Road Atlanta is an annual amateur racing event held in Atlanta, recognized as one of the world’s best road courses. In 1969, David Sloyer, Earl Walker and Arthur Montgomery created the track for Road Atlanta in an old farmer’s field.
Road Atlanta was sold in 1978. Its current owner, the Panoz Motor Sport Group has spent millions of dollars renovating the building and track at Road Atlanta.
This particular Road Atlanta race was very interesting because the racers were competing against Mother Nature as well. The rain impaired the drivers’ vision, but they were still determined to compete.
“The morning silence was pierced by the sound of well- tuned, high performance engines,” said Todd Daniel, former associate editor of The Sentinel.
Road Atlanta consists of a series of 5 races, but the weather permitted 4 of those races to happen. Each racer has to participate in a qualifying race to compete in one of the individual races.
The first race offered little excitement. Driver Walt Bohren, who placed fourth in the preliminary trials, secured the victory within 12 minutes of the race with a record speed of 35.24 seconds.
The second race of the day was the Kelly Girl Challenge. Daniel said the race “proved to be more exciting” because former Atlanta Road champion, Gene Felton and Smyrnan Clay Young were going neck and neck for first place. Young was the only person to ever defeat Felton in competition, but failed to receive a victory.
Driver Jim Busby’s BMW Mach M-1 lost control in the third race. Avoiding a pile up, Busby put his car in reverse and regained control of the car. Co-owner of Road Atlanta, Dale Whittington won the race.
Even though Whittington won the race, spectators were in awe to see Busby speeding backwards down the track. The excitement reached its peak during the final race.
Mother Nature took total control. Rain severely limited vision, causing most drivers to follow the tail lights in front of them. Drivers without rain tires were at an even greater risk of an accident.
“By the end of the race, dozens of helpless autos lay strewn along the track,” said Daniel.
The race initially started with 68 cars, but only 37 were able to make it across the finish line. Driver Rob McFarlin made it across the finish line with an average speed of 69 mph. It took a great amount of skill to navigate through horrible weather conditions.
For more information about Road Atlanta and the different events and races happening around Atlanta, visit roadatlanta.com.
