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REUNION: Joy’s Ride Of A Lifetime
For SPEED's Mike Joy, pulling double duty this weekend at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion involves using a microphone and a racing helmet...
Marshall Pruett  |  Posted August 19, 2012  
SPEED's Mike Joy gets to go back in time this weekend at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion to drive a Trans-Am Series 1970 Dodge Challenger--a car he reported on in college. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)


For SPEED broadcaster Mike Joy, pulling double duty this weekend at the Rolex Monterey Motorsports Reunion involves using a microphone in one hand and a gear lever in the other.

The veteran reporter and host is often seen on SPEED’s NASCAR and Barrett-Jackson programming, and he’ll cover this weekend’s Reunion event once again with co-hosts Bob Varsha and Ralph Sheheen, but in between his television duties, Joy will don a firesuit to partake in his other favorite activity.

“I'll still be doing the coverage from Monterey for SPEED like we've done now for the past many years,” he said, “but a longtime friend, Ken Epsman, is not able to drive this weekend so he's entrusting two of his cars to my hands."

Thanks to Epsman, Joy will live the dream of anyone who loves American Iron, driving in both the vintage Trans-Am and disc-brake NASCAR classes this weekend.
Mike Joy, right, shown here hosting the NASCAR banquet with SPEED colleague Krista Voda, left. (Photo: LAT)

“It's funny how things kind of come full circle,” he said with a laugh. “The Ford Thunderbird Ken has is a 1986 Bill Elliott car, the Coors car which Bill won three races, at least one of which I covered for CBS--the Michigan race. And that car has now been converted over to road race duty. So I guess you could say I’ve got a little piece of history with that. And truly, that's going to be exciting because it's the first time that these stock cars have been to Monterey for the Rolex Reunion. Two years ago they had the 1960s cars, the drum-brake cars, but this is the first time for the disc-brake cars.

“Then I get to drive one of the factory 1970 Trans-Am series cars; it's probably the number one dream of any road race fan around my age. Ken has a Dodge Challenger that’s very distinctive. I remember covering the 1970 Lime Rock and reporting on Trans-Am for my college radio station. I have interview tapes from the press day at Lime Rock with Sam Posey and with Ray Caldwell, who owned the car I’m driving and prepared it. And to be able to hop in that car and drive it is just a total, total thrill.”

Joy has also spent plenty of time away from the track brushing up on the Challenger.

“A few years ago Dodge got Ken and Sam together to talk about the car and for Sam to take a drive in it and Sam wrote a great story in Road and Track about driving that car again,” he said. “So I've read and re-read that. In fact, I've gone back through the tapes that I had with Sam, which were much more about driving Lime Rock than about racing the car in general because Lime Rock was only the second race they had with it. So there wasn't a lot of details to be gleaned there, but I wanted to take it all in.

“So a few things have changed but one great thing about this Trans-Am series group on the West Coast is that they have policed it very well to make sure that these cars did not get modernized over the years except when it comes to safety equipment. So there's no brand-new six piston caliper disc brakes on them. There's no new lightweight componentry in the engines. Other than the tires, when these cars roll out on the track their performance should be pretty much equivalent to what it was like back in the day.”

In addition to his role in front of the camera, Joy has spent many years honing his road racing skills in SCCA competition.
Joy will also get to drive Epsman's 1986 Bill Elliott Ford Thunderbird, another car he's covered on television. (Photo: Marshall Pruett)

“I got into this sport because I wanted to be a driver,” he explained. “And at that time didn't have any money to find out if I had any talent. Then later it became hard to find the time and eventually I was able to work out a part of my schedule where I could do some SCCA racing on weekends when I wasn't doing broadcasting. And ended up running the SCCA regional and national and pro programs with the Spec Racer and other cars and ended up driving in the 24 Hours of Daytona.

"It's been a lifelong love affair. I started covering races as a part-time job announcing local stock car races and that led to racing in radio and then to television. So it all kind of merged together along the way.”

So what can we expect from Joy this weekend on the twisting Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca circuit? Big broadslides and daring passes, possibly?

With two iconic cars to pilot, he says he’ll have to keep his adrenaline in check…

“Ken’s just looking for somebody that'll keep them on the pavement and not wad them up into a ball!” he said with a chuckle. “It’s an honor to get to drive Ken’s cars, and he said to just go out there and have some fun. So that's just what I intend to do.”

PHOTOS: Click Here or on the image below to view REUNION: Paddock Tour 2012 Pt. 1



Marshall Pruett is SPEED.com's Auto Racing Editor, and covers the IndyCar Series. Before joining SPEED, Pruett worked in open-wheel racing for 20 years as a mechanic and engineer. He also contributes to RACER, Road & Track and Racecar Engineering. Follow him @MarshallPruett.
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