Читать книгу How to Restore Your Corvette: 1968-1982 - Walt Thurn - Страница 6

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Walt Thurn has been interested in Corvettes for most of his adult life. He has owned multiple Corvettes and has written numerous magazine articles on C3, C4, C5, and C6 Corvettes. He also has covered international Corvette racing events in the United States, Canada, and Europe. During the early 1970s, he was responsible for providing public relations for the Toye English L88 C3 Corvette Racing team. Team drivers Bob Johnson/Dave Heinz finished fourth overall and first in GT at the 1972 12 Hours of Sebring endurance race. Only two Ferraris and one Alfa Romeo prototype finished in front of the thundering L88 hardtop. Walt covered this event for the team. This Corvette record stood until 2004 when a Pratt & Miller C5R matched this finish.

During his time with the team, Walt met Corvette chief engineer Zora Arkus-Duntov and lead Corvette engineer Gib Hufstader. Arkus-Duntov and Hufstader provided valuable behind-the-scenes support to the English racing team, especially at the 1972 24 Hours of Le Mans. This private team finished 15th overall at that year’s race, which was the first for a Corvette since 1960. English Racing went on to finish third overall at the 1973 24 Hours of Daytona. Walt was there to record and document this important part of Corvette’s C3 racing history.

During the early 1990s, Walt wrote stories about the racing successes of the Morrison Motorsports ZR-1 team for Corvette Fever magazine. While covering that team’s activities he met many of today’s industry insiders and race team personnel. These people include John Heinricy, Jim Minneker, Boris Said, Andy Pilgrim, Stu Hayner, Reese Cox, Chuck, and Lance Mallett.

In May of 1997, Walt shadowed the Mallett Motorsports team in a new black C5 Corvette in the One Lap of America. His articles about this wild experience gave readers a firsthand insight into the reliability of the fifth-generation Corvette.

In 2000, Walt joined the Pratt & Miller C5R team as a writer. He spent one year with the factory Corvette team covering the 2000 season. He accompanied the C5/C6 Corvette Registry on three Le Mans trips in Europe and wrote stories about those experiences in their quarterly magazine.

He has been published in magazines such as VETTE, Corvette Fever, Corvette Quarterly, C5/C6 Registry Newsletter, and Corvette Magazine. He has traveled to Europe extensively to document the construction and racing activities of the C6 Z06 R with Callaway Competition. The Z06 R competes in the European FIA GT3 championship and has won five international championships.

Walt and his wife Dianne live in Florida.