Model Specific Discussions > Trans-Am Camaros
Interview with Gary Morgan, Trans-Am racer
Jon Mello:
Below is an in-depth interview with Gary Morgan, former Kodak employee and Trans-Am racer. His car was the 17th Z-28 built and was sold through Heinrich Chevrolet, Rochester, NY. Gary raced very successfully in a '63 Z06 Corvette prior to stepping into a Z-28 in '67.
Gary Morgan’s Z-28 Road Racer[as told by Gary Morgan to Jon Mello]
In the fall of 1966 there was discussion about the Trans-Am racing series in the SCCA Sportscar publication. It appeared that SCCA was finally going to pay purses for racing. As we had spent considerable dollars in the past, we thought it would be a good idea to try to recover some or at least try to reduce our out of the pocket expenses. We had heard about the Camaro and talked to Heinrich Chevrolet [Rochester, NY] about how maybe this was a car we could use, so Jon Heinrich talked to his contacts at GM and we were invited to visit the Tech Center in Warren, Mich.
I believe it must have been about November when my Father, Jon Heinrich and I went there and met with Vince Piggins. We also met with Gib Hufstader and David Martins (who I believe were engineers), a guy we were we told to contact for parts named Barney Krass, and with Joe Pike who was at an office downtown someplace. Vince Piggins gave me a three page Technical News Release (that I still have today) on a special Z-28 model that was being released for SCCA racing. It was assumed right then that we were getting one of these cars as Vince gave us info on what aftermarket cam to use (Engle HL 26), spring rates, spring cutting for lowering the car, sway bar diameter, part numbers for American mag wheels that were to be available from GM (I still have a wooden shipping crate the wheels came in) and various other bits of info he thought we could use. The engineers were to be our contacts for any technical assistance and we were to call Barney for any special parts. I also still have the notes I took from that visit. Boy do I wish I had the forethought to have Vince Piggins sign that Tech Release!
Upon our return to Rochester, Heinrich was told to order the car through the Zone Manager named Bill Dunne. We did not know what modifications SCCA would allow so we ordered high back bucket seats for additional support, the console package for the additional gages that were in it and the tilt steering wheel to aid getting in and out of the car when climbing over rollcage supports. We ordered a red car with black stripes, however it came with white stripes and they looked better anyway.
Prior to delivery of the car in January 1967, Heinrich received a phone call from GM asking if we were going to race the car in Daytona or Sebring. If we were, they would make an early delivery so we would have time for preparation. We were in no way going to be able to make either race due to time and money constraints.
The car came into Heinrich’s about the second or third week of January and I was called to pick it up with the loan of a dealer plate. Heinrich Chevrolet was about fifteen miles from my father’s garage where we worked on the cars. Seeing as though there was only light snow on the ground and the roads were only wet, I took it for a blistering ride on some of my favorite roads. WOW, this thing sure had plenty of power to start with, but with the wet roads, it was a handful to keep straight. I even went to the garage and put some left over rain tires from the Vette on the rear and took it out again with an old race buddy as a passenger. It was still too wild to do anything but go sideways, so as sanity crept in we decided we should take it to the garage before we wrecked it.
Brand new car after a wintery joy ride. Photo: Gary Morgan Collection
Jon Mello:
The car was delivered without the rear spoiler and front valance. We were told they were not available when the car was delivered and they did not want to hold up the car for them. It's a good thing they didn't because I think it must have been May or June before we got them. We set to work on the car immediately, removing the engine, tearing it down, my father porting the heads and taking it all to Jess Haelen Engines for balancing, blue-printing, etc. The good GM “140” cam was not yet available so we installed the Engle HL26 cam. About this time we received a GM nodular iron light flywheel and 10.5 inch HD clutch along with some HD chassis parts from GM [HD front springs (864 lb rate), rear (356 lb rate), HD rear axles, tie rod ends, and ball joints]. We lowered the car two inches by cutting the front coils and using lowering blocks at the rear, we made our own body mounts out of aluminum using very thin ones at the front and gradually thicker ones as we went toward the back intending to put some rake in the front of the car. My father made bronze bushings for the upper and lower A-frames as well as the rear spring eyes. We made a panhard bar for the rear and installed a second rear axle locating arm on the left hand side to match the factory installed one on the right. We built a bolt in roll cage as we were not sure what Heinrich was going to do with the car after we were done racing it. Everything bolted in as units or subassemblies. We initially did use the factory seats as we had no definition as to what was legal. We ran the single Holley carb and the headers. The exhaust was supplied by a GM subcontractor (Bill Thomas or Jere Stahl, I think). The car was ready for the spring Trans-Am race at Lime Rock, Conn. ----- so we thought.
