GTP: Rolex 24 Retrospective

Enjoy a collection of Rolex 24 photos from our archives, with images ranging from 1985 to 1993.

(To see the full-sized images in each gallery, click the icon at the bottom right on the menu bar.)

GTP: Laguna Seca IMSA Broadcast Compilation

The 2009 American Le Mans Series just came to a close at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, and in honor of that thrilling season finale, let’s take a look back at some of the exciting IMSA GTP races from the classic track’s past.

All videos are courtesy of the American Le Mans Series.

We’ll start with the 1985 edition.

GTP: 1985 Laguna Seca Race Broadcast from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

1986

GTP: 1986 Laguna Seca IMSA GTP Race Broadcast from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

1987

GTP: 1987 Laguna Seca Race Broadcast from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

1993

GTP: 1993 Laguna Seca Race Broadcast pt1 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: 1993 Laguna Seca Race Broadcast pt2 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: Wheels Of Fortune

They were the wheel of choice in the IMSA GTP series and remain the wheel of preference today in the American Le Mans Series. What started as an original equipment supplier association with Porsche’s GTs and Prototypes turned into one of the few common threads of the most diverse sportscar series of the seventies, eighties, and nineties.

Cars, teams, and drivers changed, but look across the various history books about the IMSA series, and BBS wheels were the dominant choice from Porsche 935 to the Toyota Eagle Mk III.

I first fell in love with the look of BBS wheels with those 935s; the gold, webbed wheel centers were dramatic; they looked equally as fast at rest as in motion. If other wheel manufacturers only cared about low weight and high strength, BBS recognized that aesthetics were equally important.

They ticked all the boxes for lightness and durability, so why not go the extra step to design wheels that looked less like appliances and more like pieces of art? Why not sell a wheel that complimented the flowing likes of a sportscar.

In America, BBS had (and still has) John Slagle and Craig Donnelly to thank for supporting the burgeoning IMSA series when it transitioned from a well kept secret into the monster series that dominated its era.

For Donnelly, a BBS employee since January 1st, 1980, and Slagle, rescued from the road car division in early ’86, the days supporting GT and GTP racing came less by choice and more by necessity.

“Back at that time we had a lot of the guys that came into the GTP cars were coming out of the 935 Porsches,” said Donnelly, “they were Group C cars from Europe which, obviously, BBS had already been making wheels for. And a lot of the car manufacturers that were based in England like March and Lola; we had relationships with that we just continued those relationships here with already existing teams that we were servicing.

“But because we were doing racing service and we were already at 20 plus events a year, there really wasn’t anyone else that was as visible. So it made it pretty easy to build our brand in IMSA.”

Slagle landed at BBS at a time where the quality of their wheels stood out in the series. “One of the things I think that was important in that era was that if you really looked at it, as those cars evolved there weren’t many wheel manufacturers that they could go to. You can either use a one-piece wheel manufacture like Dymag or Speedline but they were very expensive then; they weren’t very service friendly. And BBS became, especially in the States, the trusted wheel supplier because the supply of once-piece wheels here was very difficult.”

Once BBS became established as ‘the wheel’ to have, sportscar manufacturers began to lean on the Braselton, GA operation to manufacture lighter and stronger units. As downforce spiked and lightweight chassis construction materials became popular, wheels went from being an afterthought to a major area of performance to exploit. As BBS modified their wheels to keep pace with the rampant development in wind tunnels and autoclaves, their rivals tried to attract BBS’ customers with promises of better wheels. Donnelly recalls it didn’t always go as smoothly as their competitors had hoped.

“Teams were always looking for that edge. So there were guys that would bring in some stuff from Europe here to race on. And they would fail here because the racing conditions in America, on our tracks, especially in GTP, was much different than Group C in Europe, which were tabletop-smooth race tracks. Where in this country, we were brutalizing stuff on these cars here. Plus the GTP cars would run with downforce, I think, that had developed way beyond what they were doing for that in Europe. So we saw situations even on our products here, we saw stress factors in North America that they did not see in Europe.

