| Category | Sports car racing |
|---|---|
| Country or region | United States |
| Inaugural season | 1966 |
| Official website | www.sccatrans-am.com |
| Current season | |
The Trans-Am Series is an automobile racing series which was created in 1966 by Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) President John Bishop. Originally known as the Trans-American Sedan Championship it has evolved over time from its original format as a manufacturers championship for modified racing sedans to its current form as a drivers championship open to GT style cars.
The series was formed at the dawn of the pony car era and was derived from the SCCA's A & B Sedan amateur Club Racing classes,[1] based upon commercially produced cars which had been modified for racing competition. Originally the series was open to FIA Group 2 Touring Cars[2] and it featured two classes, Over 2.0 Liter and Under 2.0 Liter, with both classes running together. The series was best known for competition among American V8 sedans such as the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Plymouth Barracuda, Mercury Cougar, AMC Javelin, Pontiac Firebird, and Dodge Challenger in the 1960s and early 1970s. Marques such as Porsche, Alfa Romeo, Datsun, Mini Cooper, Saab, and Volkswagen competed in the series Under 2.0 Liter category.
The Pontiac Trans Am was named after the series. According to SCCA archives, that brand has taken 7 wins in the 42-year-old series' 450+ events. The last win by a Pontiac Trans Am was in 1984. The Sports Car Club of America is the sanctioning body for the series and holds the rights to the "Trans-Am" name. The series has also been licensed by the Champ Car World Series and ran the majority of its races in support of the parent open-wheel championship.
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At first, the Trans-Am vehicles were primarily modified versions of the road-going car. The competition was divided into two classes- an "Under 2 Liter" class (predominantly small European sedans) and the "Over 2 Liters" class (displacement limited to 5.0 liters, or 305 cu. in.).
The first race was in 1966 at Sebring International Raceway. The overall win went to Jochen Rindt driving an Alfa Romeo GTA (an Under 2 Liter entry), with Bob Tullius (driving a Dodge Dart) taking second overall, but first in the Over 2 Liter class.
Allan Moffat in an Under 2 Liter Lotus Cortina won the third race at Bryar. Ford had full factory effort with the Alan Mann Cortinas but suffered from reliability issues. In 1966 the Over 2 Liter manufacturers' champion was Ford and the Under 2 Liter manufacturers' champion Alfa Romeo with the Kwech/Andrey GTA scoring 39 of the 57 manufacturers' points for Alfa. The Alfa Romeo of Horst Kwech and Gaston Andrey also scored the most points in the first unofficial drivers' championship, edging out Bob Johnson.
In 1967 Porsche lobbied the SCCA to have the 911 accepted as a sedan and then dominated the Under 2 Liter field winning the manufacturers championship over Alfa Romeo. In Over 2 Liter, Ford edged out Mercury to win the manufacturers' championship. Jerry Titus won the second unofficial drivers' championship.
These years were largely dominated by Mark Donohue, driving for Roger Penske. Penske campaigned Camaros through 1969, when he signed with American Motors to race the Javelin in 1970 and 1971. Donohue would chalk up 20 race victories between 1967 and 1970 and three unofficial drivers' championships, the third achieved in 1971.
The 1970 Trans Am series is regarded by most racing historians as the high water mark of American road racing. Every "pony car" manufacturer was represented with a factory team and top driving talent: Chevrolet had the Chaparral Chevy Camaro Z28 team with Jim Hall, Ed Leslie, and Vic Elford. Ford's Bud Moore Boss 302 Mustangs were driven by Parnelli Jones and George Follmer. For Plymouth, the Plymouth Cuda' AAR (All American Racing) were handled by Dan Gurney and Swede Savage. Sam Posey, and occasionally Tony Adamowicz, drove Ray Caldwell's Autodynamics Dodge Challenger T/A (Trans Am), Jerry Titus had the Pontiac Trans Am, and Roger Penske's Sunoco AMC Javelin team starred Mark Donohue and Peter Revson. The Mercury Cougars were driven by Charlie Rainville, Bruce Jennings, and three other drivers in two races of the 1968 season.
