What would you have done if you had inherited a serious chunk of money when you were a young man or young woman?
You might have invested it wisely, or purchased a big house, or just frittered it away on luxuries and high living.
Or you might have purchased a Porsche and driven it in the world’s great endurance races. That’s exactly what Michael Keyser, our 2016 RPM (Richmond Porsche Meet) banquet speaker, did in 1972.
Not only did he drive his Toad Hall Racing Porsche 911 2.5 S/T (which carried a Porsche Club of America banner across its windshield) to a 10th place finish in the Targa Florio and 13th place finishes at the Le Mans 24 Hours and the Nurburgring 1,000 Kilometers, but he also finished third in the 1972 IMSA Camel GT series, winning the Mid-Ohio 6 Hours, and finishing second at the Daytona 3-hour and Virginia International Raceway 250.
Keyser also took his cameras and a film crew along on this adventure across two continents and produced The Speed Merchants, a critically acclaimed book and documentary film about the fast, dangerous and legendary endurance races and racers in the early 1970s.
Porsches were already in Keyser’s DNA before he embarked on this remarkable season. As a lad, he learned to drive by running his father’s Porsche 356 Speedster up and down the road on the Maryland cattle farm where he grew up.
As a prep-school graduation present, Michael was allowed to journey to Germany with several friends and take delivery of his father’s new Porsche 911, driving it to the family’s vacation villa in Italy.
“You could say I was spoiled, so spoiled that I smelled,” Keyser said.
After his father passed away in 1968, Keyser quit his job as a reporter with the Baltimore Sun and started a commercial photography business. The following year, he and his business partner fielded a Porsche 911 2.0 in the SCCA Trans Am series with veteran Bruce Jennings driving for them.
After a handful of SCCA driving schools, regionals and nationals in 1970, Keyser felt ready to compete in the 1971 FIA sanctioned races at Daytona, Sebring, and Watkins Glen, sharing driving chores with Jennings, second-generation German driver Jurgen Barth, and Richmond’s Bob Beasley. (The Glen in the early 70s was where I first saw Keyser and his Toad Hall Racing Team, an homage to the car-loving Toad of Toad Hall in Kenneth Grahame’s children’s book, The Wind in the Willows.)
Keyser regaled RPM banquet attendees June 4 with the story of that memorable 1972 season.
Michael Keyser racing at Watkins Glen in 1974
Michael Keyser speaking at the RPM Banquet
It included taking two Porsche 911s and a GMC transporter loaded with Firestone race tires and a new 2.5 liter 911 S on a madcap dash from the Porsche factory to Sicily, where he had to unravel a tangled web of red tape just to be allowed the start the grueling race of nine laps over a 44-mile circuit of twisty mountain roads.
After running as high as sixth, they finished a remarkable 10th after an off-course excursion and hasty repairs. Keyser’s team then dashed back to Germany for the 1000K at the Nurburgring, where they finished 13th. After a refreshing and engine change at the Porsche race shops, it was on to LeMans, where Keyser, Barth, and their French co-driver Sylvan Garant again finished 13th.
Back in the States, Keyser and co-driver Beasley took the Porsche to a 7th place finish at the Watkins Glen Six Hour, which was part of the FIA endurance series.
While doing all of this, Keyser was pulling the strings on an international film crew for The Speed Merchants, which is still regarded as one of the best racing documentaries ever produced.
Michael continued racing Porsches through the 1970s, both in IMSA and the three American FIA races at Daytona, Sebring, and The Glen, teamed up with Beasley, Barth, and Al Holbert, and competing against racing greats Peter Gregg, David Hobbs, Brian Redman, Hurley Haywood, and others.
In 1976, Keyser and Holbert won the 12 Hours of Sebring for Porsche. Both drivers switched to wickedly fast DeKon Chevy Monzas for the rest of the season. Keyser won the Mid-Ohio and Daytona IMSA races and finished fourth in the championship.
After seeing expensive factory-backed efforts move into IMSA, Keyser scaled back on his racing after 1976.
He launched a home-delivery balloon business, continued writing and publishing books about racing, designed programs for major races and car shows, and created his current business, Autosports Marketing Associates, which produces and sells books, photographic prints and DVDs.
Keyser lives in Butler, Maryland, with his wife Beth and their dogs.
In addition to entertaining the RPM crowd, Keyser generously donated a number of his books for door prizes. Lucky ticket holders also received RPM posters signed by Keyser.