“We were giving feedback to BBS Germany to develop parts at a faster rate; as cars developed, tires improved, suspensions improved, aerodynamics improved, more downforce – then you have to also upgrade wheels to deal with the additional stress. And this is a standard thing that you do throughout the evolution of certain racing series. But with this, we were the ones pushing that to Europe, not Europe saying this is the latest spec stuff for us to use.”

Donnelly would grow accustomed to a difference in opinions between BBS Germany and BBS USA. “The term ‘Heavy American Air’ became kind of a standard when we were discussing things with the Germans then. Because we were giving them stress and downforce load numbers like nothing they were seeing in Group C, they said it was all due to the heavy American air, which created more downforce and more stress and all this. That was kind of humorous.”

The fallacy of ‘Heavy American Air’ would come to light in 1992 at Road Atlanta when both Nissan GTP cars suffered spectacular tire failures resulting in gravity defying barrel rolls. The sheer violence of both incidents actually helped Donnelly and Slagle to get their parent company’s attention.

“Fortunately, Goodyear found out about the ‘Heavy American Air’ with the Nissans,” Slagle said. “After those crashes I think Germany had a greater respect for what we were trying to deal with because Nissan admitted to Goodyear that the downforce numbers they supplied them were inaccurate. It shed a whole different light on what we were dealing with and made Germany sit up and listen when we told them our cars had greater needs than what they were used to.”

Decades after their first involvement in the IMSA series, the two men can’t help but wax nostalgic about the times and the cars. Their look back into the series also reminded Slagle that while times have changed, many things have stayed the same.

“When you compare it to today, the funds were so much lower, the cars were really cool. Competition was fabulous. But it was much more low key in that one team could party with the other team and things of that nature. But from the work aspect, when I look back on it, it’s really kind of comical because we would pull up in a minivan that we rented and we’d be back there schlepping wheels. We didn’t even have an air gun to assemble or disassemble wheels; we were taking them apart with a speed handle!

“And it’s really funny because everybody used to laugh: you’re back here in a rental car fixing wheels – and yet last year I was in Salt Lake City for the Rolex finale and we were doing virtually the same thing! Okay, we have a Snap-on air ratchet now but in a lot of ways things hadn’t really changed. The products changed and evolved but a certain part of it really hasn’t. I can’t remember who it was, somebody was laughing, ‘You’ve been doing this for like 20-something years, we thought you’d change.’ And I think back on it and yeah, it’s been over 20 years. And we’re still doing it…”

GTP cars – no matter the manufacturer — were usually found on gold BBS wheels. The color was a perfect fit for the various cars they were fitted to, but as Donnelly recalls, it wasn’t a choice.

“Gold. Standard BBS color. Everything was gold. There were no 962s that I know of that ever left that shop other than gold. I don’t think we even did black…you could have pretty much any color as long as it was gold…”

If gold was the traditional color, the cross-spoked wheel design was also a BBS trademark. “You know, that cross-spoke design was spawned out of a number of different racing center ideas but at that time it had the best stiffness-to-weight ratio of anything going,” Donnelly offered. “The only thing you could compare it to, weight wise and was lighter, were the trick Speedline monoblocs that were hollow-spoked.

“Our wheel centers actually had hollow chambers inside. They use a loss type system in the casting and you’d actually have a hollow chamber inside there. It even had a Porsche part number on the wheel center. It was a 956 part number in those days. But it was definitely developed with Porsche directly. We used that technology for years to come with our customer products in GTP, and a lot of other companies tried to copy them with little success.”

Another unique visual from the GTP days were ‘wheel fans,’ first seen on Porsches (that I can recall) and soon requested by the majority of BBS’ clients. Donnelly found most GTP teams were trying to keep up with each other, asking BBS to sell them what they’d seen on their rivals cars without always understanding if it would help or hinder their own cars.

