Imsa 50 Years

In 1969, John Bishop and Bill France, Sr. acted on a collective vision to plot a new course for road racing in the United States. What began as a Formula Ford and Formula Vee race in October of 1969, quickly morphed into a sports car racing series that brought the aspirational cars people drove, or wished to drive, to compete on a racetrack.Thus the International Motor Sports Association, or IMSA as it is more commonly known, was founded, and not long after domestic and import car-makers took notice as did the leading sports car racing drivers from at home and abroad. Today, 50 years after Bishop and France hatched their plan over a glass or two of scotch, compelled by a shared passion to bring competitive racing for drivers and teams that would captivate fans and fuel the sale of sports cars in showroom across America, IMSA has stayed true to their vision.Along the way, there have been some twists. Yet, in whatever the form it was at the time, IMSA has undeniably produced a bounty of great sports car racing that often has witnessed the titans of the sport battle each other for supremacy. Today, IMSA continues to be a collection of legendary events contested by an international field of drivers and teams behind the wheel of the world¿s most illustrious automobile marques.Celebrating 50 years of IMSA, this book reacquaints us with just some of the people, cars and events through images and words from the sport¿s leading photographers and journalists that have played a role in creating IMSA¿s lore. Across these pages is journey of highlights and reminiscences, facts and possibly a tale or two to recall a fraction of what has transpired throughout IMSA¿s history, but will certainly inspire memories of your own.

In this behind the scenes book, Mitch Bishop and Mark Raffauf tell the inside story of how IMSA became a global powerhouse in just a few short years. It covers John Bishop's early life, his years at the SCCA and tells the story of how IMSA grew from humble beginnings in 1969 into the Camel GT Series, a circuit that became the most popular form of professional sports car racing in the world. This book is a must-read, for those interested in how it all happened and in learning critical management lessons still applicable in today's motor racing world.

In Porsche 911: 50 Years, bestselling author Randy Leffingwell celebrates a half-century of one of the world's premiere sports cars, focusing on the major themes that have defined Porsche's rear-engined wonder. Randy tells the whole story--design and development, racing and competition, engineering and technology, style and culture. All the iconic 911 models are included: the original 901 prototype that set the standard; the legendary RS models that made the little Porsche a dominant force on the world's racetracks; the infamous Turbo, the car that kept the performance flame alight during the dark, dismal decade of the 1970s; the fabled 959, the model that redefined the term "sports car"; the 993, last of the original air-cooled models; and the 996, 997, and 991, the liquid-cooled cars that brought the 911 into a new millennium. Beyond telling the story of the cars, Porsche 911: 50 years also spotlights the people behind them: Ferdinand "Butzi" Porsche, the son of legendary Porsche founder Ferdinand "Ferry" Porsche, who co-designed the instantly recognizable 911 shape; Peter W. Schutz, the Porsche CEO who saved the 911 from extinction; and Dr. Helmuth Bott, the engineering genius behind many of the groundbreaking technologies that have defined the 911, including fuel injection, turbocharging, and all-wheel-drive. Leffingwell also tells the story of the 911 community--the clubs and culture that surround the car. Together, all of these facets make Porsche 911: 50 Years the most essential book in any Porsche owner or fan's library.

Here, the authors focus on educators who dare to lead their schools, districts, universities, and educational organizations to new possibilities. The leadership practices of the individuals featured contribute significantly to craft knowledge and to the discourse on contemporary issues of educational leadership. These leaders develop collaborative decision-making processes, push the bureaucratic boundaries, claim power through politics, and live and lead from values. The authors contend that the leadership practices depicted reflect a redefinition of leadership that emanates from a constructive postmodern paradigm aimed at social reconstruction. These leaders are redefining leadership by integrating doing and being. This book is a report of the results of a collective qualitative inquiry into the leadership of eighteen impressive women educational leaders from Illinois, representing a diversity of roles, community sizes, institutional types, and racial perspectives. The chapters intertwine personal stories with the scholarship about leadership. No pseudonyms are used. Although several recent books have been published about the experiences of women as leaders, leadership studies have generally not included women or failed to point to women leaders as role models who could, even should, be emulated by leaders of both genders. It is past time to close the gender leadership gap in educational administration. This book will contribute to the ongoing redefinition of leadership and perhaps after reading this book leaders who dare will move themselves and our culture closer to gender inclusive perceptions of what leadership is and who leaders are.

Professional automobile racing has always been dominated by sanctioning bodies whose main goal was to ensure competition. That has meant seeing that cars are well matched--in body shape or chassis/engine combinations or engine size. But what about an all-out competition, in which one team's idea of the fastest race car could be pitted against another’s, regardless of mechanical “parity”? This was what the International Motor Sports Association’s (IMSA) Grand Touring Prototypes (GTP) race series was about. The Series ran from 1981 to 1993, and it was one of the most exhilarating racing experiences of all time. This book is the first to profile the amazing machines that resulted from the GTP’s flat-out competition among different--and passionate--ideas about what might be the fastest way around a track: the V-12 with its better ground-effect tunnels but higher center of gravity (CG); the flat six with its low CG but severely-restricted ground-effect tunnels; and others that employed elaborate wings and air dams. Here are the people behind this engineering free-for-all, the culmination of almost a century of automobile racing experience. And here are eighteen of the most competitive vehicles they designed. Using photography, diagrams, drawings and first-person accounts from the men who built them, Inside IMSA's Legendary GTP Race Cars offers a detailed look at the technology that drove some of the world’s most exciting race cars, the likes of which may never be seen again.

The amazing and dramatic story of Bill Lester, one of the most well-known NASCAR drivers in history—and a pioneer whose determination and spirit has paved the way for a new generation of racers. Winning in Reverse tells the story of Bill Lester whose love for racing eventually compelled him to quit his job as an engineer to pursue racing full time. Blessed with natural talent, Bill still had a trifecta of odds against him: he was black, he was middle aged, and he wasn’t a southerner. Bill Lester rose above it all, as did his rankings, and he made history time and time again, becoming the first African American to race in NASCAR’s Busch Series, the first to participate in the Nextel Cup and the first to win a Pole Position start in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Whether you are contemplating a career or lifestyle change, challenging social norms, or struggling against prejudice or bigotry, Winning in Reverse is a story for sports fans and readers everywhere about the power of perseverance in the face of adversity.