Taking the final turn at Road Atlanta is one of the most on-edge moments a racing driver can have. As you come under the bridge from the chicane the world appears to drop away from you as the track falls from the plateau upon which most of the circuit sits down into the bowl of the start finish straight.
The corner itself is a relatively innocuous sub-90-degree right hander leading onto Road Atlanta's relatively short start/finish straight. But the dip and unsighted nature of the approach means its a real challenge for modern prototypes, never mind a '60s muscle car.
At Historic Sportscar Racing's annual Mitty event earlier in the year it was that hard approach that nearly saw the end of a GT350 Mustang. Headed by a series of Corvettes and fellow Mustangs you can already see from the lead cars' twitches how big a challenge the turn is, and then 'our' Mustang arrives on the scene. Already in a hurry to catch the cars in front and pushing perhaps a little too wide the GT30s pushes wider than the driver expects and finds itself on the very minimal runoff provided and, more than likely, heading straight for a concrete wall.
Amazingly the driver instead keeps it pinned, holding on for dear life and wrestling the Mustang back onto the safety of the tarmac. An excellent dispay of bravery and driving skill.
HSR
The Mitty
The Mitty 2018
Ford
Mustang