“The fans were really kind of comical because in some cars, depending on the aero package that they ran, they didn’t work at all,” said Slagle. “It became a bit of a game, especially – I know we’re talking about GTPs but we were so prominent in Trans Am and IMSA GTO back then – but really in the saloon cars it was funny because depending on the package they had on the car or whatever, they might help cool the brakes, they might help aero wise, they might not do anything, they might even be a negative!

“And so whoever was leading or winning in the series, we had all these little games being played by their competitors and people would be trying to copy them. They’d say, ‘It had to be the fans!’ So they’d put fans on the car too. We had crew chiefs talking our ears off trying to find out how the fans would help their individual cars, but because all of the chassis were different and had different aero concepts, we had no answers for them. It was all just head games. But it was all part of the fun of the series.”

Wheel fans made their way into other series – notably on the fearsome Audi Quattro Trans-Am cars. Donnelly smiled when recounting the extremes Audi went to in crafting their own fans. “Audi spent more money developing the cooling cones than they did buying wheels! BBS didn’t develop those cooling cones. That was developed in the wind tunnel – actually through some universities – with Audi and they were basically trying to evacuate any air underneath the car. It wasn’t about cooling brakes; it was about getting everything out from beneath the car. For a lot of the other guys, though, you couldn’t always have a logical conversation with someone about the actual benefits. They were going to do what they were going to do and they believed they were going to get the benefit out of it, one way or another.”

BBS used aluminum to make wheels for many years, eventually developing a one-piece wheel that became popular in the GTP series, but when Nissan came asking for the same wheel to be made from a lighter alloy, BBS obliged, even if the costs seemed astronomic at the time.

“They went to the one-piece wheels only because of weight,” said Donnelly. “And then Nissan bought the one-piece magnesium wheels they were commissioned from us. For us, we were like, ‘That’s a lot of money!’ But at the same time, if they were spending to save three pounds of unsprung weight, it was worth it to them And how much money would you have to have stacked up to buy the engineering and build the components to take that weight off elsewhere? It was a no-brainer for them.”

“Back then I think a three-piece on that car was somewhere around $1300, something like that. And that would have been with all the best components that we could muster up at that point. For the magnesium one-piece, add about another 50% added on and that was the price and we were kind of almost like shell-shocked and embarrassed to try to quote that price. And then the reality, I guess, when you look back on it they were burning so much money it didn’t matter. That was actually pretty cheap.”

ALMS: 1998 Petit Le Mans Program

Take a gander inside the program for the what’s recognized as the first (unofficial) race for the American Le Mans race, the inaugural Petit Le Mans event held at Road Atlanta in 1998. While the 1999 12 Hours of Sebring owns the distinction of being the first official ALMS event, the ‘Little Le Mans’ from the previous year set into motion the series we know today.

The newly renovated Braselton, Ga. track played host to the first event that married the cars and rules conforming to ACO regulations to the vision of Don Panoz for an American-based series for Le Mans-spec cars to have a home.

Run just five years after the close of the GTP era, the first ALMS race could be considered a bridge between IMSA’s past and future. Petit 1998 featured GTP’s replacement, World Sports Car (WSC), and the Le Mans Prototype (LMP1), and before long, WSC gave way to the LMP cars of today.

And as you’ll see inside, more than a decade later, many of the same faces are present for the 2009 edition of Petit Le Mans.

(Courtesy of the American Le Mans Series)

(To see the full-sized images in each gallery, click the icon at the bottom right on the menu bar.)

GTP: Mosport 1981

You’re starting last at Mosport in the newest, fastest machine on the sportscar scene, the Lola-T600.

You have six hours to slice through the three dozen cars, so time isn’t a major concern, but with the grid filled with bullet-like Porsche turbos, making it to the front won’t be the easiest of undertakings. Throw into the mix that like most tracks of this time, the daunting, brutally fast circuit has yet to receive many of the safety measures we take for granted today, and the race appears to have more chances for calamity than success.