Prepped to go racing. Photo: Gary Morgan Collection
Jon Mello:
LIME ROCK TRANS-AM --- We thought we were ready for Lime Rock. When we went through inspection it was very thorough. They even weighed all four corners of the car with old grain scales and checked for FIA homologation papers, which we didn't have until a later date, but that was OK because I don't believe anyone had them (I still do). The Penske car was by far the best prepared Camaro. They even had a removable transmission panel to aid in getting access to the transmission.
In the Lime Rock Trans-Am paddock, May 1967 Photo: Gary Morgan Collection
Practice and qualifying was a disaster for us. The car would overheat badly after about two laps at speed and the handling was a disappointment as well. We thought we should try to stop the overheating and then worry about the handling. We took the carb apart and checked it, rechecked the timing, radiator circulation, water pump, temp gage, etc. etc. I think we qualified second last and, as we were in fear of destroying the engine, we decided not to race and loaded up and went home.
Lime Rock Trans-Am practice lap, May '67
When we got home, we called our friends at GM and told them of our problem. They told us we needed a larger capacity radiator (pt#3016688) so we ordered one and installed it. While we were on the phone we ask them to verify the carb jet size, and I am right now looking at the notes from that conversation. They said .072 for the primary and .077 for the secondary. We opened the jets to these numbers and thought we were ready for the Mid-Ohio Trans-Am. We also were told the rear spring rates were too stiff and we should remove one leaf from each rear spring.
Lime Rock Trans-Am report Courtesy of Gary Morgan Collection
Jon Mello:
Off to MID-OHIO. Penske with George Follmer driving, Jerry Titus with Mustang, Bud Moore with two Cougars and a bunch of other slugs like us. The Bud Moore Cougars were probably the most radically modified cars from the viewpoint of visible changes; fenders cut for tire clearance and stripped of most everything that didn't rotate. The difference between the factory cars and private cars was significant.
Practice and qualifying for us was not much different than Lime Rock had been, engine still overheating but now we had also picked up a very significant push in the front end. We had left the rear spring leaves that GM had told us to take out at home so we changed the front sway bar and hoped that would help the handling to some degree. I went to the Penske pits to see if they had any suggestions for the overheating problem. The only person there was Follmer and he would not even talk to me. After practice when we were leaving the track, Roger Penske walked up to our tow car and suggested we use softer springs in the front because he said it looked like the front was out of sync with the rear. He also suggested an aluminum radiator might help with the heating problem.
Race day, the hell with it! Let's run it and see what happens. I don't remember how long we lasted but we ran it and at one time I think we must have been in the first ten or so cars and all of a sudden, she blew up. I coasted over to the side, stopped and walked back to the pits. A spectator gave me a cold beer to drink on my long walk back. So much for Trans-Am.
Mid-Ohio Trans-Am, June 1967 photo: Petersen Publishing
Jon Mello:
Yes, no more Trans-Am races. We found out that it was foolish to race the car when the overheating problem had not really been solved. We had melted two pistons and had to tear the engine down and take it back to Jess Haelen for a rebuild. This is when we put the 140 cam in. We got it back fairly soon and took it to Watkins Glen for the Glen 500. I believe this may have been when we changed the springs as well, fronts from 864lb/in. down to 615lb/in. and rear down from 356 to 300lb/in. rate. Once we got to the Glen, the car handled very well. All of the handling problems were gone, but the car was still overheating badly. My old Cobra friend, Hal Keck, came by to visit and we told him of the problem. He asked if we wanted his mechanic, Red, to take a look at the carb as Red had a lot of Holley carburetor experience. Red came over and in no time at all had the carb apart and found that the info we had received from GM on the jet sizes was wrong! Instead of .072 primary and .077 secondary, they should have told us #72 and #77 jet sizes. We had a set of small drills and my father and Red drilled out the jets to as close as they could guess they should be and out on the track I went. What a difference, no overheating and it handled!
