{"id":496968,"date":"2017-09-20T11:03:36","date_gmt":"2017-09-20T18:03:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportscardigest.com\/\/?p=50954"},"modified":"2024-01-08T14:26:42","modified_gmt":"2024-01-08T14:26:42","slug":"bruce-leven-1945-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/bruce-leven-1945-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"Bruce Leven (1938-2017)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Longtime sportscar entrant and driver Bruce Leven has died at the age of 79. Leven founded Bayside Disposal, the Seattle-based garbage collection and disposal firm, and grew it into an international concern, which allowed him to afford to go racing. As one of IMSA\u2019s Gentleman Driver team owners in the late 1970s and on through the \u201980s, Leven (above, Hal Crocker photo) surrounded himself with established stars, He enjoyed his first major success at Sebring in 1981 when he joined Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert in the Bayside Racing Porsche 935 to take a three-lap victory in the 12 Hours.<\/p>\n

With the arrival of IMSA\u2019s Grand Touring Prototype category that same season, Leven\u2019s loyalty to Porsche meant he purchased the first 962 customer car, and his team became a regular contender with a list of drivers whose names were all familiar. Bob Wollek gave Leven and Bayside their first GTP win at Sears Point in 1985.<\/p>\n

\"1985<\/a>
1985 Porsche 962
Owner: Bruce Leven<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The Walter Gerber-led team\u2019s best year was 1987, when it won six races from 11 starts \u2014 including the 12 Hours of Sebring, Laguna Seca, Mid-Ohio, Sears Point, Columbus and Del Mar \u2014 with drivers Jochen Mass and Bobby Rahal. Bayside repeated at Sebring in \u201988, winning by nine laps with Klaus Ludwig and Hans Stuck at the wheel, but then the competitiveness of the 962 began to fade as Nissan, Jaguar and Toyota got a grip on the regulations.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong>With the growth of CART through the \u201980s, Leven decided to field a Lola-Cosworth Indycar for Dominic Dobson in \u201989 and \u201990, producing a handful of top-10 finishes in the fiercely competitive series before ending the effort. In recent years Leven took part in select vintage racing events, continuing to feed his need for speed. To his family and many friends in and outside the sport, Vintage Racecar<\/em> extends its sincerest sympathies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Longtime sportscar entrant and driver Bruce Leven has died at the age of 79. Leven founded Bayside Disposal, the Seattle-based garbage collection and disposal firm, and grew it into an international concern, which allowed him to afford to go racing. As one of IMSA\u2019s Gentleman Driver team owners in the late 1970s and on through the \u201980s, Leven (above, Hal Crocker photo) surrounded himself with established stars, He enjoyed his first major success at Sebring in 1981 when he joined […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":572311,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263,18114,18330],"tags":[679,17152,18435,12218,11486,11361,12636,12501,18107,89,16791,11446,592],"class_list":["post-496968","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-car-culture","category-people","category-profiles-car-culture","tag-imsa","tag-car-culture","tag-people","tag-bob-wollek","tag-bobby-rahal","tag-hans-stuck","tag-jochen-mass","tag-klaus-ludwig","tag-people-profiles","tag-porsche","tag-profiles","tag-cart","tag-sebring"],"yoast_head":"\nBruce Leven (1938-2017)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/bruce-leven-1945-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bruce Leven (1938-2017)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Longtime sportscar entrant and driver Bruce Leven has died at the age of 79. Leven founded Bayside Disposal, the Seattle-based garbage collection and disposal firm, and grew it into an international concern, which allowed him to afford to go racing. As one of IMSA\u2019s Gentleman Driver team owners in the late 1970s and on through the \u201980s, Leven (above, Hal Crocker photo) surrounded himself with established stars, He enjoyed his first major success at Sebring in 1981 when he joined […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/bruce-leven-1945-2017\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Supercars.net\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Supercars.net\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-09-20T18:03:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-01-08T14:26:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bruce-Leven-HC.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1053\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"John Zimmermann\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@supercars_net\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"John Zimmermann\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/bruce-leven-1945-2017\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/bruce-leven-1945-2017\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"John Zimmermann\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/96b206a07dacd5614967544b2c3b0e35\"},\"headline\":\"Bruce Leven (1938-2017)\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-09-20T18:03:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-01-08T14:26:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/bruce-leven-1945-2017\/\"},\"wordCount\":311,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/bruce-leven-1945-2017\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.supercars.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Bruce-Leven-HC.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"(IMSA) International Motor Sports Association\",\"Car Culture\",\"People\",\"People (Bob Wollek)\",\"People (Bobby Rahal)\",\"People (Hans Stuck)\",\"People (Jochen Mass)\",\"People (Klaus Ludwig)\",\"People Profiles (All)\",\"Porsche\",\"Profiles (All)\",\"Race (CART - 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