Welcome to the world of sportscar legend Brian Redman and co-driver Eppie Wietzes, sharing the yellow #7 Cooke-Woods Racing car 28 years ago this month.

On that day in Mosport — August 16th, 1981 — Porsche prevailed as veterans Rolf Stommelen and Harald Grohs piloted their Andial Meister 935 to victory, despite a storming drive by Redman and Canadian Trans-Am veteran Wietzes to take second place.

After years of road car-themed Porsches, namely the 935 silhouettes, Lola unveiled the first serious alternative to GT racing (then classified as ‘GTX’) by bringing a real GTP solution to North America.

Facing a large horsepower deficit, Redman and Wietzes used all of the power their 5.7L Chevy V-8 had to offer, and relied heavily on the Lola’s advanced aerodynamics and superior downforce to scythe through the competition.

While it was still early in its development at Mosport, the T600’s massive underwing and sleek shape fulfilled everything IMSA founder John Bishop hoped the new GTP regulations would represent.

Thanks to the Lola, Porsche 935 owners knew their best days were behind them.

Many of the great sportscar names from the period were there at Mosport — Derek Bell in a Porsche 934, David Hobbs and Hans Stuck in a BMW M1, Hurley Haywood sharing a Bayside 935 with team owner Bruce Leven, Bobby Rahal and Gianpiero Moretti in their Momo-liveried 935, Bob Akin and Skeeter McKitterick in their Coke 935…Porsche icon Bob Garretson…Jim Busby and John Fitzpatrick…Spanish racer ‘Jamsal’…it was a packed grid.
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The locals were also well represented, with esteemed Canadian driver Bill Adam in the race (driving a brutish Camaro), along with Uli Bieri, Ludwig Heimrath Jr. and Sr., and a large contingent of skilled professionals and enthusiastic gentlemen racers.

Look beyond the heavy hitters, and a few mechanical oddities made their way onto the grid — Porsche 914/6s, and even (take a deep breath) a Triumph TR-8!

Five wins in the GTP-class Lola helped to deliver the 1981 IMSA GT driver’s crown to Redman, yet Porsche’s sheer numbers meant Lola would have to settle for second in the manufacturer’s contest.

Enjoy this 38 minute highlight reel of the event — Redman’s Lola makes extensive use of in-car footage during the race — well ahead of its time in 1981.

Learn more about the ALMS by visiting www.AmericanLeMans.com.

(Video courtesy of the American Le Mans Series)

GTP: 1981 Mosport IMSA GT Race Broadcast from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: Hotchkis At The Historics

Evolving from the all-conquering 956, the Porsche 962 made its debut at the 1984 Daytona 24 Hours and immediately showed incredible potential. Hotchkis Racing purchased the Porsche-commissioned Fabcar tub #962F01 from Holbert Racing in the summer of 1986, and has owned it ever since. As a kid, I remember staring through the same chain-link fence (which separated pit lane from the paddock area at almost every race track), watching my father John, co-driver Jim Adams and various other drivers — Chris Chord, Rob Dyson, Bob Kirby and my older brother John — all pilot the flame-belching purple Wynn’s car.

From the tight confines of the streets of Miami to the high banks at Daytona, the Hotchkis Racing 962 served as a dependable warhorse and never disappointed.

Today, the car lives in a deep, dark storage in Southern California, rarely seeing the light of day except for those one-time special events like the Rennsport Reunion and of course, the Rolex Monterey Historics. When we received our acceptance for the 962 at this year’s event, it was time to awaken the beast, dust her off and shake her down at a local track. All systems were go and considering the brief on-track time during the Historic weekend, we decided new tires would be a unnecessary, so we utilized our Goodyear rubber from the Rennsport Reunion in 2007.

