutenant. In 1947 he used his lawyer’s wages to buy the aforementioned MG-TC and the following year he persuaded the authorities of Watkins Glen, a village in New York state, to host the first road race in post-war America.

"As soon as I was able to drive, I just naturally felt the place to drive a sports car was Watkins Glen," he later said. The area’s natural beauty (the 6.6-mile track circled a state park) and the variety of terrains the locale provided gave it challenging appeal for drivers while spectators lined the streets close to the action.

Mr Argetsinger drove to ninth in the first race and he continued to participate in motor races until 1960. In 1952 a spectator was killed by a car leaving the track and the course was moved to a woodland area nearby. In 1956 the Watkins Glen Grand Prix Corporation, with Argetsinger as its executive director, opened a brand new permanent race track, engineered by Cornell professors and designed to mirror the shape of the original road course.

The following year it hosted NASCAR and Formula Libre. The likes of Jack Brabham, Stirling Moss and Phil Hill competed at Watkins Glen. In 1961, Mr Argetsinger was approached by the Formula One World Championship who were looking for a new circuit after races in Florida and California had proved unsatisfactory. With just six weeks notice, the facilities at Watkins Glen were brought up to Formula One standard and the final round of that year’s championship was successfully staged.

Watkins Glen hosted the US Grand Prix until 1980 and was one of the highlights of the motor racing calendar. It was not only picturesque (autumnal colours and spectacular backdrops) but also prestigious with the largest prize monies of the season. Its organisers were recognised with several awards from the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association and Mr Argetsinger was respected throughout the sport for his passionate, hands-on approach to managing races.

He tried to purchase ‘The Glen’ outright in 1969 but the Corporation refused to sell and Mr Argetsinger resigned his post. The years after Mr Argetsinger’s departure were troubled – injudicious modifications to the track made it unsafe resulting in fatalities, and huge debts were run up. After failing to pay the teams $800,000 in fees and prizes for the 1980 race, the track was dropped from the Formula One schedule and the following year it went bankrupt.

In the meantime Mr Argetsinger had moved to Denver where he was a director at the Sports Car Club of America for five years before returning to practise law in upstate New York in 1977. In 2002 he was reunited with Watkins Glen (which had re-opened under new ownership in 1984) when he became president of the circuit's new International Motor Racing Research Centre which he opened with his wife Jean.

He and Jean had nine children, 15 grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren. He lived the later years of his life in the same farmhouse he had grown up in. He was inducted into the Sports Car Club of America’s Hall of Fame in 2005 and he received the prestigious Bob Akin Motorsports Award in 2007. Meanwhile, Watkins Glen remained one of the best tracks in American motor sport.

"Nothing that Cameron did was ordinary," said Bill Milliken, a former Watkins Glen colleague. "He had the capability of dreaming pretty big dreams, and then he had the fortitude and strength of character to realise them."