Born : June 12 1938
Deceased : September 15 2017
Biography Bruce Leven
Bruce Leven was only 26 years old when he started a company for waste disposal in his hometown Seattle. It turned out that he was a clever businessman for sure. The Bayside Waste Disposal company grew with over 400 waste disposal trucks in 10 locations in the state Washington in the 1980s. The fortune made by his company, made it possible to Bruce Leven to fullfil his dreams and go for his passion. Bruce Leven started racing in the late 1970’s. He erected his own Bayside Disposal Racing team that competed to the top level of the North American sports car racing in the eighties. To reach this level, Bruce Leven surrounded himself with great racers and only raced Porsches.
History of the Bayside Disposal Racing Team
Being a succesful businessman made it possible to Bruce Leven to start racing in his beloved car : Porsche. Bruce Leven started racing immediately with a car that’s not your daily driver : a Porsche 934 . His first race was June 4 1978 in Westwood Motorsport Park, where he started 15th and finished 7th. After just a few races with the Porsche 934, Bruce Leven bought a Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0 that was first delivered to Peter Gregg, co-founder of Brumos Porsche in Jacksonville, Florida. The 1978 Watkins Glenn 6H was the first entry in the Porsche 911 Carrera RSR 3.0. Later Bruce Leven went a step further and started racing in a Porsche 935.
The Bayside Disposal team had a breakthrough victory in 1981, when Bruce Leven joined Hurley Haywood and Al Holbert in winning the Twelve Hours of Sebring in the Bayside Disposal/Brumos Porsche 935. Actually that was the best result ever for Bruce Leven. Even though he moved up in the early 1980s to the allmighty Porsche 962. Bruce Leven allowed Derek Bell and Al Holbert to first drive the car at Riverside. They finished 2nd. Bruce Leven teamed up with John Paul Jr. and finished 12th in the inaugural Camel Continental at Watkins Glen International. Bob Wollek gave Bruce Leven’s first victory with the 962 in 1985, followed by a pair of triumphs the following year.
In 1987 Bruce Leven added another Porsche 962 to the team. That year the Bayside Disposal Racing Team won 5 races. The duo Jochen Mass /Klaus Ludwig started in pole position in the Rolex Daytona 24H in one of the Bayside Disposal Racing Team Porsche’s 962. In the middle of the race they started coping with chassis problems and had to abandon the race. Bobby Rahal won that same year the Sebring 12H. The succesful year continued for the Bayside Disposal Racing Team with a victory for Klaus Ludwig at the Laguna Seca. Later another win was added for the team with a first position for Jochen Mass and Bobby Rahal in Mid-Ohio. Bobby Rahal and Jochen Mass finished one-two at Columbus, and the last jewel on the crown was the season finale victory of Jochen Mass at Del Mar.
Competition seemed to get tougher with the onslaught of the new Jaguar, Nissan and Toyota prototypes. Bruce Leven purchased the latest 962 for the 1990 season. In that season Bob Wollek won the pole for the Rolex 24H of Daytona to end up at the 3rd step of the podium. The team’s final race was at Sebring, where they finished 40th.