Watkins Glen 500 article, August 1967 Courtesy of Gary Morgan Collection
On race day we felt real good about the car. The race was 500k or 310.5mi. for AP, BP, and A, B Sedans. We started 9th behind several Cobras, big block Vettes etc and moved up to 6th OA and 1st in A-Sedan by lap 32. We were then 5th OA and still 1st in A-Sedan on lap 37 and held that position until lap 62 when the water pump let go. It must have been damaged by all the overheating at Lime Rock and Mid-Ohio, and we never thought to change it. We went to one more event in 1967. It was at Watkins Glen and there were three races over the weekend. We won all three and set a new lap record for A-Sedan on the Watkins Glen course. We previously had the B production record with the Vette.
Over the winter we converted the car from a 1967 to a 1968 by changing everything that was obvious (Heinrich paid for this) and added the cross ram intake. We did not change the brakes (didn’t add 4-wheel discs – JM) as I felt we really did not have a brake problem. It would have been at our expense, and money was still a problem.
Updated to look like a '68 for the '68 racing season. Photo: Gary Morgan Collection
One day, in very early spring, my wife Sue called me at Kodak and said she had received a phone call from a guy named Chic Blood who worked for Young and Rubican advertising in N.Y. City. She said they wanted to talk to me about doing a TV commercial. I thought she was kidding me because I couldn't believe my luck was changing. She said this guy would call me back at 8:00 PM that evening to discuss the deal. Meanwhile, I contacted a friend that was in local advertising and asked what he thought I should charge for my services. He gave me a number that he thought would be appropriate. Mr. Blood called right at 8:00PM and told me the commercial was for Gulf gasoline and would be filmed at the Bridgehampton race course. I was to spend three days doing the commercial and would have to bring a crew and a track safety person. Now the difficult part, he asked “how much?”. I didn't want to go too cheap, but I also didn't want to lose the opportunity, so I thought, well I can always come down. I took a deep breath and tripled what my friend had told me. I said $2500.00 plus expenses. His answer was he was authorized to approve $2000.00 and if I really had to have $2500.00 he would have to call his boss and get approval to do it. He called back within the hour and said I would be receiving a contract within a week and would have a week to sign and return it.
The advertising agency got my name from Brock Yates who was, and I think is still, a member of the same SCCA region that I am. I had loaned Brock a trailer when he had the Ray Nichols Dodge Dart and needed to take it somewhere down south. Later, when he had the CAR & DRIVER Mustang, I gave him a new Goodyear race tire after they had ruined one in practice. I guess giving the ad agency my name was his way of paying me back. It was very gracious of him to do this for me as the expenses for the Camaro were far more than anything we raced before and these dollars would sure help.
We got all of the arrangements worked out with Gulf and, as this was early in the year and we had freshly rebuilt the engine over the winter, we left for Bridgehampton, Long Island to make the commercial. We had to be there on Monday and were supposed to finish on Wednesday. We had drained all of the Sunoco concentrate out of the tank and there was a Gulf station just down the road from the track that we were supposed to use for our fuel. This worked out great as we had 10 gallon cans that we would fill up and we made sure we always got enough to add a can or two to the Chevy wagon tow car. (Later when I got my last check, there was a $70.00 dollar deduction for gas for the tow car. I guess we didn't fool anyone. I sure felt like an ass).
During the making of the commercial I had to guarantee that the car went at least 140MPH so they could state that in the ad. The film people were very good to work with and we had to start at 6AM every day. They would have a big catered lunch each day and treat us to dinner in the evening. On the second day, they had a sound man there who had to lie on the floor of the car so he would not be seen in the film. This guy thought he was a real hot shot and made some comment to me that I thought was a put down. I think he said something like "you don't even look like a race driver". Well, I mean to say I gave this guy a ride that was far more than necessary for what we were trying to accomplish. When we were done with the segment he got out of the car with his hands shaking and a very pale complexion, mumbling something about his wife and kids. The next day we got a late start with the filming because we had to wait for a new sound man. Seems the smart ass had quit for some reason! Well, this was the third day and we were supposed to finish up but the gremlins were at it again. The Camaro started overheating and my father diagnosed it as a cracked cylinder wall. By the contract we had to finish the commercial, so Dad went to an auto parts store and found some block sealer that was intended for diesel truck engines. He put in enough to seal a small fleet of trucks, loosened the radiator cap and by noon we were ready to restart. We had to carry over the finish until Thursday, but we made the car last, loaded up, and headed back for the long drive home to Rochester.
