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Boris Said is our next guest on Fan4Racing Fan2Fan NASCAR & Race Talk on Monday, December 8, 2014 at 9:30 pm ET. Call 714-202-9918 during the LIVE broadcast with any questions or comments.
A tough competitor and road course specialist, Boris Said is a familiar name within NASCAR for good reason. His loyal followers – the Said Heads – know they will find him racing at Daytona for the season opener of the Sprint Cup Series and on the track when a road course is on the schedule. Said’s expertise on road courses and willingness to share his knowledge with various teams is one of the reasons NASCAR drivers have improved their own road course skills, making Watkins Glen and Sonoma races some of the most exciting racing of the season.
The journey for Said’s professional racing career spans nearly three decades taking him across North America and Europe in a variety of racing series including his first series, the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) in 1988, when he won Rookie of the Year honors. Said went on to win the Showroom Stock GT National Championships three consecutive times, establishing his name within the sport of racing.
That recognition caught Reeves Callaway’s attention, a famous designer of Corvette race cars, and he gave Said a chance to compete in the German ADAC Cup in a Callaway Corvette. His success in that series quickly earned him a spot in the 24 Hours of Le Mans the next season, starting the GT2-Class from the pole position. Later in the same season, Said won the famous Spa-Franchorchamps circuit in Belgium, also from the pole.
After gaining success across the sea in Europe, Said returned to the United States to race the SCCA Trans-Am series and IMSA. Again he found success quickly, winning 15 IMSA races including the 1997 and 1998 Rolex 24 Hours of Daytona and the 1998 12 Hours of Sebring.
Those same years, 1997 and 1998, Said raced full-time in the Craftsman Truck Series gaining him exposure to many of NASCAR’s teams and establishing his reputation as a road course specialist. At this point in NASCAR’s evolution, drivers found road course racing challenging over their typical oval configured tracks. During the first half of the next decade from 2000 to 2005, teams sought out the expertise of Said to give them a competitive edge at their road course tracks at Sonoma and Watkins Glen.
Said reinforced his reputation as he continued competing in the Rolex GT and Prototype classes, winning the 2005 24 Hours of Nurburgring in the BMW Motorsport M3 GTR, becoming the first American to win that event.
What many don’t know, is that Boris Said is also co-owner of the indoor karting experiences found around the country known as K1 Speed, introducing racing locally and to the next generation of racers. Their facilities are in California, Washington Florida, Illinois, Texas, New York, Colorado, and Arizona with state-of-the-art electric karts and large entertainment venues featuring sitting areas, pool tables and snack bars. Their newest facility recently opened at Atlanta, GA. Learn more about K1 Speed on their website, k1speed.com.
Said continues racing in the Sprint Cup Series with his team No Fear Racing and what many ‘Said Heads’ are looking forward to in the 2015 season, is seeing their favorite driver back behind the wheel at NASCAR’s season opener at Daytona International Speedway in February.