By: Octane Press January 24, 2019 4:33 AM As we build up to this year’s Rolex 24 at Daytona, RACER.com is pleased to bring you a series of excerpts from IMSA 1969-1989 by Mitch Bishop and Mark Raffauf. The soon-to-be-released inside history of IMSA’s first two decades is currently available for pre-order from Octane Press, and as a RACER.com reader, you can get $10 off by applying the discount code RACER19 at checkout. Click here for ordering information.By the end of 1984, Porsche 962s were coming off the production line a Weissach in steady numbers and many of the Camel GT teams campaigning the outdated 935 and other early prototypes switched for the 1985 season. The effect was dramatic. Out of seventeen Camel GT races in 1985, Porsche 962s won all but one, a victory by Jaguar being the lone exception. Porsche 962 drivers finished first and second in the 1985 Camel GT championship standings, and six out of the top ten all drove 962s. It seemed the natural order of things had been reestablished—Porsche dominance was once again the law of the land.The supremacy of the 962 started with the 1985 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona, where the customer team of Preston Henn, using the now-friendly driver combination of A. J. Foyt and Bob Wollek, took the win with the aid of Al Unser Sr. and Thierry Boutsen. Foyt and Wollek went on to win the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, making them one of the few duos in history to take the endurance double in the same year.If the 1985 season was all about Porsche, the undisputed king of the 962 was Al Holbert, who won his fourth Camel GT championship handily with nine overall wins. Derek Bell co- drove in the endurance events and piloted a second Holbert 962 solo in the shorter sprint races. Although the revitalized Group 44 Jaguar team scored an impressive one-two sweep at Road Atlanta in April and collected ten top five finishes that year, Haywood would go on to finish a distant third in the points standings. Holbert and Bell were simply too consistent, only failing to finish in the top ten twice.Porsche’s six-cylinder turbocharged motor was so dominant that IMSA revised the technical rules at the end of the 1985 season, attempting to slow down the 962 and encourage the use of normally aspirated V8s in the series. In the meantime, other manufacturers introduced new GTP contenders in an effort to regain competitive position against Porsche.Ford unveiled the lightning-quick Mustang Probe GTP, powered by a potent four-cylinder turbo and masterfully driven by Klaus Ludwig. Phil Conte brought two new V6 turbo Buick-powered March 85G chassis. They were also fast but not yet reliable. Producing in excess of 1,000bhp, the V6 turbos were driven by John Paul Jr., Bill Adam, and Whitney Ganz.Rob Dyson joined the series at Lime Rock with a Porsche 962, where Drake Olsen won the event solo his first time out. Dyson Racing won again with Olsen and Bobby Rahal at the Road America Löwenbräu Classic five-hundred-miler, ironically in Budweiser colors. Olsen and Price Cobb added the inaugural Columbus Ford Dealers 500 street race to the Dyson team trophy collection later in the fall.GM introduced its newest version of the GTP Corvette at Road America, which was powered by a single turbo V6 in a chassis based on the Lola T710. And BMW jumped back into the Camel GT Series at the end of the year with a new March 86G-based chassis.By this time, IMSA was running separate races at many of the Camel GT weekends for the Camel Lights, GTO, and GTU categories. The GTO category was being dominated by production-bodied American muscle. In many cases, the bodywork shells were the only thing that even closely resembled the production version of the car; the GTO class had evolved into full tube-frame race cars. Ten manufacturers competed in GTO, but Ford took thirteen wins and proved hard to beat in both the endurance and sprint races.John Jones crushed the GTO field in his Roush-prepared Mustang, winning seven races during the 1985 season. Lyn St. James spent the first part of the season in a Ford Cosworth- powered Argo prototype, then joined the Roush team later in the year as a full-time Ford factory driver. She scored two wins co-driving with Jones before a solo victory at Watkins Glen made her the first woman ever to win an IMSA GTO race outright. Wally Dallenbach finished third in the points with strong co-driving appearances for the Roush team. The other hot driver in GTO that year was Darrin Brassfield, who won five races in a Brooks Racing Ford Thunderbird.Mazda’s Danny Smith and Roger Mandeville took the first non-Ford spot in the final GTO points standings and the only non-Ford race win at Charlotte. Dan Gurney’s All- American Racers (AAR) team brought new turbo engines for their Toyota Celicas and scored a number of strong finishes. Steve Millen took one win in the Dingman Brothers Valvoline Pontiac Firebird.In GTU, a Mazda RX-7 driver won yet another champi- onship. Jack Baldwin scored five wins and was incredibly consistent with thirteen podiums in his Malibu Grand Prix– sponsored machine, run by Clayton Cunnigham’s Racing (CCR) outfit from southern California. The Mazdas were still tough, fast, and reliable—and there were lots of them.The AAR team also competed in GTU with a nonturbo Toyota Celica piloted by Chris Cord, who finished in a solid second place in the championship with three wins and ten podiums. AAR had announced its arrival in style and many in the paddock wondered how long it would be before the team moved up. They didn’t have to wait long.The introduction of the new Pontiac Fiero, powered by a 2.5-liter “Iron Duke” four-valve, four-cylinder engine was the shape of things to come. The attractive midengine car was a hit on and off of the track with Bob Earl taking six wins and Clay Young a single victory.

