70 Trans Am championship

[blacksheep-1]

I found this while looking up some other stuff, I can actually say that I have had my hands on several 69-70 Boss 302s, one of which was raced in this championship, but it was at a later date. This si the racing I grew up on.. great stuff.

1970 SCCA Watkins Glen Trans Am; Parnelli Jones Bud Moore Boss 302 Mustang; Mark Donohue Javelin - YouTube

 

[Bill Pemberton]

We both grew up on this stuff, Blacksheep and you have to love Parnelli's passes in the grass. Funny it almost looks like Watkins Glen might have been safer back then without the sea of guardrails it has today? Appreciate the post and it was fun to watch our racing heroes of the past.

 

[TA28]

blacsheep i owned the 69 70 Gregson car for 29 years. Great car was 90% original sheet metal till I sold it. Out on West coast now. Bought fr500c 050011 off dean 2012. See your working with him.chris

 

[PatrickStapler]

I posted the same video on VMF a few weeks ago. It certainly is awesome. Glad to see it here.

 

[Freddyman]

Great vid, thanks for posting. He didn't drive a mustang, but I always was a Mark Donohue fan.

 

[PatrickStapler]

However, Mark did drive the Ford GT-40's campaigned by Holman Moody in '66/'67.

 

[ChrisM]

The 69-70 Trans Am cars of almost any manufacturer are the best looking cars ever made. There. I said it.

 

[Jim Ryder]

That's were my love of Mustangs started! I was ten years old at Road America and fell in love with mustangs! Parnelli Jones and George Follmer became my favorite drivers! From that day my dream car was always a Schoolbus yellow BOSS 302! As things work out I never had a chance to own one. In 2007 I bought a grabber orange GT and made a BOSS clone, now it's my track car! Two years ago I finally got a 2013 School Bus Yellow BOSS 302!!

 

[Fastfordnut]

blacsheep i owned the 69 70 Gregson car for 29 years. Great car was 90% original sheet metal till I sold it. Out on West coast now. Bought fr500c 050011 off dean 2012. See your working with him.chris

Great Video - Thanks for that.
Definitely the highwater mark for that time.

Hank Fournier is a local friend and a very talented fabricator who wrenched (and occasional driver) on that #28 car for the 68 & 69 seasons.
He even converted a Cliqout club soda truck into a transporter. (I have a pic somewhere)
Hank still has all the docs for that 69 #28 build - from start to finish including all receipts for the spares delivered from Ford. Even the pallet/sled the car sat on when it was pulled from the Metuchen line.
Phenomenal photo album from back in the day - pics of all the greats he had the privilege run with and to call friends.
This guy has enough material and first hand stories to do his own documentary.
Still building cars at 80+

 

[TA28]

Great Video - Thanks for that.
Definitely the highwater mark for that time.

Hank Fournier is a local friend and a very talented fabricator who wrenched (and occasional driver) on that #28 car for the 68 & 69 seasons.
He even converted a Cliqout club soda truck into a transporter. (I have a pic somewhere)
Hank still has all the docs for that 69 #28 build - from start to finish including all receipts for the spares delivered from Ford. Even the pallet/sled the car sat on when it was pulled from the Metuchen line.
Phenomenal photo album from back in the day - pics of all the greats he had the privilege run with and to call friends.
This guy has enough material and first hand stories to do his own documentary.
Still building cars at 80+

View attachment 62317

View attachment 62318

 

[TA28]

Fast ford nut i have meet hank over the years was at his house in RI yes very nice guy.skids he sold to New owner. Saw the pictures and info on car. I even brought car with me when I was at his house. Sids still had red paint on them.chris

 

[blacksheep-1]

Great Video - Thanks for that.
Definitely the highwater mark for that time.

Hank Fournier is a local friend and a very talented fabricator who wrenched (and occasional driver) on that #28 car for the 68 & 69 seasons.
He even converted a Cliqout club soda truck into a transporter. (I have a pic somewhere)
Hank still has all the docs for that 69 #28 build - from start to finish including all receipts for the spares delivered from Ford. Even the pallet/sled the car sat on when it was pulled from the Metuchen line.
Phenomenal photo album from back in the day - pics of all the greats he had the privilege run with and to call friends.
This guy has enough material and first hand stories to do his own documentary.
Still building cars at 80+

View attachment 62317

View attachment 62318

View attachment 62358

sounds like he needs to join this site and share some of that history.
I so love that hauler!!!

 

[zajac]

It is not quite the same as the actual 1970 TramsAm races, but the Monterey Historic Races at Laguna Seca in August of each year have the a specific race which includes all the TransAm era racers. Most of the Historic races at Laguna Seca in August do not go near full out 10//0ths on the course. But the most competitive looking and sounding race is the TransAm race. All these TransAm race cars are the loudest and they are not afraid to mix it up and trade some paint at the Monterey Historics. In fact, I was there one year when on the last lap. the No. 15 Mustang and the Challenger traded paint and took each other out of the race. They usually have both the No. 15 and No. 16 1970 Mustangs in that race.
I did see two Ferrari 1957 Test Rossas take each other out in the Laguna Seca "corkscrew". There was some serious money involved in those two Ferrari Testa Rossas! Fotunately, the damage to the Two Ferraris was not too serious.
On another Laguna Seca Historics note: I was there the several years ago when Ford was the honored Marque and they had most of all the actual GT40 historcs race cars in the world present. Walking through The Pit Area was pretty cool. But what as really amazing was sitting in the grandstand on the main straight when the GT40s came around the last turn onto the main straight and got on the gas! The sound was so amazing and deafening! You can bet that the Laguna Seca usual sound restrictions were not in effect at that time!

