DON PANOZ

By H.A. Branham

Right man, at the right time. That’s a fine legacy label for the late Don Panoz, who helped preserve the future of sports car racing in North America.

Who knew, when Panoz first hit the scene in 1989, that he would become one of the most influential leaders in all of auto racing over the last 50 years? That year he provided the coin to back a new venture started by his son Dan called Panoz Auto Development.

He had the coin, after founding two pharmaceutical companies. At the first company, he led the research that created the transdermal patch used for medicine delivery, most notably the nicotine patch. He started the second because the first declined to produce the patch. Black flag. Panoz moved his family to Ireland and founded the Elan Corporation. Basically, he took the patch and ran – straight to the bank.

A peculiar sidebar: despite having developed something aimed at stopping people from smoking, Panoz smoked himself for years. When asked about that, a shoulder shrug was about all you’d get.

No doubt, he was his own man, an intense red-haired Italian whose father, a one-time top-level boxer, emigrated from Italy and shortened the family name from Panunzio. And once involved in motorsports, Panoz clearly was also a fighter, committed to the same level of innovation – and excellence – he had demonstrated in the traditional business world.

His commitment ended up honoring tradition. That mattered when he acquired what today is known as Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta. Two years later, he formed an alliance with the Automobile Club de l’Ouest (ACO) to stage the first Petit Le Mans in 1998.

That partnership foreshadowed the creation of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in 1999, bringing Le Mans specifications to road circuits throughout North America. In 2001, he bought the original IMSA which had been renamed Professional Sports Car Racing; de facto, the IMSA brand returned as the sanctioning body of the ALMS. That same deal also gave Panoz controlling interest in Mosport and Sebring International Raceway.

And from there, you got this: it was – 14 years of two separate sports car sanctioning bodies in North America – the ALMS and the GRAND-AM Rolex Sports Car Series. The two merged in 2013 to form a new, reimagined IMSA based in Daytona Beach, Florida – where the original IMSA was conceived in the late 1960s. First time around, it was Bill France Jr. and John Bishop at the helm. IMSA 2.0 began with Jim France as Chairman and Panoz as Vice Chairman.

Full-circle stuff, and it never could have happened without the moxie of Panoz who shares co-savior roles with Jim France when it comes to IMSA. To many he was “Dr. Don” via a couple of honorary degrees he had received. But the title had teeth. He knew what ailed sports car racing, and he helped fix it.

Panoz’s cars were also noteworthy. Remember the Delta Wing? OK, sorry. Here’s a more practical example: class victories at both Le Mans and Sebring in 2006, for the Panoz Esperante GT-LM. Podium or no, always a show, always a story.

Panoz died in 2018 at the age of 83, succumbing to pancreatic cancer.

“Visionary. Entrepreneur. Friend. … He ran on the rev limiter right up to the end,” wrote former IMSA President Scott Atherton.