As evidence of the original modified production car concept, a fan favorite in the early 1970s was the "Grey Ghost",[3] a '64 Pontiac Tempest, prepared by legendary Pontiac Chief Engineer Herb Adams[4] and a group of his young proteges. The boxy six year old Tempest had once been Adams' wife's daily driver, with reportedly over 80,000 miles (130,000 km) on the odometer when it was turned into an A Sedan racer. It proved to be surprisingly fast, at a time when even a one year old car was considered out of step with the competition. It was entered in the opening round of the 1971 Trans-Am Championship. Unable to qualify, the car was allowed to start from the back of the pack. With Bob Tullius behind the wheel, it mowed through the field, and was running second behind eventual winner Mark Donohue's factory-supported Penske Racing AMC Javelin when the engine broke.[5] Tullius would go on to win back to back Trans-Am championships in 1977 and 1978.
Most of these cars have been preserved or restored and are still racing in vintage events today. The Historic Trans Am Group events often reunite drivers from the era with the cars they raced "back in the day".[6]
In 1969 the "U2" class was renamed when the engine displacement limit was increased to 2.5 litres. Porsche 911s and Alfa Romeo GTVs were dominant, until 1971 when the BRE Datsuns entered the series and dominated through 1972, when Alfa Romeo and BMW quit the series because an inability to beat the BRE prepared Datsuns. When these two marques dropped out interest in the series waned and the SCCA cancelled the series. Successful drivers included Peter Gregg, Horst Kwech, Bob Sharp, and John Morton. The Vintage Sedan Racers Group[7] or VSRG is made up of vintage race drivers, car owners, car builders and enthusiast working together to bring the excitement of Trans-Am 2.5 and B-Sedan cars to vintage racing.
Beginning in the 1970s, Trans-Am cars would also be seen competing in the IMSA GT Series.
Rules evolved over the years, incorporating FIA touring and grand-touring classes as well as SCCA Club Racing classes. The different classes had restrictions placed on the allowed modifications in an effort to equalize competition between the different cars. In 1976, Trans-Am returned to the two category format, classifying FIA Group 4 and 5 cars as "Category II". During this time, Trans Am changed from a muscle-car based series to basically a support series for IMSA GT. This format was still in use when the series went on hiatus in 2006.
In 1980, the SCCA developed a weight-to-displacement ratio for handicapping cars. Five-liter, 2600 pound vehicles dominated the field. Soon, tube-frame cars, often based upon commercially available and relatively inexpensive short-track stock car chassis, would begin to appear, eventually becoming the standard for Trans-Am competitors. Turbocharged, small-displacement engined cars would also appear and proliferate as the decade wore on.
1983 marked the emergence of a young African-American Formula Atlantic driver named Willy T. Ribbs, whose self-described "ultra-fast, aggressive, and smooth" driving style attracted the attention of Neil DeAtley, a wealthy contractor who was assembling a two-car team of racing Camaros for the Trans-Am series. DeAtley's major sponsor was Budweiser, the largest-selling beer in America, which also marked the association of truly major sponsor to the series. Ribbs came the team as the number two driver, with English Formula One driver David Hobbs driving the teams primary car. Ribbs agreed, and as a team, he and Hobbs dominated the 1983 season, with Ribbs winning five races and Hobbs winning four. The smooth driving veteran Hobbs took the Trans-Am championship with his more consistent finishes, while the more brilliant, yet aggressive Ribbs was named Trans-Am Rookie of the Year.
During practice for the first round of the 1984 Trans Am season, Ribbs fought with fellow competitor, Bob Lobenberg, over an on track incident and was summarily fired from the team. Out of a ride for the first four events, Ribbs joined Roush Racing, who had entered into Trans-Am competition that season, driving Mercury Capris. With the help of Ribbs's 3 wins, Mercury took the manufacturers' title from DeAtley's Chevrolet. For the next six years Roush entries would dominate the series, winning 46 of the 83 races. Back with Roush again for the 1985 season, Ribbs scored seven victories and became the leading money winner in Trans-Am series history, yet finished second in points, as teammate Wally Dallenbach, Jr. used his consistently higher finishes to take the championship .
1986 was wildly competitive as the aforementioned Turbocharged, small-displacement engined cars would become more powerful and go from field fillers to race winners. The Roush Racing Mercury Capri V8s and Merkur XR4Ti turbo 4s were head to head against Camaro V8s, and the turbocharged Buick Somerset, when actor/race driver Paul Newman shocked everyone and took round 8 in his Nissan 300ZX Turbo. Dallenbach would again take the championship, this time in a Protofab Camaro.
The Roush Merkurs won of Scott Pruett and Pete Halsmer dominated the 1987 season, winning all but one race, with Elliott Forbes-Robinson taking that win in his Porsche 944 Turbo. Pruett would take home the championship.
