Road Atlanta 100 Mile Race 1981

Race winner John Fitzpatrick

The 1981 Road Atlanta 100-mile race , also Road Atlanta Camel GT (Camel GTU), Road Atlanta , took place on April 12 of this year on the Road Atlanta circuit. The race was the fourth round of the IMSA GTP series in 1981 .

The race

The race in Road Atlanta was the fourth round of the newly created IMSA GTP series . The first race of the season, the Daytona 24-hour race , which, like the following Sebring 12-hour race, was also part of the sports car world championship of that year , ended with the overall victory of Bob Garretson , Bobby Rahal and Brian Redman in a Porsche 935K3 . In Sebring, Hurley Haywood , Al Holbert and Bruce Leven , who also drove a Porsche 935, won. On the day of the 100-mile race, the third round of the season took place in the preliminary program , which only belonged to the GTU class. Walt Bohren remained victorious on a Mazda RX-7 .

With a driving time of the winner John Fitzpatrick of 0: 56: 05.984 minutes, the race time for the 40 laps was only slightly longer than in the GTU race, where War Bohren needed 0: 46: 35.140 minutes for 30 laps. This was mainly due to the much higher racing average compared to the GTU class. The finish was very close, however; Fitzpatrick had the minimal lead of 0.144 seconds over Klaus Ludwig , who drove a Ford Mustang Turbo .

Results

Final ranking

Item	Class	No.	team	driver	vehicle	Round
1	GTX	1	John Fitzpatrick	John Fitzpatrick	Porsche 935K3 / 80	40
2	GTX	6th	Bill Scott Racing	Klaus Ludwig	Ford Mustang Turbo	40
3	GTX	90	Cooke Woods Racing Garretson Ent.	Bobby Rahal	Porsche 935K3	40
4th	GTX	00	Interscope Racing	Danny Ongais	Porsche 935K3 / 80	40
5	GTX	95	Dale Whittington	Dale Whittington	Porsche 935K3	40
6th	GTX	86	Bayside Disposal Racing	Hurley Haywood	Porsche 935/80	40
7th	GTX	0	Interscope Racing	Ted Field	Porsche 935K3 / 80	39
8th	GTX	30th	Momo penthouse	Giampiero Moretti	Porsche 935J	39
9	GTX	33	Bob Sharp Racing	Paul Newman	Datsun 280ZX	38
10	GTO	25th	Red Lobster Racing	Dave Cowart	BMW M1	37
11	GTX	09	Preston Henn	Preston Henn Marty Hinze	Porsche 935K3	36
12	GTX	68	USA Racing	Richard Valentine	Chevrolet Corvette	36
13	GTO	31	Midwest Team Corvette	Larry Trotter	Chevrolet Corvette	36
14th	GTO	40	David Deacon	David Deacon	BMW M1	36
15th	GTO	48	Dynasales	John Carusso	Chevrolet Corvette	36
16	GTO	04	Rene Rodriguez	Rene Rodriguez	Porsche Carrera RSR	36
17th	GTO	05	Tico Almeida	Tico Almeida	Porsche Carrera RSR	35
18th	GTO	28	NTS Racing	Sam Posey	Datsun 280ZX	35
19th	GTO	21st	Lloyd Frink	Lloyd Frink	Chevrolet Corvette	35
20th	GTO	29	NTS Racing	Fred Stiff	Datsun 280ZX	34
Failed
21st	GTX	8th	JLP Racing	John Paul Junior	Porsche 935 JLP-3	39
22nd	GTX	94	Bill Whittington	Bill Whittington	Porsche 935K3	36
23	GTO	06	Bill Wink	Bill Wink	Chevrolet Corvette	27
24	GTO	42	Joe Cotrone	Joe Cotrone	Chevrolet Corvette	26th

Only in the entry list

Here you will find teams, drivers and vehicles that were originally registered for the race but did not take part for a variety of reasons.

Item	class	No.	team	driver	chassis
25th	GTO	01	Electrodyne	Chester Vincentz	Porsche 934
26th	GTX	2	Marty Hinze	Marty Hinze	Porsche 935
27	GTX	5	Bob Akin	Bob Akin	Porsche 935
28	GTO	15th	Doug Lutz	Doug Lutz Dave Panaccione	Porsche Carrera RSR
29	GTO	34	George Drolsom	George Drolsom	Porsche 924 Turbo
30th	GTO	47	Bob McGraw	Bob McGraw	Chevrolet Monza
31	GTO	61	CC Canada	CC Canada Harry Cochran	Chevrolet Corvette
32	GTX	72	Del Russo Taylor	Del Russo Taylor	Chevron GTP

Class winner

class	driver	vehicle	Placement in the overall ranking
GTX	John Fitzpatrick	Porsche 935K3 / 80	Overall victory
GTO	Paul Newman	Datsun 280ZX	Rank 9

Racing data

• Registered: 32
• Started: 24
• Rated: 20
• Race classes: 2
• Spectator: unknown
• Weather on race day: unknown
• Route length: 4.055 km
• Driving time of the winning team: 0: 46: 35.140 hours
• Total laps of the winning team: 40
• Total distance of the winning team: 162.222 km
• Winner's average: 173.500 km / h
• Pole position: John Paul junior - Porsche 935 JLP-3 (# 8) - 1: 18.122 - 186.887 km / h
• Fastest race lap: John Paul junior - Porsche 935 JLP-3 (# 8) - 1: 20,000 - 182,500 km / h
• Racing series: 4th round of the IMSA GTP series in 1981

literature

• JA Martin and Ken Welles: Prototypes - the History of the IMSA GTP Series . Bull Publishing, Phoenix 2000, ISBN 1-893618-01-3 .

Web links

• Results at Racing Sports Cars