 

[Dave_W]

One of the highlights of the Boss Track Attack program was a dinner in the museum that Fred Miller built as part of the Miller Motorsports Park track offices, holding an amazing collection of Carrol Shelby's products. At least one of each version of the GT40s, several Daytona Coupes, one of the 35 original GT350Rs, a supercharged GT350, GT500s, Dragonsnake Cobra, etc.

On the vintage racing, I used to go to the Lime Rock vintage races in the 90s and early 2000s. The Essex Wire GT350 was a regular, as was an original Penske/Donohue Camaro (with acid-dipped lightweight body), and the Edelbrocks would show up now and then. I remember a race that had the classic Trans Am cars, the under-2.5L T/A cars, and maybe one or two other classes thrown in. I was watching from the hillside on the outside of the track at the end of the front straight. At the start, the big V8 T/A cars thundered past the green flag, followed by the buzzing of Lotus Cortinas, Alfa GTVs, and several Mini Coopers. Most of the drivers were at the usual 8/10 or so of a vintage race, but a few were going all-out for the win. Pretty soon, one of the GT350s had pulled into the lead, with one of the Minis pestering it like a buzzing mosquito. Lap after lap, the Mustang would come blasting down the front straight, having about a 3-4 car length lead by the time he turned into Big Bend, the Mini immediately gaining ground in Big Bend and the Left-Hander, closing in as they both went out of sight through the Right-Hander and onto No-Name Straight. Then a short time later, the Mini would pop out under the bridge at the top of the Downhill in the lead, the Mustang appearing a second or two later. As the Mini desperately tried to carry maxiumum momentum through the Downhill and onto the front straight, the Mustang would straighten up, stomp the loud pedal, and reel him in, nosing by at the start/finish line. Lap after lap, all the way to the finish, when the GT350 crossed the line a fender ahead of the Mini.

Was the Mustang driver pacing himself and just toying with the Mini? Maybe, but the interplay between the two made it one of the most enjoyable races I've witnessed. And since I was brought up with several Little British Cars in the family, and was trying to restore/build a Triumph Sptfire with GT6+ drivetrain & suspension at the time, and my Boss ownership was many years in the future, I was cheering on the Mini every lap.

 

[JDee]

Similar story to Dave_W only this was from back in the day, 1965 at Mosport (memory fades) watching the Comstock Racing GT350 with *I think* Eppie Wietzes at the wheel being hounded mercilessly by a Mini-Cooper driven by Bill Brack. They were defnitely a match and produced a series of highly entertaining races that year. This was club racing but the fences were lined with people watching these guys go at it. Both of them went on to drive big bangers, especially Wietzes who ran CanAM and F5000 for a lot of years.

This car:https://fordauthority.com/2018/07/s...0-r-mustang-to-auction-in-monterey-in-august/
is supposed to be that car, but it certainly is not liveried correctly as Comstock ran it back in the day.

 

[Anti]

Cool watch. All I had seen up to this point were the Touring Car Masters in Aussie. It is fun to see them run still.

I was surprised to see the Trans Am was part of SCCA.

 

[blacksheep-1]

Cool watch. All I had seen up to this point were the Touring Car Masters in Aussie. It is fun to see them run still.

I was surprised to see the Trans Am was part of SCCA.

So was Can Am

 

[302 Hi Pro]

Cool watch. All I had seen up to this point were the Touring Car Masters in Aussie. It is fun to see them run still.

I was surprised to see the Trans Am was part of SCCA.

Itstared in 1965 and was known as the SCCA Trans-American Sedan Championship.

Class were for under and over 2.0L. Limit was 5.0L or 305 CID on the top end.

 

[302 Hi Pro]

So was Can Am

I’ll never forget the mostly unstoppable McClaren’s powered by Chevy 427 CID aluminum ZL1’s. Lots of F1 circuit drivers.

Great racing.

 

[JDee]

I’ll never forget the mostly unstoppable McClaren’s powered by Chevy 427 CID aluminum ZL1’s. Lots of F1 circuit drivers.

Great racing.

Yeah, ground pounding V8 power, 494 and later 512 inch aluminum Chevy big blocks with the injectors poking out the top of the engine cover, fabulous stuff, truly shook the ground. Until one day a blue Porsche 917KL/30 turbo panzer with Mark Donohue at the wheel showed up in town and the fun was over. Seeing them exit Moss corner at Mosport and hammer up the back straight would stand your hair on end. The Porsche was an incredible machine, but it just did not make the glorious sounds the Chevy's did. Donohue was an incredible driver as well, my favorite driver as a young adult, pretty sure I shed a tear when I heard he died in F1. Great times, outrageous cars, men of steel drivers, never seen the like of them since.