Few who were around to experience the Player’s GM Challenge will argue that there has never been a more exciting racing series in North America. The cars were stout, fast and came out of a showroom. The drivers were talented, fast and tenacious. The fans were drunk and rabid.
As the series took place from the late Eighties to early Nineties, before the age of digital cameras, there is a sad lack of media material available from the series. Hopefully, more fans will start scanning their old photos soon.
Through a friend on Facebook, I just came across this fantastic (for the era) in car video from a race at Shannonville in the rain. The driver is not identified. Do you know who is driving this machine?
Update: Canadian racing legend and top competitor in the series, Ron Fellows, has weighed in on the video. Ron believes that this is one of the Motomaster cars, which he drove himself at Shannonville in 1987. That was a dry race, so Fellows thinks this is David Empringham in the ’88 race.
August 28. Won by Peter Cohen. I drove the ICG Camaro which passed the video car and drove off.
All the front leading cars carried video recorders which over time probably lost picture quality.
It’s not David Empringham. He finish 5th. I believe the video car is Tom Clark #87 Pontiac Trans-Am. The car ahead of Tom is me, Doug Beatty Jr. in my #24 Canadian Tire/Williamson Chev Olds Camaro. I started 12th and finished 7th. Tom start behind me in 14th and ended up finishing 16th.