It is now early in the 1968 season. We tear the engine down and find old Dad was right. We had a cracked cylinder wall in the engine that had just been rebuilt before the trip to Bridgehampton. A call was placed to Barney Krass (our contact at GM for a new short block) and we got a response that there would be a wait, as short blocks were not available at this time. We waited several weeks and called again. Same answer. Finally we recalled that when we visited the Tech Center in 1966, Barney had said he used a lot of Kodak 16mm movie film. Since all four of us that were working on the car were Kodak employees, we put out the feelers for some test film and shipped off about ten rolls to Barney. Son of a gun, within about a week we had a new short block! Later that year, after we had found some more test film and sent it off, I started getting phone calls whenever there were new items available from GM. I had a friend that had raced solid axle Vettes when I was racing the Stingray. His name was Steve Elfenbien and he had switched to racing Camaros. At a race in 1969 at Lime Rock we were talking about the cars and I asked him if he had any trouble getting parts. He said he did for a while but once he started sending something called "Red Herring" to the same address I sent film to, things got better! We had a good laugh about this and wondered what kind of a deal some of the other racers must have made to get their parts, but we decided not to pursue it any further for fear of losing what we had.
By the time we got the new block and had it prepared, it was getting late in the season. Money was low and so were our spirits. We made it to two regional races at the Glen, set another lap record, won three races at the two events and hung it up for the year.
Engine shot shows the 2x4 crossram and super rare cowl plenum duct. Photo: Gary Morgan Collection
1969, off we go again. At the Glen 100, we won 1st OA on both the Saturday and Sunday races. We came in 2nd at the Glen National, 1st at Lime Rock National after a three car wreck going into the first turn that flattened our right door and quarter panel, (I caught and passed everybody), 2nd at Pocono National with a real bad handling problem that showed up on race day. I later found out one of my competitors had adjusted my toe-in the night before the race. I also found out he was running a 350 CI engine with the block ID changed to look like 302 ID. This was the car that I came in 2nd to at the Glen and Pocono. One of his crew members later told me the preceding information. The last race of the year was a regional at the Glen and we were 1st in both the Saturday and Sunday races.
On the track at Watkins Glen. Photo: Gary Morgan Collection
After the last race I did some thinking. I was thirty-three years old and had raced for fourteen years. I had a wife that had dedicated her total ten years of marriage to racing, always helping and sacrificing without complaining. I had two young sons, one five and one three. My father was fifty-nine years old and was still working around the clock on the cars if necessary. On top of that, people at Kodak were asking when I was going to stop racing.
One afternoon in the late fall of 1969 while at work, I picked up the phone and called Jon Heinrich. I thanked him for all the help he had given us and told him I had decided to stop racing. Jon said he was disappointed but he understood. He also offered me two new cars for the next year. He said he had been thinking it would be nice to race both a Camaro and a Corvette out of his dealership. I said thanks but I had made up my mind. Jon, always being a gentleman, said he would sell the Camaro and split the money with me as he was aware we had a significant investment in it. He asked what I thought it would be worth as a race car and I told him I would guess it would be worth six to seven thousand dollars at that time. He agreed and said I would be hearing from him. In a short time I heard through the grapevine that a local racer named Kent Fellows had bought the car. I called Heinrich’s and found out Jon was out of town and one of his salesmen had sold the car for thirty-five hundred dollars without checking with Jon. What a deal! That meant I would be getting seventeen-fifty instead of the three thousand I had been hoping for. All during the time we were racing after I got married, my wife Sue had paid the bills. She robbed one account to pay another and shuffled things so we could keep going and never complained. She now came to me in tears and asked that since we were not racing anymore, could I take over paying the bills as she just could not do it anymore. The check for seventeen-fifty came and we sat down to figure our bills. When we were done we found we had one hundred dollars to our name. Well, at least we weren't broke!
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