The following extract on the Avanti Racing Program is also reprinted. 
The source is Collectible Automobile May 1984 Vol. 1 No. 1-
 AVANTI: FORWARD, BACKWARD FORWARD BY RICHARD M. LANGWORTH. 
As part of his 22 page article on the Avanti, author Richard M. Langworth also conducted an interview with Steve Blake ( What's Steve Blake Really Like) in 1984 during which he also touched on the Avanti at Daytona:

CA: This racing program: Blake: What racing program?

CA: Well, you ran at Daytona in 1983. Are you going to keep going with that, or was it just for fun? Blake: If we can get somebody to pay for it. No, it wasn't for fun, it was for business. The Daytona car was built by a good friend of mine who works for us now, Herb Adams, who had a hand in the Pontiac Trans Am. We hired a short track chassis builder to build us a chassis. We had a lot of breaks. The engine builder (Bo Laws - Editor), donated all his labor and we got the engine done for about 59,000 with all kinds of stuff from Chevrolet. Goodyear gave us the tires, the transmission people gave us the transmissions, Dayton gave us wheels. We finished, which was respectable. I sure didn't want to make a fool of myself, and with their help I didn't. We would like to do it again, but it's really expensive for us. We need some biggies to sponsor us. I can't tell you what's going to happen in the near future.

CA: We think it's a gangbuster NASCAR stocker. Blake: It's the right size, too. But they've got certain minimum requirements in terms of volume. The only one we need is IMSA. We've won one IMSA race so who knows.

"We do not think that the Avanti poses a racing threat to the established group of GT cars." That quotation from the October issue of Road & Track has been a burr in my saddle for over two decades. Road & Track was the magazine of my heroes: Phil Hill, Dan Gurney, and Stirling Moss. The Avanti was the car of my dreams. The whole road test was an insult to my fourteen year old sensibilities, but that one sentence hurt the most. During the weekend of February 5 and 6, Steve Blake, his beautiful Avanti Racer, and his team of drivers and mechanics proved Road & Track dead wrong.

What's the big deal about this race anyway? As early as 1906, Daytona Beach was the scene of speed trials. After World War 11 organized stock car racing was under way on the sands, and as early as 1953 there was at least one Stude coupe slugging it out with Detroit Iron. In 1959 the current Speedway was built and it included an infield road racing course that was tied into
the high banked oval. The combined course was spotted quickly by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and in February 1962 the SCCA held the first Daytona Continental, a three hour event. One of the competitors was a Pontiac Tempest driven by A.J. Foyt. Foyt led the first lap before dropping out with "Brand X" engine troubles. Dan Gurney won the race in a most controversial way. His Lotus threw a rod 1200 feet from the finish line with only two minutes left in the race. He stopped the car just short of the finish line to prevent the need to complete another lap before the checkered flag fell. Just as the checkered flag fell, Gurney drove the Lotus over the line on the starter and battery. The Continental grew in popularity and prestige over the years attracting the world's finest cars and drivers. The 1966 race was the first one to run a full 24 hours and provided a battle ground for the famous confrontation between Ford and Ferrari. Dan Gurney again stole the show, setting a new lap record of 116.51 mph in his Ford GT Mk. IL Ford GT's finished in the first three places ahead of a Ferrari driven by Mario Andretti.

The race Is now put on by IMSA and is called the IMSA Camel GT, Daytona 24 Hour Pepsi Challenge. It still attracts and challenges the world's best to survive 24 exhausting and destructive hours of speed. Porsches have been the dominant cars for the last few years. There are so many of them that there Is usually one of the quicker ones still around at the end. Just finishing this race is considered to be a major accomplishment by people associated with international auto racing. This year 79 started, and less than half finished. The AVANTI was still running strong at the rainy finish.

There were three basic classes of cars in this years event. The fastest were the exotic multi-mega-buck mid and rear engine all-out racing cars. The winner was one of these, a Porsche 935 Turbo which Bob Wolleck qualified at a new record just short of 135 mph. A. J. Foyt was entered in one of the Aston Martin Nimrods (dual overhead cam 305 cu. in. V-8) which qualified slower than the Avanti. It ran for only 121 laps and Foyt finished the race as a co-driver in the winning Porsche. Various Chevy and Jaguar V-12 powered mid-engined, ground effect cars were also in this class but all turned slower times than the Avanti on the first day of qualifying. The Avanti was in the GTO for production based cars with engines over 2.5 liters in size. Avantis competitors included Datsun's, Mazdas, Camaro's, Firebirds, Vettes, Porsches, and BMWs.

On the first day of qualifying the Avanti was beaten by five of the Turbo Porsches -AND NO ONE ELSE. Such a performance from such an unexpected corner was too much for the competition to take, so after several protests and much wrangling, the Avanti had to requalify (at over 125 MPH) and lost a few grid positions. But when the green flag drops, the B.S. stops, and veteran NASCAR driver Joe Ruttman quickly worked his way to 5th place and was working on 4th when a "Brand X" blew its engine in front of him and caused Joe to put the car into a dirt bank. Hours of repair work followed as a result of the first mishap and some later ones, but the crew always found a way to patch the rugged Avanti back together. The end result was a battered but still strong running car, a pile of broken parts and a 27th place finish, much better than anyone could have guessed. When the Avanti finally got the chance to prove itself to the world, it didn't waste the chance. Joe Ruttman may have said it best when he told Autoweek's Silva Wilkinson, "It felt very stable on the banks, very aerodynamic. I'd like to run it at Bristol." With some luck and sponsorship it may get to run at a track near you, me, and a Road & Track editor.