Once we arrived at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca and settled-in, it was time to head out for our first of two practice sessions. Our Porsche 962 is a 3.2ltr air-cooled single Garret turbo car, as opposed to a twin turbo water-cooled car. The engine is maintained by Porsche Motorsport North America and features the twin plug ignition of the later IMSA air-cooled 962’s, as opposed to the early single-plug, side intercooler engine. There is no mistaking an air cooled 962 engine as it warms up in the paddock. It tends to spit, shake and rumble at idle but is very crisp at the same time. For all of roughness while warming up, it clears up once it’s revved and the whine of the powerful horizontal fan takes over — almost like a supercharger sound.

Call me demented, but I could listen to the engine struggle at idle all day long – it’s too cool!

What is it like to drive a Porsche 962 at speed during the Historics? Although my time behind the wheel of this car is quite limited, it is without a doubt one of the most comfortable and confidence-inspiring race cars ever manufactured. As I slip down into the cockpit, I immediately recognize the well-planned ergonomics, all controls at my finger tips and a seat that anyone could easily fall asleep in.

Operating the 962 is quite simple: strap in, adjust the mirrors, take a deep breath then turn the key to start the engine. That’s right, the 962 utilizes a keyed ignition right out of a 911! Once the engine has lit, cockpit noise is dominated by the whirl of the horizontal fan. Select first gear — over to the left — pull back, and we’re off. The 962 uses a five speed synchro transmission with second through fifth gears set on a standard H-pattern. Accelerating up to speed, the engine’s fan gets drowned-out by the building turbo pressure and raw grunt of the Porsche flat-six.

Boost builds progressively and not at all like an on/off switch which one may think would be the case if they simply looked at the size of the turbo. Under hard acceleration, at 70 inches of mercury, it sounds as though an early-style jet engine is chasing from behind, but as the throttle is cracked for the next braking point, the twin wastegates make an instant loud chirp through the exhaust primary.

Our ten lap race for this year’s Historic was far too short. It should really be fifty minutes to an hour, or at least a fuel tank’s worth of running! We started on pole with Gunnar Jeannette alongside in the Kremer K8. Approaching the flag stand on the front straight it’s typical to hold the brake pedal with your left foot and build some boost with the right foot. At the green flag we both accelerated pretty well but I probably should have made it a second gear start instead of spinning the rears in first gear, but it all worked out entering Turn 2. Gunnar applied the pressure into the brake zones and through the turn-in points as I struggled for front grip.

The Hotchkis 962 utilizes a spool instead of a limited-slip differential and I still have not adjusted to it. This setup requires an aggressive corner entry with some rear brake bias to help rotate the car, and then to catch it with the throttle, otherwise the front end simply understeers too badly. For the first two or three laps Gunnar was right there, carrying monster corner speed while I was able to gap him in a straight line. As the pressures and temperatures began to build, the car came alive and I could get into a rhythm and concentrate on not making any mistakes and enjoying the brief time I had with such an incredible race car.

Aerodynamically and mechanically our car had good balance. The tunnels under the 962 really help with downforce and as speed builds the suction builds, and that is felt immediately through the steering wheel; it takes added effort to make even the slightest input. Braking during the race was pretty good. I don’t know if it was our old tires or the slick track or both but I would lock both the front and the rear separately at different brake points during the race. For example, I locked the inside front entering turn 2 and at the top of the corkscrew and locked the rears entering turn 11. Otherwise, the big Brembos hauled the car down at a good clip.

For the last four laps of the race I felt strong and mistake-free. Our car encountered traffic and simply sliced its way through, never skipping a beat and it gave me a chance to take it all in — the amazing engine sounds from behind me, the remarkable grip and ease of placement the 962 allows. Compared to other prototypes of the ‘80’s, the 962 is so comfortable and feels softly sprung without a lot of roll resistance so the knife-edge grip loss (common with other GTP cars) simply does not exist.