By: Marshall Pruett | February 2, 2019 12:02 PM It’s another edition of the short-form ‘Catching Up With’ interview series, featuring Mitch Bishop, son of IMSA founders John and Peggy Bishop, who visits The Marshall Pruett Podcast to share insights on his magnificent new book IMSA: 1969-1989, written with Mark Raffauf, to bring some of its stories to life during a conversation captured at the recent Rolex 24 At Daytona.International Link: https://marshallpruett.podbean.com/e...-mitch-bishop/

By: RACER Staff | February 11, 2019 4:09 PM Sponsored Content: Michelin Motorsport Michelin has been supplying tires for sports car racing dating back to the first Le Mans winner in 1923. But Michelin didn’t appear in an IMSA race until 1998. That’s when a pair of Panoz GTR-1s, along with a Porsche GT1 from Champion Motorsports and a Porsche GT2 from Konrad Motorsport. took the start for the 12 Hours of Sebring. The Panoz of Andy Wallace and David Brabham captured the GT1 class win, while Nick Ham and Franz Konrad took the GT2 win. Thus began Michelin’s winning history in IMSA competition.Over the next 20 years, Michelin-shod prototypes and GT cars reaped a bounty of wins. In many instances, the prestige auto manufacturers could have opted for tires from another company, but the rubber from Clermont-Ferrand become the de facto choice.Starting in 2019, Michelin becomes the Official Tire of IMSA across the WeatherTech Championship, Michelin Pilot Challenge and the Prototype Challenge series.“We’ve gone from five teams and nine cars in one class last year, to more than 100 cars in three series and seven classes,” says Chris Baker, Director of Motorsport, Michelin North America. “Everything has changed by an order of magnitude in terms of the numbers of transporters, support equipment and personnel. It’s been an exciting, yet fast, 16 months as we’ve prepared for this escalation to IMSA’s landmark 50th anniversary season.” The GTLM class cars will use “confidentials” – tires that are specific to each manufacturer in terms of construction. DPi and LMP2 prototypes will use “semi-confidential” tires. The GTD

class, both Michelin Pilot Challenge classes and LMP3 cars will use what Michelin considers as “commercial” tires, meaning the same tire that’s available for any racecar where Michelin has authorized race tire distributors.Prior to the ROAR Before the Rolex 24, IMSA teams had

six separate on-track testing opportunities at Daytona International Speedway, Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta, Road America and Watkins Glen.“The tests gave us the opportunity to begin building a working relationship, technically, with the teams from LMP3, TCR, GS, GTD and

the Prototype category across a mix of cars to get some first-hand feedback on how our tires were performing,” says Ken Payne, Michelin North America Motorsports Technical Director.“During this process, we uncovered a few things with the Prototypes. We’d envisaged that,

since the DPis are more or less based on an LMP2-type chassis, we would just apply our LMP2 tires from the World Endurance Championship,” Payne continues. “However, we quickly determined that the tires in play in that series, which is an open-tire category, were

really not optimized for the tracks and the temperature conditions that we run in IMSA. So we began work with our colleagues in France on a slight change that produced what will now be considered the ‘IMSA Medium’ and ‘IMSA Hard.’”Hence, semi-confidential. Michelin, together

with IMSA, will determine the tire compound for each race in both of the prototype classes.With consumer road tires, Michelin’s reputation is for long-lasting tires – an attribute that will carry over into all IMSA series. Once Michelin acquires sufficient relevant data and experience with

all of the competitors, we might see WeatherTech Championship teams experiment with double-stinting tires during the 2019 Michelin Endurance Cup races in particular.In terms of overall performance, reducing the outright lap time has never been Michelin’s focus for IMSA.

