[h=2]Bruce Leven 1938-2017[/h] Thursday, 21 September 2017
Image courtesy ISC Archives & Research Center)
Bruce Leven, a Seattle businessman whose privately entered Bayside Disposal Racing team drove to wins at the 12 Hours of Sebring, has died. He was 79.
Leven turned Bayside Disposaal, a one-truck waste-and-scrap hauling business, into a multi-state operation with 400 trucks and 500 employees by the time he sold the company in 1987. He purchased several other disposal and landfill businesses in the 1980s and operated them until he died on Sept. 15. But his love for racing and the Porsche marque led him to local SCCA competition, where he earned the 1977 B-Improved Production-class regional championship. He subsequently raced in the Trans-Am Series and was the 1979 Rookie of the Year, then moved into IMSA Camel GT competition with an ex-Brumos Porsche 935.
As a gentleman racing driver, Leven surrounded himself with international stars that led to the success of his privately-entered Bayside Disposal Racing team - including three victories in the 12 Hours of Sebring (1981, 1987, 198
. He enlisted such drivers as Peter Gregg, Hurley Haywood, Al Holbert, Scott Pruett, Hans Stuck, Bob Wollek and others to compete in the IMSA GT series in Porsche 935s and 962s, and Dominic Dobson and Jeff Andretti in Lola open-wheel racers in the CART Indy Car series.
In Leven's best-ever 1987 season his team earned six wins, with drivers Jochen Mass and Bobby Rahal finishing third and fifth in the IMSA championship despite entering only half the races. Three-time Le Mans winner Klaus Ludwig also contributed with a solo win. In 1988, Stuck, Klaus Ludwig and Sarel van der Merwe finished fourth in the Rolex 24 At Daytona in the No. 86 Texaco Havoline Porsche 962. Six weeks later, Stuck and Ludwig claimed the outright victory in the 12 Hours of Sebring, giving the team its second consecutive victory in the event.
Leven disbanded the racing team in the 1990s and turned his attention back to business. In his later years, Leven built customized cars and hot rods, winning multiple Best of Class wins at SEMA, the National Roadster Show and Goodguys Rod & Custom Association national events. His last project, a custom 1951 Ford Club Coupe, was chosen as the 2016 SEMA Grand Turismo Award winner and will appear in a future edition of Sony's PlayStation video game. The Ford has continued to rack up accolades across the U.S., including the Gene Winfield Award, three Goodguys Builders Choice Awards, Custom Rod of the Year finalist (Scottsdale Goodguys), PPG Dream Car and will be featured on the Jay Leno's Garage YouTube channel.