Mike Downs

Mike Downs began his working career, and love of sports cars at age 10. He started his fascinating voyage sweeping floors at a foreign car parts store in Northern Virginia. At 16, he became a partner in a good little foreign car repair shop in Falls Church Virginia. It was there a few years later Mike met Bob Tullius from Group44. Downs did some work on the Group's cars and later joined his famous team as a racing driver. During his tenure with Group 44, the immaculately prepared cars allowed...See more

Mike Downs began his working career, and love of sports cars at age 10. He started his fascinating voyage sweeping floors at a foreign car parts store in Northern Virginia. At 16, he became a partner in a good little foreign car repair shop in Falls Church Virginia. It was there a few years later Mike met Bob Tullius from Group44. Downs did some work on the Group's cars and later joined his famous team as a racing driver. During his tenure with Group 44, the immaculately prepared cars allowed him to win many races and a National Championship. In 1970 he moved to the Mecca of American racing in California to race the new Titan Formula Ford for their West Coast distributor. He moved from there to race for BRE in the Datsun Trans Am car. He drove for the Porsche of America Racing Team in the big three American endurance events, Daytona, Sebring, and Watkins Glen. In the mid seventies Downs headed up Silverstone Enterprises in Maryland to prepare and drive the Porsche Carreras for IMSA racing, culminating in a class win at the Daytona 24 hour race. In the late seventies he moved back to the grandeur of California to open Downs Engineering. During the next twenty odd years he raced Formula Atlantic, Trans Am and IMSA GTO. In the new century Mike won a championship driving his own designed and built Sports Racing Car. Mike has worked with the film industry and developed a remote camera mount for car chases and commercials. He's met some interesting blokes there, and there could be the makings of some future novels. Currently Mike's shop builds race cars from the ground up. Downs Engineering does restorations on vintage race cars, and designs and builds specialty cars. The shop is busy building racing engines, and the Hayabusa engine parts he develops. Mike has written four novels so far dealing with early American racing in the 1920s and 30s. Tales of fabulous cars, Nazi intrigue, and lovely ladies keeps him poking at the keyboard, and hopefully entertaining his readers. Mike has tons of ideas for future novels and is bursting to get them in ink. See less