That’s probably the main reason why many drivers can step into this car and build confidence quickly – it’s that friendly. We went on to win the ten lap super-sprint and it all seemed to end almost as quickly as it began.

It was another race in the books for the Hotchkis 962 and I hate to say it, but now she’ll head back to the dark, dungeon-like storage facility. The purple beast will stay there until it’s time to be awakened again for another special Porsche event in the future.

GTP: Hotchkis Porsche 962 In-Car, Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: 1986 Porsche 962 Engine Warmup

If you listened to yesterday’s Porsche 956 engine warmup audio, you might have noted the slightly staccato, somewhat silky quality of the twin turbo 2.65L flat-6 motor.

Today it’s time to listen to that motor’s evil twin, the single turbo, air-cooled 3.2L motor in the back of Hotchkis Racing’s 1986 Porsche 962.

It pops, it growls, it snarls, and at times, it even rumbles like an American V-8.

We move our microphone around a bit to hear the different ancillaries — the turbo (at 1:06), the valvetrain (at 1:16) and the air cooling fan (at 1:53) to revel in the brilliance of Weissach’s iconic endurance powerplant.

GTP: 1986 Porsche 962 Engine Warmup from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: Porsche 956 Warmup Audio

Pick your choice of flat-6 please; do you prefer the staccato sounds of the 2650cc twin turbo, water-cooled motor in the 1983 Joest Racing Porsche 956, or do you like the rumbling, basso, dragster-like nature of the 3200cc single turbo, air-cooled German mill?

Take a listen to the twin turbo variant, and we’ll post the giant single turbo’s warmup tomorrow.

GTP: 1983 Porsche 956 Engine Warmup from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: Mazda’s Wailing Wankel: The 1992 RX-792P

I hope I’ll be able to hear the Mazda RX-792P this weekend as Patrick Dempsey’s pilots the car around Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca. I say that I hope I’ll be able to hear it because after my last encounter with the car seventeen years ago, I’m still mostly deaf from the experience.

The RX-792P might be the most unapologetic GTP car of all time. It was unapologetically loud, hot, and amazingly good looking. Penned by Can-Am and IndyCar engineer and designer Lee Dykstra, the RX-792P never achieved the success it was meant to on the racetrack, but in the worlds of marketing and corporate image, the silver GTP cars made a lasting impact.

Our friend “Mulsanne Mike” Fuller has some nice technical tidbits on the car at his site, and while we’ll soon have our own technical appraisal  some new in-car footage to offer, our focus for the Historics is to help Mazda’s fans relive the era when the RX-792P originally raced.

So, step back into 1992 with us and experience Mazda’s GTP effort through race broadcasts, a photo gallery and the RX-792P’s press kit.

(To see the fill-sized images, click the icon at the far right of the menu bar below)

1992 New Orleans GTP Race:

GTP: 1992 New Orleans IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt 1 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: 1992 New Orleans IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt 2 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

1992 Road Atlanta GTP Race:

GTP: 1992 Road Atlanta IMSA GTP Race Broadcast from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

And the final event for the RX-792P, the 1992 Del Mar GTP Race:

GTP 1992 Del Mar IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt 1 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: 1992 Del Mar IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt 2 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

While this video isn’t of the RX-792P, it is of Mazda’s win at Le Mans in 1991. (Video Courtesy of Mazda)

Le Mans: Mazda 1991, We Won the Day from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: Bob Akin Racing

One of the featured cars at the 2009 edition of the Monterey Historics is the Bob Akin Racing Porsche 962 from 1985. Piloted at the Historics by Bobby Akin Jr., the famous Coke-liveried 962 was resurrected after a frightening crash suffered by Akin Sr. when he was hit by a spinning John Paul Jr. at the 1985 Charlotte IMSA GTP race.

While Akin walked away unharmed, the same could not be said for his 962. After a long and careful restoration by renowned Porsche specialist Kevin Jeanette, Akin Jr., a successful IMSA racer in his own right (most notably while driving Jack Roush’s Ford Muston GTO cars), will give fans a great look at the red-and-white Porsche for the first time in almost 25 years.