Instead, the goal has been to produce a tire that maintains its performance level over much of the stint.“We want to provide a strong platform that allows drivers to race hard throughout the stint and produce exciting and entertaining races,” explains Baker.IMSA race teams know how

much is riding on their tires, and now each of them gets a chance at what they desire most – a photo with the Michelin Man in victory circle.

By: RACER Staff February 19, 2019 6:42 PM Sponsored Content: Yokohama Motorsports Within the ranks of IMSA, Yokohama Tire supplies tires for the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge in both the U.S. and Canada. While its support of these series is key, Yokohama’s participation in IMSA stretches back over 40 years, beginning with the GTO and GTU-class Mazda RX-7s driven by IMSA legends like Roger Mandeville and Amos Johnson.Around the same time, Yokohama launched its ADVAN brand of ultra-high performance tires, which spawned the memorable liveries on the Akin Racing Porsche 962C of the mid 1980s and the PTG BMW M3 of the early 2000s. Performance car enthusiasts of the 1980s extolled the brilliance of the Yokohama A008 street performance tire that was among ADVAN’s early offerings. In fact, the street A008 was used as an experiment on a GTU Nissan 280Z at Riverside Raceway during the Camel GT six-hour race before slicks were first manufactured for the class.In 1988, Full Time Racing entered a trio of Dodge Daytonas in the GTU class for which Yokohama took the unusual move of supplying a tire of the same size on all four corners.“The Dodge Daytona didn’t have much power, but it was super light and responsive, almost like an open-wheel car,” recalls Jeremy Dale, who drove for the team in 1989. “The tires that Yokohama made for it were spectacular.” Dale’s first year driving on Yokohama proved invaluable for his switch to driving Clayton Cunningham’s factory Nissan 300 ZX.“Switching to the Nissan 300 ZX, it was a completely different animal to the Dodge, and calling that car an animal is very appropriate,” Dale says. “The first year of the Nissan, they raced with another tire brand, but had already made the decision to switch to Yokohama before I came on board. That was a nice coincidence because I’d gotten to know Cheech (Chikara Yamauchi, current co-owner of TrackSide Performance, which services all Yokohama at-track operations) and the other guys from Yokohama quite well.“During a time when there was no such thing as a spec tire, Yokohama put an extraordinary amount of time, effort and resources into producing the tires for the Nissan,” he continues. “And the thing that sticks out for me the most was how open the tire rules were, so everyone made ‘qualifying tires.’ Sometimes we would go through two or three sets of new tires in one session.

At Road America the tires lasted only one lap in qualifying, but they were four seconds a lap faster.


It was incredible, and it showed the commitment that Yokohama brought against other, bigger tire manufacturers.”Dale scored three wins during his time at Nissan, with the team scoring a total of 21 wins between 1990 and ’95. Yamauchi adds that the rear tire of the 300 ZX was the largest tire ever made for IMSA competition, at almost 29in tall, and the range of compounds produced for the Nissan included up to three wet-weather specs and five dry-weather options, highlighting the level of development needed to handle the powerful Nissan.A few years later, Yamauchi was out at dinner with his Yokohama colleagues in Corning, New York, during a race weekend at the Watkins Glen track when Giampiero Moretti came over to the table. “I didn’t know him at the time, but he says to us, ‘I’m not getting any younger, and I want to win at Daytona once. What can I do to convince Yokohama to make a tire for me?’” recalls Yamauchi. “He was driving the Ferrari 333SP, and I think he saw how consistent the lap times were from other cars riding on Yokohama. Consistency was always something that we strived for with our tires.”The move paid off, as Moretti finally got his long sought-after win in the Rolex 24 in 1998 and the Yokohama-shod MOMO Ferrari became indelibly etched in IMSA lore.In the tail wind of Moretti’s Daytona win, a new era in IMSA was dawning, and coinciding with it would be one of Yokohama’s most prolific partnerships in terms of wins.The BMW M3 was already one of the most successful GT cars in Europe, with many of its wins coming on Yokohama tires. When BMW tabbed PTG to race the third-generation M3
in IMSA, Yokohama also got the call. Between 1995 and 2006, the PTG BMW went on to win 53 races – all on Yokohama. Of those, two stand out in the mind of Boris Said who, along with Bill Auberlen and Hans-Joachim Stuck, was a regular driver for the team.

