Any seasoned racer worth his salt will tell you rules are written to be broken or should I say tested. Half the challenge of racing is figuring out what the other team is doing. In the days of Trans-Am and Can-Am series the rule book was still in the process of being written and as the following story tells us some times it was written by whoever’s check book was the biggest. None the less, it’s clear to see some things never change. As long as there is good old competitive racing someone is going to be looking for that advantage many times being kept behind closed doors. Continue reading →
After watching the Chaparral video, I got wondering if there was any cool Trans Am video floating around the youtubes. I found this restored clip of a film called Trans Am Countdown that was filmed at the Daytona 24 Hour race in 1970. The are some great shots of the Javelin and cool interviews with Mark Donohue and a very young looking Roger Penske. Someone should have told Penske to visit the porta john before an interview! It’s not often you see a future captain of industry doing the pee dance!
Back in the golden days of road racing, it was all about the special. Racers and fabricators would cobble together all sorts of sports racers, at home in their garage. Most of them were one offs, and many of those went on to become winning machines that are part of the fabric of motor racing history. Others were so successful that they launched their builders on to winning careers. It is in this spirit that Dick Bear has built the McBearen.
I found this cool Sunoco ad in the program for the Mac’s Continental program from Mosport in September 1970. I think this pic of”Captain Nice” pretty much sums up the reputation Mark Donohue had. A family guy who also happened to be one of the best racers who ever lived.
The Mac’s Continental weekend featured Formula A, B & C. Formula A was for Formula 1 style cars with 5.0 liter V8 engines which grew into what most of us know as Formula 5000. The starting grid included names like David Hobbs, Dick Smothers (of Smothers Brothers fame), George Follmer and of course Captain Nice himself. Also of note are some of Canada’s most important drivers, Bill Brack, Horst Kroll, John Cannon and Ludwig Heimrath. Some American readers may remember his son, Ludwig Heirath Jr. who made a few failed attempts at the Indy 500 back in the Eighties.
The image on this program became an icon in Canadian beer and motorsports marketing and I think they used the format for several years. I still have a beer opener with the logo on it. Labatt’s, along with Players were the top supporters of motorsports in Canada and of Canadian driver’s around the world.The front row at the start of this race was Mark Donohue in a Porsche 917/30 on pole, with Jody Scheckter in a 917/10 beside him. Eventual winner was Charlie Kemp from Jackson Mississipi in another 917/10.
