|
|
 |
"Meet me at The Mitty!" sez racer/writer/ride mooch and self-proclaimed World's Fastest Novelist Burt "BS" Levy who will be signing and otherwise defacing copies of all of his books at the
|
|
Road Atlanta has always meant a lot to me... I remember going there back in the 70's to watch my friends and heroes race in the SCCA National Championships and dreaming that someday maybe I could afford (and that was the operative word..."afford") to race there myself. With a little help from a LOT of people, I finally did my first and only season of SCCA National racing in 1983, won four out of eight races and qualified for The Runoffs at Road Atlanta. And that was a really big deal back then! And the track proved every bit as thrilling, daunting and magnificent as I'd imagined. That's me up above in the ivory Alfa Spider at Turn Five. Unfortunately, I'd decided to build something a little bit "special" for The Runoffs (instead of going with what got me there in the first place!) and wound up ruining my "special" cylinder head thanks to a "you-can't-blame-anybody-but-yourself-asshole" assembly error. As I result, I spent The Week From Hell staggering around in mid-pack while guys I'd been running with all year long wound up on the podium. Phooey! But there was a lesson in it. And I flat fell in love with Road Atlanta! Thanks to one of those little twists of fate that wind up changing your life, I was back at Road Atlanta the following spring doing a story for AutoWeek on The Walter Mitty Challenge and the emerging vintage phenomenon. And I fell in love with that, too.... And a year after that, I was back at The Mitty at the wheel of one of my sponsor, friend and benefactor Joe Marchetti's 250 SWB Ferrari Belinettas (quite a switch from a showroom-stock Alfa and the real beginning of my ride-mooching writing career) and I wrote a story about that experience for AutoWeek, too (see below).
Thanks to a legion of trusting and perhaps gullible people, I've been fortunate enough to drive a lot of fabulous and not-so-fabulous cars at Road Atlanta over the years. And the track has never failed to reveal their true character. The late David Whiteside and I took his tiny, 1460cc/950-lb. 1959 Lotus 17 to a couple outright wins (and, eventually, a pair of season championships) in the HSR's Rolex Vintage Endurance Challenge. That's David on the left leading away from the start at Road Atlanta plus a shot at the bottom of the esses of one of our many epic Rolex battles with our friend Jack Boxstom's mighty Aston Martin DB4! |
|
 |
 |
We had some wonderful races (that's me, David and our wrench, great friend and occasional co-driver Steve Wesley on the podium at Road Atlana with Porsche pushers Jack Lewis and Bill Ferran) but, in a classic case of ill timing, we somehow managed to win the HSR's Rolex Vintage Endurance Championship before they started handing out Rolex watches to mark the accomplishment. Instead, we got the block of Baccarat crystal shown below. |
 |
I've enjoyed a lot of other great rides at Road Atlanta, too. Including several co-drives with "Super Dave" Bondon and his speedy daughter Stacey in the infamous (and indecently fast!) Splinter Group Racing Morgan. Click HERE for an in-car video of me harassing Porsches with it at Road Atlanta!
And thanks to my great friends at Yesteryear Racing, I've gotten several co-drives in a couple of the Lotus X180R Turbo Esprits that copped the Bridgestone Supercar title back in the 80s. Great cars!
Had a fantastic co-drive with Rick Carlino in his Lee Chapman Racing cared-for Chevron B36 a few years back (always one of my very favorite cars!) where we took a nice 2nd overall in the fall enduro behind Travis Engen's Indy Lights car.
But maybe my all-time favorite was my co-drive in the pouring rain (aided by some REALLY good rain tires) at the 1997 Mitty with accomplished racer Gary Anderson in Ed Smith's thoroughly incredible Pinto From Hell! And I only include the results sheet because I'm bragging shamelessly. Please note who finished right behind us....
Probably my two scariest Mitty drives were in John Harden's incredibly fast and beautifully prepared Lister/Chevrolet (if they'd had this much power back in ze olt dayz, there woulda been a few more widows around) and my friend/track nemesis Jack Boxstom's awesome, Can-Am-seminal Sadler Mk. V/Chevy. You would not believe how light the front end of both of those things felt going over the back straight crest at 150+ before plummeting down towards the terrifying old Road Atlanta dip....
I've had a chance to drive a lot of other neat Vintage cars at Road Atlanta
But it was really something new & different for me when I got a "celebrity guest" drive in the SRT Viper Cup "pro" race at Road Atlanta last April with Cindi Lux's excellent Lux Performance team. Especially since my "celebrity guest" teammate was past NFL player and WWF pro wrestling star GOLDBERG....
SO STOP BY AND BUY A COUPLE BOOKS AT ROAD ATLANTA (I had to give the prize money to charity....)
|
|
If you've never read the utterly hilarious He'll be hearing from our lawyers shortly.
|
 |
|
Don't Forget our piggy banks! |
Catch the latest poop & pictures, the Jay Leno interview, Finzio's Store and the lurid & occasionally embarrassing "ride with Burt" in-car racing videos on the website at: |
|
 |