In an interview I did this week with former Bob Akin Racing driver Hans Stuck, the two-time 24 Hours of Le Mans winner had nothing but fond recollections of his time spent racing for the Akins in the 1980s.

“I had a fabulous relationship with the Akin family. They became good friends for me because they were very smart about racing in IMSA, but they also brought very much closeness to the team. As they say, ‘our family is your family,’ and this is exactly how they treated me. Bob’s wife, his son, his daughters – they are all very special to me. His son Bobby and I still keep in touch and email each other!”

As a factory driver for Porsche, Stuck was responsible for the testing and development of the IMSA-spec 962, but it when Akin Racing inquired about assistance from a factory driver for their 935, Stuck was quick to accept the offer.

“An opportunity came through Mr. Jurgen Barth at Porsche, and I was asked if I wanted to drive a Porsche 935 for an important customer in the United States. The 935 fascinated me, so I said ‘Yes!’ immediately. This was the start of great times for us and for me especially. With the Porsche 962, Bob Akin Racing was a very serious team. Myself, Jo Gartner and Bob Akin did many races together, including what I think must be one of the team’s biggest successes, the win at the 12 Hours of Sebring in 1986. People ask me about this race victory today more than many other achievements in my career.”

Akin was well known as an IMSA team owner and driver, but Stuck made it clear that Bob Sr. was more than a businessman with a racing team. His driving skills were essential to the team’s success.

“Bob was a fantastic driver for what we call a ‘gentleman drivers.’ He was as fast as or faster than most of the drivers in the series — very, very good. He hired me and Jo Gartner as the professional drivers for the team and always knew best how to use us. He was a very smart businessman like that. He knew that his sponsors wanted the car to qualify as high as possible, so Bob never questioned this, never let his ego get in the way. Some team owners that also raced their cars insisted on qualifying, or starting the race because it made them feel important. Bob was never this way. He was very quick and very accomplished, but he allowed Jo and I to help the team when extra speed was needed. The trust we had in each other, and for us in him as our co-driver was magnificent.”

While Bob Akin passed away in 2002 at the age of 66 from injuries suffered while testing a Nissan GTP car at Road Atlanta, Stuck says he’s reminded of his old friend when he looks at the accomplishments of Akin’s son.

“Bobby is very much like his father. A very fast racecar driver and a very strong businessman. When we raced in GTP, Bobby was young but starting his own career in GTO and GTU. We even shared a car together at one race, a Porsche 944, and that was fun.

“My best memory of Bobby from those times was one night when we had dinner at the hotel we stayed at. Jo and Bobby were sharing a room across from mine, so I excused myself for a moment from the table, went and got a key to their room and turned up the heater to 95 degrees. We ate dinner for some time after that so it became very hot – like a sauna. When they opened the door it was like they were hit by the sun! They opened all the windows and kept the door open for quite some time so it could cool down and they could go to sleep. I still laugh when I think about this today!”

GrandTouringPrototype.com will have an in-depth video interview with Bobby Akin from the Monterey Historics, but in the meantime, enjoy the items below.

First is the 1985 Bob Akin Racing Press Kit.

(To see the fill-sized images, click the icon at the far right of the menu bar below)

(To see the fill-sized images, click the icon at the far right of the menu bar below)

Next, we have the 1985 Charlotte IMSA GTP race broadcast where Akin’s 962 was heavily damaged.

GTP: 1985 Charlotte IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt 1 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

GTP: 1985 Charlotte IMSA GTP Race Broadcast pt 2 from GrandTouringPrototype.com on Vimeo.

Finally, we have a brief photo gallery of the car in action in 1985 and from the Pre-Historics just last weekend. More photos will be added to the gallery over the weekend, so please check back.

(To see the fill-sized images, click the icon at the far right of the menu bar above)

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