Fast-Lap Literature
Racer/Writers signing in the Gallery of Legends this weekend!
What every great racing story needs is a keyboard
and camera to capture it and preserve it as a slice
of motorsports history. And it’s best when the storytellers
are true insiders; genuine experts who know what it’s like
at trackside, in the pits, in the paddocks and press room
and even behind the wheel. The best motorsports books
capture the essence and excitement of the sport, and also
the human side, humor, heartbreak, luck and irony that
are so much a part of it. For the fourth year in a row, we
have some very special racing writers on hand to sign their
books and chat with fans in the Gallery of Legends tent
(located on The Midway adjacent to the Fan Zone, a new
location this year), where some of the great racing cars
from Sebring’s history are also on display.
Everyone involved in the sport knows David Hobbs, the
lanky and loquacious, now Florida-based Brit who started
racing in his mum’s Morris Oxford (he blew it up…twice!),
then advanced to his father’s XK120 Jaguar (he rolled that
one over!) but somehow survived those shaky baby steps to
forge a brilliant motorsports career. David drove everything
from Formula Junior to Formula One, Indycars and Can-
Am monsters, NASCAR stock cars and IMSA prototypes
and served as a key player on John Wyer’s iconic Gulf GT40
team at the height of their competitive glory.
He was recognized as a fast, sympathetic and reliable
driver who could take a car to the limit but also bring it
home, and that’s why Roger Penske picked him to partner
with Mark Donohue at the Sebring and Daytona in 1971.
Donohue put the Sunoco Ferrari 512 on pole at Daytona,
and the Donohue/Hobbs 512 was leading until an alternator
problem dropped them back, but they still managed
a 3rd place fi nish. Six weeks later, Donohue put the 512
on pole at Sebring with a new track record, but another
star-crossed race that
included an incident
with the Rodriguez
917 resulted in a 6th
place fi nish. But Team
Penske had seen what
David could do, and selected
him to chauffeur
their second car at the Indianapolis 500.
David proved equally at home with 500+ V8 horsepower
in either single-seaters, prototypes or sedans, and he duly
copped both the SCCA’s Formula 5000 (1971) and Trans-
Am (1983) season championships. And as if that wasn’t
enough, David embarked on a wildly successful parallel career
as a motorsports television commentator.
David’s rollicking and wonderfully illustrated autobiography
“Hobbo: Motor Racer, Motor Mouth,” resonates with the
experiences, adventures, triumphs, missed opportunities,
characters from mates and megastars to sneaks and slippery
scoundrels and all the highs, lows, limelight and dark
shadows that make up his racer’s life. Best of all, the book
refl ects David’s unique style, humor and personality on every
page. Pick up a copy for your home library this weekend.
David will be happy to sign and personalize it for you.
Burt “BS” Levy has been racing and writing about it for
almost 50 years. He saw his fi rst-ever world championship
motor race right here at Sebring in March of 1966, and
the bug bit him hard. “I was just a college kid on spring
break, pressed against the spectator fencing with my fi ngers
through the wire, dreaming that somehow, some way,
I was going to make it to the other side of those fences.”
He’s worked as a mechanic, a shop owner and a highend
used-car salesman (during which time he had a used
Rolls-Royce Silver Shadow convertible taken from him at
gunpoint during a test drive!) and he’s had quite a bit of
success as an amateur and vintage racer and driving instructor.
He’s also managed to “BS” his way into an incredible
variety of racecars…none of which he’s owned and few
of which he could ever dream of affording! He does it under
the thoroughly transparent pretext of “writing a magazine
story about them,” and his reputation as “the world’s
most successful ride mooch” is unchallenged.
Burt has track-tested and/or raced everything from Bugeye
Sprites, Bathtub Porsches and Formula Vees to Le
Mans-winning Ferraris, Ford GT40s and Mk. IIs. His columns
and stories about those experiences have won multiple
journalism awards, and this past summer his “Pure BS”
column in Vintage Motorsport magazine was honored as