# BMW Honored as Featured Marque at 2015 Classic Motorsports Mitty Speedfest



## [email protected] (Aug 15, 2012)

BMW USA Classic will be well-represented at this weekend's Classic Motorsports Mitty Speedfest, which takes place at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA from April 24-26, 2015. Charismatic BMW racer and retailer, Boris Said, will be honored as this year's Grand Marshal for the vintage races featuring over 300 entered cars. Said was an integral part of the BMW Team PTG years, co-driving to many victories including the Rolex 24 At Daytona, the 12 Hours of Sebring, and the Petit Le Mans. Said is the only American to have won overall at the famous Nürburgring 24 hour race, co-driving a BMW Motorsport M3 GTR in 2005.

BMW USA Classic will support the event as a special treat for the thousands of sports car racing fans. Anchoring the BMW corral on top of the famous hill at Road Atlanta, the BMW USA Classic transporter will showcase four key vehicles from BMW racing history, including the 2015 BMW Z4 GTLM No. 25, the 1975 BMW 3.0 CSL IMSA Group 4 Racer, the BMW Team PTG E36 M3 Coupe IMSA Racer (1999 configuration), and the BMW Team PTG E46 M3 GTR ALMS Racer (2006 configuration).



Each day of the event, Honorees Boris Said and Brian Redman will be invited to complete parade laps of Road Atlanta in cars bearing their names: the BMW Team PTG E36 M3 and 1975 3.0 CSL, respectively. Race fans will enjoy the sites and sounds of these legendary sports cars which bear an incredible connection through BMW design and engineering, distinguished from each other only by two decades of development and learning through competition in the racing environment.

Speedfest at the Classic Motorsports Mitty has been held at Road Atlanta in Braselton, GA since the early 1980s. In that time, it has grown into one of the largest vintage racing festivals in the US. Each year, hundreds of the greatest race cars in history arrive to compete in more than 25 carefully-chosen heats.


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## Dale Conrad (Dec 26, 2012)

Well it is great to see how the Mitty has evolved into a major vintage
sports car even with BMW competition. I am sure their will be many others
such as Porsche, Ferrari, Jaguar, etc. I was with the Atlanta Jaguar club
in 1979 for first event. At one of our monthly meeting, John Steen, our
club president asked if anyone had a suggestion for future events. My hand
popped up and I said, how about a road race. Lots of laughter from our
cruise in group. John said, Dale, what do you have in mind. I said how
about Road Atlanta - much more laughter. One of the members asked, do you
know how much money that would cost? No I did not. John said, kind of
tongue in cheek, OK Dale, we will put you in charge of investigating Road
Atlanta. So, the next Monday, I called Road Atlanta and found that we could rent the track for 2,500.00 per day which included corner workers
and emergency equipment. Well, our small club could not afford 2,500 so
John called the other clubs in Atlanta, Porsche, Ferrari, etc. and they
very committed to the idea. The rest is history. A quick note about the
Name Mitty. Howard Turners wife had just finished reading a book by the
author Thurber I believe, about a meek accountant Named Walter Mitty who dreamed of road racing against the worlds great racers. So, Martha suggested the name of Walter Mitty Challenge, which was accepted. So
today this race is now the Mitty Speedfest. Hard to know what is going
to happen sometime when you make a funny suggestion.


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