Reflections: Miami 1983, IMSA’s first street race

(Updated on 12/28 with a story provided by Top Gear's Tiff Needell.)

It certainly wasn't the first street race in North America, but IMSA's inaugural event around Miami's Bayfront Park in 1983 is credited with sparking a newfound interest in using downtown venues to host major motorsports events.

F5000 and Formula 1 put Long Beach on the map as a must-see street circuit festival starting in 1975, and F1 added Detroit to the list in 1982, but it was IMSA's debut in Miami, thanks to team owner-turned-promoter Ralph Sanchez, that took the concept and developed it into what we have today in North America. One IMSA street race in 1983 developed into three in 1986, then four in 1987, and by 1988, the peak was reached with five events spread from Miami and West Palm Beach in Florida to San Antonio in Texas, Columbus in Ohio, and the season finale at Del Mar in Southern California.

The CART IndyCar series followed suit, as did the SCCA, and while IMSA has all but abandoned the practice in recent years, the Verizon IndyCar Series maintains the tradition with stops at Long Beach, Detroit, Toronto, and Boston, starting in 2016.

Looking back to 1983, Sanchez was tasked with turning an unloved area into the site of IMSA's big debut, and according to Lyn St. James (LEFT, LAT photo), who raced a Nimrod-Aston Martin GTP entry around the 1.9-mile circuit, he faced as many obstacles creating the event as she and the other drivers did while trying to navigate the flooded streets after the skies unleashed an epic downpour.

"It was a significant race for many reasons, and I knew Ralph Sanchez really well and lived in the Fort Lauderdale area, so I was excited because it was like a home track," she said. "I was still trying to establish myself as a racecar driver, and as a hometown driver, and because I knew Ralph, I did a lot of advance media with him and tried to do whatever I could to validate the race. His credentials were being questioned, and some of the biggest challenges he had came from the city.

"Now, it's the beautiful Bayfront area right downtown with the auditorium, very modern, but at that time, the area where the race was going to be held was a park where the local homeless people lived. It wasn't an area the local residents frequented. One of the biggest challenges he had was over a tree; he wanted to move it because it interfered with the course, and it took months of going back and forth with the city just to get that hurdle handled. It wasn't easy for him."

The sheer popularity of IMSA's first street race forced the series to break its three classes – GTP, GTO, and GTU – into separate contests. Mazda scored a 1-3 in GTU with Roger Mandeville coming home first in his twin-rotor RX-7, and Gene Felton took GTO honors in his Chevy Camaro. For the GTP contest, which also included some GT cars, drivers could have posted faster lap times using boats from the harbor instead of their 4-wheeled machines.

Rain swept through Miami during the late February weekend, and with the heavens dropping a small lake onto the course prior to the race, 32 cars spent most of the abbreviated, 27-lap contest behind the pace car which helped part the seas for those following close behind.

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John Paul Jr claimed pole in his JLP Racing Lola T600-Chevy, but it was Al Holbert, who would go on to win the championship in 1983, who was first to reach the checkered flag in the Holbert Racing March 83G-Chevy (ABOVE). St. James, who shared the Nimrod with Doc Bundy (BELOW), pushed their Aston Martin-powered bathtub to 20th by the finish.

"That downpour was un-freaking believable," she said. "I've never experienced something like that. We ran most of the race behind the pace car, and I can remember the water coming up over the sides of the car and into the cockpit and sloshing around. And it's not like we had holes in the bottom of the car to drain the water, so you just had to sit in it. It was a disaster from that standpoint, and we didn't do many laps, but it was enough to be called a race.

"And bless Ralph, he still paid out all the purses for the race and took a big hit financially. There was a lot of trepidation from the team owners before the race with Ralph, but he earned their trust and lived up to everything he said he'd do. The race really helped transform that downtown Miami into an area that's really beautiful, and this race started that change."

A teenager by the name of Sylvain Tremblay, who went on to start SpeedSource which runs Mazda's factory LMP2 program in IMSA's WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, was at the event working as a crew member, and Ken Breslauer, the accomplished author and longtime head of Sebring's public relations department, attended as a spectator.

"I drove down with my dad and sat in the top row of the grandstands," Breslauer said. "The entry was incredible as the GTP era was just beginning and there were many new and different cars there. Of course, the race was a disaster – torrential rains non-stop. Al Holbert won, but the race was ended early due to the conditions. We were absolutely soaked."

Despite the unfortunate conditions in 1983, and the financial losses Sanchez (LEFT, with Roger Mandeville) suffered, Miami would carry on and become the East Coast's version of Long Beach in terms of size and prestige.

"It should be noted the 1984 and 1985 Miami races were amazing," Breslauer continued. "Jaguars won in '84, and then '85 featured a great battle between Darin Brassfield and Emerson Fittipaldi. I will say this: The 1985 Miami GP had the biggest crowd in American sports car racing history, even bigger than Sebring. I've never seen anything like it. It was the 'Miami Vice era' and a wild time in the history of Miami."

Acclaimed open-wheel and sports car driver Tiff Needell, who many know today from his co-hosting duties on BBC's Top Gear, qualified 13th in the Chevy-powered No. 88 March 83G (RIGHT).

The Briton's result at the Miami Grand Prix was a poor reflection of his talent, but with the conditions better suited for Noah's Ark, he may have been fortunate to last a single lap.

"Quite a wild weekend!" he said. "I was the March test driver working with a young Adrian Newey sorting out their 83G IMSA car back in the UK and got a last minute call to share the Executone 83G with the rapid Howdy Holmes. My accommodation was a cabin in a boat in the harbor - but I seemed to be the only one on it!

"I thought we'd have a good chance but it wasn't the best prepared car there. We had a lot of teething troubles so [we] didn't get much time on the track which I remember most for the bumps over the level crossing! We qualified 13th in the big 32-car field and looked forward to a strong race. Little did I know it would be one of my shortest ...

"I took the start and on the very first lap a brake disc came loose and jammed-on the rear brakes, spinning me round and leaving me stranded with a long walk back to the garage in the pouring rain ... My only consolation was that a March won the race and I'd played a part in its development."

Geoff Brabham would go on an unprecedented run to score four consecutive IMSA GTP championships from 1988-'91 (LEFT, LAT photo) with Nissan, but in 1983, the Aussie was in something decidedly different, sharing a Ford Mustang turbo with Tim Coconis.

Their swim to 12th wasn't particularly memorable, but 32 years later, Brabham still can't forget his accommodations during the event.

"I don't remember anything about my actual race there; it must have been uncompetitive for me, but I do remember a funny thing that happened the night before the race," he said. "We were staying at a brand-new hotel and we were all aware of the incoming storm. Around 1 a.m., I was woken up by someone knocking on a door down the hallway and voices, then heard the next door was knocked on and some more voices, and it was slowly working its way down to my door.

"I'm thinking they are evacuating the hotel. So, eventually it's my turn, I get the knock on the door, I get up and open the door, and it's the maid asking if I want my bed turned down! I politely said, 'I have been in bed for three hours, so why would I f***ing want it turned down now!'"

Brabham and the Nissan dominated the Miami race later in the decade, and despite his sleep-deprived experience in 1983, he enjoyed future returns to south Florida.

"The Miami race turned into one of my favorites; the fact that the Nissan GTP was 'King Kong' around there certainly helped but it had great atmosphere and the city was really into it," he said. "Ralph Sanchez did a great job promoting the race, which I think encouraged IMSA to do more street races, but none of them, in my opinion, came close to matching the awesome Miami GP."