In 1988, after years of rallying, Audi would enter the series with the 200 turbo quattro via the services of Bob Tullius's Group 44 Racing. As usual the car ran their trademark Quattro system. However this did not run without controversy as the car, piloted by Haywood and with both Walter Röhrl and Hans Joachim Stuck sharing duties, steamrollered the opposition taking eight out of thirteen wins. As Audi would defect to IMSA by the end of the season, the SCCA would change the regulation to a two wheel drive only and banning cars with non American engines from taking part. The Historic Trans-am & IMSA Group[8] is dedicated to the preservation of the cars that ran in the SCCA Trans-am series and the similar IMSA GTO class from 1980 until 1991. The variety of cars in these classes ran the gamut from turbocharged 4 cylinder Merkurs to Corvettes with 358 cubic inch V8s.
In the 1990s Tommy Kendall, in a Ford, was the driver to beat- he would take four driver's championships in this decade. Chevrolet was also prominent in this time period, with 6 drivers' champions in their cars.
Paul Gentilozzi rose to the fore beginning in 1998 with his first championship in Trans-Am. He would win four more championships, driving a Chevrolet, Ford, and Jaguar. These latter years also saw more marques enter the field, with exotics such as the Panoz Esperante, Qvale Mangusta and Jaguar XKR. Later in the 2004 season, a Rocketsports Racing Jaguar XKR raced with a production-based 4.5 liter 650 hp (485 kW) DOHC AJ-V8.
Due to a lack of participants and interest, the series all but ceased operations after the 2005 season. However the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) continued to own the name and permitted Heartland Park Topeka to run two races in September and October 2006 using Trans Am rules and the Trans Am name. Fields were shored up by a makeshift assortment of SCCA GT-1 class amateur racers in town for the National Championship Runoffs later that week.
It was announced on December 11, 2008 that Trans Am would be returning in 2009,[9] with former champion Greg Pickett sponsoring the series with the Muscle Milk brand, using the SCCA's GT-1 category rules. The first race was held March 22, 2009. The revived series utilized the same vehicle rules as SCCA's amateur GT-1 class, providing top GT-1 competitors a professional series to progress to. Tomy Drissi was the first champion upon the series' return.
The Trans Am Series has yet to re-establish a television contract, having lost its connections with Speed Channel upon the series' hiatus from 2007-08. Also, the World Challenge still receives priority on the Versus television network.
In 2011, in an effort to increase grid sizes which typically numbered in the single digits in 2010, the Trans Am Series will introduce two additional classes of competition in addition to the 2010 spec which will race as "TA1". The new TA2 class will consist of SCCA GT2 and GTA class cars while the new TA3 class will consist of SCCA GT3 class cars. This is the first time that the series will feature more than one class of competition since 1979.[10]
The Trans-Am Series has used a tube-framed based format, similar to the original IMSA GT Series, since the early 1980s, with heavy emphasis on GT cars. The SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge racing series, run by the Sports Car Club of America and the Grand American Road Racing Association (respectively), utilize modified production-based cars sports cars and touring cars, similar in spirit to the original Trans-Am racers. With the rise of these series, Trans-Am saw decreased attention from the media. Speedvision did occasionally cover Trans-Am races until the series' demise in 2006, however.
Trans-Am Manufacturers Championship points are awarded in both classes for 1st through 6th places, 9-6-4-3-2-1, with only the highest finishing example of a make receiving points. Beginning in 1972 SCCA instituted a Trans-Am Drivers Championship based on overall finishing position for 1st through 10th places, 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1. Beginning in 1990 the top 25 finishers were awarded points, 30-27-25-23-21-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-1.
Race historians have rated the overall finishers in the early Trans-Am years by the driver points scheme in place from 1972 until 1989 to crown unofficial overall Drivers Champions for 1966-1971. This listing first appeared in Albert R. Bochroch’s 1986 book Trans-Am Racing 1966-1985.[20]
| Year | Champion Driver | Car | Team/Entrant |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1966 | Horst Kwech Gaston Andrey |
Alfa Romeo GTA | Bill Knauz |
| 1967 | Jerry Titus | Ford Mustang | Shelby American |
| 1968 | Mark Donohue | Chevrolet Camaro | Penske Racing |
| 1969 | Mark Donohue | Chevrolet Camaro | Penske Racing |
| 1970 | Parnelli Jones | Ford Mustang | Bud Moore Engineering |
| 1971 | Mark Donohue | AMC Javelin | Penske Racing |