“When we won the (GT3) class at Daytona in 1998, we were able run the R19 compound qualifying tire during the night,” recalls Said. “They lasted for a full stint and still had a few seconds advantage over the race tire that we ran when the sun was up.



“The other win that really stands out for me was when we finally beat the Schnitzer M3 for the first time at the Portland ALMS race in 2001. That was a really sweet win for us, because Schnitzer was the lead factory team and they were running on another brand of tires that everyone seemed to think were the ones to have. We did a lot of development work with Yokohama that year and it finally paid off at that race.”Over the years of IMSA competition, it would be more than fair to say that Yokohama has always punched above its weight, considering that other brands involved have been much larger companies.


As Yamauchi says, “We always tried to think differently in order to find an advantage.” Which they did, all the way to the winner’s circle in some of IMSA’s biggest races.

By: Marshall Pruett | February 21, 2019 4:30 PM For a half century, IMSA has been the conduit through which top-level North American sports car racing has flowed. In that time, a lot of history and a lot of memories have been made. Here are a few thoughts and recollections from eight drivers who’ve all made their mark in IMSA.HURLEY HAYWOOD
Five-time winner of the Rolex 24 At Daytona, two-time 12 Hours of Sebring victor, and a double IMSA GTU class champion.Say “Hurley,” and you’re pretty much saying IMSA, too. One man, one organization, linked together in sports car racing perpetuity.The first really serious race Peter Gregg and I competed in was the first sports car race IMSA held, at VIR in 1971. We won the race. I was based in Fort Lee, Virginia, but getting out of the military, so that was a pretty monumental career steppingstone, winning that first IMSA race. I’m proud of what IMSA stands for and what it started off being. Back then, Peggy and (IMSA founder) John Bishop were sort of mom and dad at the race track. John didn’t like what the SCCA was doing, so he started his own organization with the help of Bill France Sr., and away they went. They told the ACO to go screw themselves, “We’re going to set our own rules up,” and they were such good rules that everybody came onboard. It’s really great to be able to be with an organization for that long.IMSA has been part of my whole entire life. And even though it’s had a couple different owners and different directions, it’s always been a major player. I’m just thankful that it’s back under one roof and the Frances have bought IMSA and are creating some great races now.Even though, we had Grand-Am and some other series going in different directions for a while, really, it’s all the same group, the same players, that all came back to square one. I started with IMSA and I ended my career with them. It makes me proud that I’ve been there from the beginning to the end.

DAVID HOBBS
A truly versatile racer, with Formula 5000 and Trans-Am titles, and starts in Formula 1, the Indy 500 and 20 times at the 24 Hours of Le Mans just part of his résumé.


In IMSA, the irrepressible “Hobbo” spans the rich mid-1970s scene filled with titanic GT combat, through the peak of GTP ferocity, and usually with a certain Bavarian manufacturer whose presence continues to be felt today.

One way and another, I did a hell of a lot of IMSA races, and my time with BMW covered the majority of it, starting back in 1976. I’ve got so many great memories of it. I had a massive pole position run at Sebring; broke the lap record there by about four seconds. And everybody thought I was cheating, said I missed a couple of corners… Of course, that BMW 320i Turbo was definitely not suited for a 12-hour run, that’s for sure. And we dropped out of the race. But we had some pretty good times with that car.

Oh gosh, my first win in IMSA came at Mid-Ohio in 1977. And another great moment was the penultimate race of the year at Laguna Seca that same season. I had a terrific battle with Al Holbert, who had his Chevy Monza there. Of course the Monza had much more grunt than the BMW because, in that first year in particular, we had terrible turbo lag because of that great big turbocharger and that little engine.

I overtook Al pretty much on the last lap coming down through the Corkscrew. Then you came around the left-hander, then down to the right-hand sweeper and then into the hairpin to fire up the straight to the checkers. I overtook him around the outside of that right-hander and I always thought that old Al could’ve just eased me off the track into that wall in a heartbeat. But that’s not how we used to race in those days. You didn’t just push everybody off the track. Anyway, I won the race, so that was terrific.



But I suppose the most memorable day when we raced the 320i Turbo was Derek Bell and I winning the Pabst 500 at Road America in 1979. We’d thought long and hard about even doing it, because the BMW was quick, but longevity was not its finest attribute.

