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| Through The Esses - Michael Keyser - A Man Fast With Words, Cameras, And Wheels |
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My father left me a considerable amount of money when he died. It didn't take long before I quit the paper and started Photographic Unlimited, I'd become interested in photography, so I took a few correspondence courses and started a business. We did general commercial stuff, photographing almost anything.
In the spring of 1969, John Shaw, my partner in the photography business, went to Sebring. We knew a mechanic in Baltimore who worked for Bruce Jennings who was racing a 911 there. John came back and said, This racing stuff is cool. We ought to get into it.' So we bought another 911 and had it converted to racing specs for the 1969 Trans-Am series. Bruce drove it and John and I paid the bills. We called the team Toad Hall Motor Racing because I lived in a house called Toad Hall, Wind In The Willows' having been one of my favorite books in my youth.
In the fall of 1969 I decided to try my hand at the wheel. To that end, I attended an SCCA driver's school at the now defunct Marlboro Raceway. In 1970 Bruce drove the car at FIA events at Daytona, Sebring and Watkins Glen. In the spring of 1970 I went to Bridgehampton for my second driving school, and then I raced the car in SCCA Regional and National races. In 1971 I drove at Daytona in my first FIA race with Bruce and Bob Beasley. We were on the track with the Porsche 917s and Ferrari 512s. That was a trip, having them fly by at 200 miles an hour while we were doing 140! I'd see a spec in my rear view mirror and then it was by me.
Later I drove at Sebring and Watkins Glen, where Herbert Muller rear-ended me with his Ferrari 512M about three laps into the race. A guy spun in front of me and I hit the Brakes. When I looked in my rear view mirror all I saw was red. I have photos of the accident that appear in the second version of my book The Speed Merchants that was published in 1999.
I sold what was left of the 2.0 liter 911, and then ran a few races with a guy named Bob Bailey in a 2.3. In 1972 I bought a new 2.5 liter Porsche from the factory and hired a mechanic, who'd worked for Peter Gregg, named Hans Mandt. This was the year we traveled around Europe and produced the film The Speed Merchants. I used the 2.5 car as a camera car during the film. I raced it throughout that season and at Daytona in 1973, and then I bought a 2.7 RS. My first race in the car was at Sebring, with Milt Minter.
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