American racing has always been dominated by the drag and circle track varieties. After all, the U.S. is an enormous place where many (if not most) of the roads are arrow-straight and virtually every one of the country's 3,141 counties has a fairground with an oval horse track. So it was only natural for us to race ... well ... there. It's Europe that's filled with twisty roads up the sides of mountains and former goat paths through vineyards-they're the ones who came up with road racing.
Still if there's one road racing series that has found a place in American hearts, it's the SCCA's Trans Am. Not the current Trans Am, but the Trans Am between 1966 and 1971 when American ponycars with American V-8s thundered in brutal battle. It's the series which spawned such muscle-era legends as the Camaro Z/28, Mustang Boss 302, Challenger T/A, AAR 'Cuda and, of course, the Firebird Trans Am. It's the series that made Mark Donohue a legend, set Roger Penske up as the most successful racing team owner of all time, and solidified Parnelli Jones' reputation as the toughest driver. It was, in short, glorious.
1966: The BeginningTrans Am was born alongside ponycars. The '65 Mustang hit racetracks moments after its introduction and (as the Shelby GT350) found instant success in SCCA's B-Production Sedan "amateur" division. But since there was a void where professional sedan racing should have been, SCCA Executive Director John Bishop established a "manufacturer's" title. He figured that if he attracted Ford, GM, and Chrysler to the series, the big-name drivers would follow.
The hook for the carmakers was that these would be production-based machines. Sure, most of the stories about chemically lightened bodies, relocated suspension systems, engines repositioned for better weight distribution, and eccentric engine modifications are true. But fundamentally these were race cars built around stock unibody cars running production-based engines, transmissions, and suspensions. The SCCA's rules for the series were strict, and the competing teams were aggressive in twisting those rules for their advantage.
Initially, Trans Am was divided into divisions for under and over 2.0L engines, and at the first race on March 25, 1966, at Sebring, Florida, fully 35 of the 44 starters ran in the dinkier displacement division. But the great A.J. Foyt put a Mustang on the pole for the "Four-Hour Governor's Cup Race For Sedans," and the roar of the seven V-8-powered entries (three Mustangs, three Plymouth Barracudas, and one Dodge Dart-two flat-six powered Corvairs filled out the over-2.0L field), was intoxicating. The V-8s were fragile that first race, and most dropped out, but no one cared about the four-cylinder Alfas, Minis, and Cortinas. Bob Tullius took the first checkered flag for the over-2.0L division, driving that sole-surviving Dart.
Factory teams didn't enter Trans Am until September of that first season when Carroll Shelby put Lew Spencer in charge of a three-car Ford Mustang effort. With Jerry Titus (then editor of Sports Car Graphic magazine) as the lead driver, the Ford team had little trouble securing the first over-2.0L Trans Am title, winning four of the seven races.
1967The factories were a major presence through all 12 races of the Trans Am's second season. Shelby returned with his Mustangs, Mercury recruited NASCAR legend Bud Moore to build Mercury Cougars for Dan Gurney, Parnelli Jones, and Ed Leslie, and Chevrolet had Roger Penske and Mark Donohue armed with the all-new Camaro Z/28.
When the 12-race '67 Trans Am season opened at Daytona on February 3, a full 34 cars made up the field. Bob Tullius put his well-sorted Dart a full lap ahead of the rest of the field in the first race and then immediately faded for the rest of the year. A startling 61 cars made it to the next race, Sebring, with 26 of them big-motor monsters and 13 of those Camaros. Jerry Titus in a Shelby-built Mustang took that race.