Panoz honored with Grand Marshal role at Petit

The landscape of North American sports car racing was forever changed when Don Panoz bought the Road Atlanta circuit in the late 1990s, poured untold millions into a facility-wide overhaul, purchased IMSA, and launched Petit Le Mans.

Celebrating its 20th anniversary this weekend, Panoz (pictured at right, above, with IMSA president Scott Atherton) received an invitation from IMSA to serve as the event's grand marshal and, considering the health and vitality being enjoyed by the circuit, race, and series, there was no better selection to be made.

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"I was telling people today that I had a dream, and not a lot of experience; it was only my second year in racing, and thank goodness is came true," he told RACER. "The real reason behind the success has been the fans. When they started to support it, we had 4000 people in May for the Atlanta Grand Prix, and when we came back later in 1998 for the first Petit Le Mans, there was more than 20,000 people. It was phenomenal."

After selling IMSA and the circuits he'd purchased in 2012 to help form what has become the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, Panoz has gone on to look after his DeltaWing Racing team, launch a new GT car that competes in the Pirelli World Challenge series, and created a new company to develop green technologies. Despite his overly full plate, the entrepreneur has kept tabs on the track and series he loves.

"And they continue to put money into the circuit and have made a lot of improvements," Panoz continued. "It has grown to be a fantastic circuit and the race has also become a fantastic thing. But I had no idea it would become what it is. As a newbie, I just realized nobody was paying attention to the fans, but I didn't expect it to turn out like this. It's a wonderful celebration each year when we can get together and enjoy Petit Le Mans."