Here's what Autoweek says: James Thurber’s iconic character Walter Mitty actually wanted to become Anatoly Arutunoff, we believe.

“Toly” has raced with Bob Bondurant, Phil Hill, Richie Ginther, Dan Gurney, Ak Miller and Carroll Shelby back when cars slid, drivers were visible, and the average privateer like Arutunoff could finish fourth in a grand prix race against the factories.
Arutunoff began racing in “normal” sports cars, such as his Porsche Carrera Speedster in 1957, and then a really quick short-wheelbase Ferrari in Italy’s spectacular Targa Florio enduro in 1967, he considers them just tools of their time. You get the sense, even, that he’s bored with these super-classics.

In the 1970s, he drove in two genuine Cannonball Baker coast-to-coast races, and has raced on just about every road race circuit in the U.S. and many in Europe. He even built his own road course, the Hallett Motor Racing Circuit, not far from Tulsa. And he still drives in European vintage rallies, and was seriously considering the latest Bullrun outlaw jaunt from Montreal to Key West last May. “I also won the very first Palm Springs vintage race. I ran the first two Colorado Grands, the Copper State in Arizona, the first Silver State open highway race in Nevada, then we put on four rallies ourselves: One in Arkansas called the Hillbilly Mille, two in Las Vegasand two French road rallies, one themed “the French chefs” and one for the Champagne region.”