And then my first prototype year with BMW was in 1981. It was a real
flop with that awful March M1C with a six-cylinder in it. It was absolutely no match for the Lola T600 and the V8s.

But then we came back in 1986 with the second prototype March. And by that time, its engine had gone through more development. It was based on the four-cylinder, turbocharged Formula 1 engine and gave 1,000hp. I mean, it gave like 900hp in race trim. We won Watkins Glen in that car. Simply magic, it was.

STEVE MILLEN
Two-time IMSA GTS class champ and the overall winner of the 1994 Rolex 24 At Daytona and 12 Hours of Sebring.

The versatile New Zealander was in his element with IMSA’s silhouette GTO cars, using his prodigious car control to tame GTP-engined tubeframe concoctions bearing the Nissan name beginning in the late 1980s.

IMSA racing was extremely good for my career. The seven years that I had with Nissan in IMSA were terrific, because we developed a car from scratch to where we got it to lead laps, win pole positions and then win races.

The other thing is that IMSA did a pretty good job of parity with the GTO cars. You’d have a rotary Mazda RX-7, and you’d have a Roush Cougar with either a four-cylinder turbo or naturally-aspirated V8, and you’d have an Audi with a five-cylinder turbo motor, or whatever, and the parity in the cars, plus the power and the weight and all that, was amazing.

You could get four different combinations of car and engine qualifying within a quarter of a second of each other. So for me, it made it technically very, very interesting. Then that would then parlay into a race strategy, because we often used to fight with the Mazdas, which had decent lap times, not necessarily the top speed, but they were
very light, which was a huge advantage.

They would often go with a very soft tire, whereas we would have to stick with a more durable harder tire. Often, the Mazdas would disappear at the beginning of the race, but at the end of the race it came back to a fight to the checkered flag. There was a lot of really interesting stuff going on in IMSA GTO racing that maybe gets overlooked historically.

Later, GTS was fun, too. Winning at Daytona in 1994 with the 300ZX was very special.

CHIP ROBINSON
1987 IMSA GT champion and Rolex 24 At Daytona winner; 1989 12 Hours of Sebring winner.

Chip Robinson made waves in junior open-wheel racing, tried his hand in Indy car, and finally found a home in IMSA as the GTP series rose from its privateer roots to all-out factory wars.

One of the really great races for me was winning at the Daytona season finale in ‘86, my last race with Bob Tullius and the Group 44 Jaguar team. That was actually my first IMSA win and it was Bob’s last race. As a driver, that just meant an awful lot to me because Bob had given me the opportunity to have a professional career as a driver.

From there I went straight on to drive for Al Holbert. There was something really special about doing that with Bob, and then getting the chance to drive for the Holbert Racing team – the best in GTP – and win the 1987 drivers’ championship. And, of course, the next race after the finale with Bob was the Daytona 24 with Al, and we won that, too. That was cool.

WAYNE TAYLOR
As a driver, he’s a multiple IMSA WSC title-winner, 2005 Grand-Am champ and a two-time Rolex 24 At Daytona winner. His eponymous Wayne Taylor Racing squad continues to be one of IMSA’s benchmark teams in the prototype ranks.

Taylor’s first chapter was written at home in South Africa and throughout European sports car racing. His move to the U.S. penned a second chapter that contains championships and wins at every major event as a driver and team owner, and shows no signs of being completed.

When I came to America in ’89, at the end of my Group C program, I did three GTP races for Spice. And getting to race in front of Geoff Brabham and Davey Jones and Jaguars and Toyotas and Nissans and factory cars was electric. I was in a privateer car when I got that first call, and then I suddenly realized how much I loved this country. I said to myself, “I’m going to do whatever it takes to come back here.”

And then the next thing was obviously getting an invite to come race with Jim Miller and General Motors in 1991. Wow, that Intrepid GTP is still probably one of the most spectacular cars I’ve ever driven.

Soon after that, I won my first championship in 1994 with Jim Downing and the Kudzu, but we didn’t win a race. So while I was excited, I was disappointed that I hadn’t won a race, but so many other achievements came in the latter part of the 1990s. All from staying here with my wife Shelley, raising our boys here.

So I had a championship in 1994, another in ’96, and in 2005, my last championship, I was 49 years old and I thought, “You know, man, I just can’t believe that all these things have happened like this for me.”

