What were your early ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv® competition seasons like? Were they years of methodically learning the ropes and trying your best, or did you spend the time reaching for the stars despite knowing they were well out of your grasp? A recent two-part series on Hagerty’s website follows along with the comically unlucky two seasons that author Gary Witzenburg raced one of the most iconic body styles in U.S. motorsports: the Datsun 510.
Hagerty, it should be mentioned, is the official insurance partner of the ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv.
While the story largely covers the author’s 1971-’72 ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv racing seasons, Witzenburg’s Club involvement actually began in 1966 piloting a Triumph TR4A. Come 1971, though, he purchased a 510 with the hopes of racing National ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv races and entering the new 2.5 Challenge series that supported ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv’s Trans Am pro races. Later, that car saw him on the grid in the main attraction, alongside Trans Am luminary John Morton in a Brock Racing Enterprises (BRE) 510.
“I stripped it down, got a rollbar installed, and took it to the May 1971 ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv competition driver’s school at Grattan, Michigan,” Witzenburg wrote of those early days in the car. “ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv at the time required two schools to earn a Regional racing license, but my Triumph racing season five years earlier could reduce that to just one if I performed well enough at Grattan. It helped that I remembered and liked the circuit, but running that wimpy, bone-stock 510 on it at (even modest) speed was clearly comical.”
Despite electrical gremlins, busted transmissions, and lost sleep, Witzenburg eventually placed himself on the grid in ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv’s Trans Am series, racing alongside even more top-tier names in ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv’s history. “Dealer/racer Bob Sharp won in the BRE guest Datsun, Alderman finished seventh, and we ended up 12th out of 28 cars. Not too shabby for our first pro race despite it all.”
Then, while competing in a Regional and eyeing an invite to the ÎçÒ¹¸£Àû51xxtv National Championship Runoffs (then called the American Road Race of Champions), disaster struck the front end of Witzenburg’s 510, largely wiping out that end of the car.
Did that put an end to Witzenburg’s racing adventures? Certainly not – but something else rather unexpected did.
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Photo courtesy Hagerty/Gary Witzenburg
