Don Knowles

Following two SCCA Runoffs titles in the 1978-79 Showroom Stock B class with SAAB cars, Don graduated to endurance racing in the professional IMSA Firehawk and SCCA Escort series, learned his analytical mind had master strategist capabilities, and became one of the most successful drivers to ever compete in either series … has won a world record 14 24-hour races, and in both 1987 and ’88 won three 24-hour races … 12 race wins in 1989 Firehawk and Escort series alone … all-time Escort series winner with 19 wins … has 35 career wins in those two series plus VW Rabbit Cup, Renault Cup and IMSA Camel GT (with the factory Dodge team) … top American finisher at the 1982 Renault Cup International Challenge at Paul Ricard, France … team member of a Corvette team which, in 1990, set three world land speed endurance records and nine international speed records at Ft. Stockton, Tex., averaging over 175 mph for 24 hours … 1989 IMSA Firehawk Driver of the Year … Don then waited 27 years to get back into Club Racing and took up right where he left off, winning the 2006 SCCA Runoffs title in the Showroom Stock B class with a Pontiac Solstice, then back it up with 2007 and 2009 wins in the T2 class in a more modified version of the Solstice .. Don was featured in a 1990 Sports Illustrated story … talented writer who has won the 1980 Best Article award in SCCA’s Sports Car magazine, and has written about his win in a Canadian ice race for Road & Track … retired Director of Protected Resources for the National Marine Fisheries Service; former staffer on the U. S. Senate Committee on Appropriations; former Associate Deputy Secretary of U. S. Department of Interior. Knowles was 2011 recipient of the RRDC Bob Akin Award.