Bill Adam

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This article is about Bill Adam, the race car driver. For the trumpet pedagogue, see William Adam (trumpeter).

Bill Adam is a race car driver born in Airdrie, Scotland on May 25, 1946. Starting his career in sports cars toward the end of the 1970s, Adam drove as a privateer,winning a Canadian championship before being hired professionally. Invited to join the factory backed Group 44 race team in 1980, he spent time co-driving with Bob Tullius in the Triumph TR-8 in the IMSA series and had victories at the Sebring 12 Hour endurance race, Road Atlanta, Mosport, and Road America, as well as a victory at Daytona where he drove alone. In mid '82, the team unveiled and Prototype Jaguar GTP racer, amd it finished 3rd at its first race ever at Road America. In the '83 season, Adam and Tullius led almost every race but the car proved fragile, although it they did win Road Atlanta, Lime Rock, Mosport and Pocono races. In 1985, Adam joined Conte Racing, co driving with John Paul Jr. in the factory backed March GTP racer. Power came from a factory engine program at Buick, a V-6 turbo motor that put out in excess of 1000HP. Unfortunately, the power of this engine was more than the chassis could handle and it led almost every race, but broke down in almost every race. Following years were spent with Bayside Racing from Seattle, Washington in their Porsche 962 GTP racer, as well as the Hendricks Motorsport Corvette GTP racer. 1986 & 1987 were also spent in the Rothmans Porsche Cup in Canada with numerous victories as well as winning a prestigious Porsche Cup award, something given out to the worlds' top Porsche racers. At the Le Mans 24 in 1987, driving a Porsche 962C for Porsche Canada, Adam teamed with Scott Goodyear and Richard Spendard, running as high as 5th overall before stopping with engine problems. One season was spent with the Protofab race team, racing a factory backed effort in both Camaro and Corvette race cars before spending a few years out of motorsport. 1994 saw Adam return to racing, driving the Champion Racing Porsche. Along with co-drivers including John Paul, Jr., Juan Fangio II, Brian Redman, and Thierry Boutsen, he had a second place finish at the Sebring 12 Hour with Hans Stuck in 1995 and second place at Watkins Glen. He would return in 1996 with Stuck to win the 12 hour Sebring GT1. In 1997, he placed 2nd in class, again with Stuck and Boutsen, at the Daytona 24 Hours.

In 2002 Adam drove two races of the Porsche Supercup at the USGP, placing 11th and 13th. The following year he was driving the number 23 Porsche 911 twice, in the GrandAm Motorola Cup. He qualified the car 2nd on the grid at Mont Tremblant.

Recently, Adam has been racing an Audi R8 in the Historic Sports car Racing series, winning the Daytona WSC Enduro race in November of 2005.