And then I went into team ownership, and that was a whole new world for me. And now my sons are champions and continuing the tradition in IMSA for the Taylors. I am so humbled by what I’ve been given.

GEOFF BRABHAM
IMSA GTP class champion in 1988, ’89, ’90 and ’91, and a two-time 12 Hours of Sebring winner.

The son of Aussie F1 champ Sir Jack took IMSA by storm in the late 1980s with the sublime Electramotive Nissan team, reeling off those four consecutive championships and setting a consecutive win streak that still stands.

The old GTP cars were incredibly fast, quite dangerous for some of the tracks we ran on, and very unforgiving. However, I would do it all over again as the thrill of driving such a high-powered, high-downforce car is something I’ll never forget. They were the last of the dinosaurs and I’m very grateful to have been given the chance to be successful in that era. The lap times don’t lie when you compare todays cars to those awesome beasts.

The race that gave me the most satisfaction was the 1990 Road America round. It started to drizzle around the back half of the track just before the last pit stop, and I didn’t know whether to stay on slicks or change to wets. I made the decision coming down pit road to stay on slicks, but not change them so they were still hot when I left the pits. Most of my rivals changed to wets; I was really slow in the wet parts, but very fast around the rest of the track that had stayed dry.

Luckily, a couple of people who were chasing me spun and I managed to keep it on the black stuff and win the race. The heavens opened up on the slow down lap. People said it was a gutsy call, but it was a decision based on total mental confusion on my part!

BUTCH LEITZINGER
A three-time Rolex 24 At Daytona race winner and the holder of IMSA titles in GTU (1993) and WSC (1997 and ’9.

The son of sports car legend Bob Leitzinger laughs at the notion of being received as “IMSA royalty.” His wins and titles in the hotly-contested GTU category and similar success in the post-GTP World Sports Car formula would suggest his crown is duly deserved.

Being there with my dad when he was racing, and then for 20 or 30 years when I was driving in IMSA, I suppose when I look back I’m reminded that we were probably having the most fun of anyone as a racing family through those times.

My favorite behind the wheel times would have been 1997 or so, with the Riley & Scott Mk III. That car was great. We had fantastic competition against the Ferraris, with Giampiero Moretti’s and Andy Evans’ teams, and Wayne Taylor had the other Riley & Scott.

We just kept making our car better and better; Pat Smith was our crew chief and he had a great feel for what the car needed. That was one of the great things about the Dyson Racing team, because they were always willing to fiddle with a car and just make changes with it. It wasn’t just something where they just bought parts off the shelf and that was what we had. You know, we were always trying different suspension geometry and things like that. Everyone was really working at the top level and a lot of success came to us as a result. Such a fantastic time for sports car racing.

OLIVER GAVIN
A five-time American Le Mans Series class champion and five-time 12 Hours of Sebring class winner – not to mention the GT ace’s five 24 Hours of Le Mans class wins.

The complete package is found within the Englishman who turned his attention to the States in the early 2000s and continues to serve up championships and the grandest of endurance victories for Corvette Racing.

If I think of IMSA, I think of the headquarters at Daytona. And when I think about Daytona, I think about the GT Le Mans class win we had there in 2016. It was an absolutely unbelievable race with a titanic finish between Antonio Garcia in the other Corvette and I for those last 10, 12 laps…really racing as hard as we could to the finish. It summed up Corvette Racing and the way everyone goes about their work within the team.

We try to get every last thousandth of a second out of the cars – the strategy that goes into it, the work behind the scenes, and the preparation of the cars and team well before the start of a race week. You can filter all that down through the last 10 laps.



Anyway, when someone says IMSA to me, that 2016 finish is what I think about. It was special for me of course, and a dream finish for the team. I remember getting out of the car and seeing the smile on Gary Pratt’s face.

When I first started racing in the UK, the Daytona 24 Hours was about the likes of Derek Bell, Bob Wollek, James Weaver, Andy Wallace, the TWR Jaguars, the amazing GTP cars. The racing was fast, aggressive and tough. You would see guys pouring themselves out of a car after a stint, soaked in sweat from giving it everything. The cars were absolute brutes to drive, but they were amazing to watch – the raw power, the downforce, the size of the tires.

To get the most out of those cars at that time, you had to get in and drive them very, very hard. It definitely was a golden era looking back on it. In fact, it was definitely one of the motivations for me to come to the United States and start competing over here.

Mistertbones