1969 Wolverine Trans-Am photos

[Jon Mello]

Dick Lang's well-prepared Camaro.

Photo by Jerry Melton

The Camaro of Bob Grossman has Fred Baker's Porsche hot on its heels.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Bill Ortega from Equador in a T/G prepared Firebird.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Jerry Titus' Firebird has Minilite wheels on in this photo.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Titus' car has American 200-S mags in this shot that shows him under hard braking on the infield part of the track.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Titus leads the Firebird of Larry Harley and Brad Dunn.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Dick Brown's Gagnon Spring Firebird shows some battle scars.

Photo by Jerry Melton

The '68 Mustang of Dean Gregson.

Photo by Jerry Melton

[Jon Mello]

The Dollinger and Osbourne Porsche on the infield portion of the track.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Bob Bailey's Porsche.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Fred Opert's Porsche powering through the last turn.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Fred Baker's Porsche.

Photo by Jerry Melton

The Hol-Arc Firebird of Larry Harley.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Peter Revson's Mustang and Fred Opert's Porsche.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Dan Furey's notchback Mustang with Bob Tullius looking to pass him on the inside.

Photo by Jerry Melton

A look down toward the pits.

Photo by Jerry Melton

The Ortega Firebird out in front of the Netterstrom Porsche and the Alfa of Ed Wachs.

Photo by Jerry Melton

Ted Roberts' Javelin leads a Porsche and Bill Ortega's Firebird back toward the banking.

Photo by Jerry Melton

[OCTARD]

Outstanding new photos! 

Beyond the obvious quality, Jerry Melton also captured so many of the cars that weren't leading the race.  All the cars that we haven't been able to see much of 'til now.

Both Jerry Melton and Ron Lathrop have really served the Trans-Am enthusiasts well.

And Jon, thanks for all your efforts to post and further caption all these images.

-Chad

[Jon Mello]

Thanks, Chad. I was reflecting upon that as I was posting these latest photos from Jerry Melton. We are indeed very fortunate to have benefitted from the kindness and generosity of both Jerry Melton and Ron Lathrop. I think we have photographs of every car that participated in this particular Trans-Am race and as a long-time researcher of all things Trans-Am related, I can tell you that that is basically unheard of. It is a real boon to the enthusiast and my thanks again go out to Jerry and Ron for sharing their wonderful photos with us.

[Jon Mello]

More photos from the Wolverine Trans-Am, as found in the '69 Riverside Trans-Am program.















Bob Sanders Collection, courtesy of Robert Lodewyk

[Jon Mello]

Another small race report, this time from my August 1969 issue of Motorcade.



Jon Mello Collection

[Jon Mello]

Dick Hoffman in the (ex-Mo Carter '67 Z) car he shared with Robert Barg during the '69 season.
These two shots are from the RAM Regionals at Michigan, 4-27-69.

Robert Barg photo


Robert Barg photo

[OG69Z]

In the last photo, there is just a glimpse of what appears to be the right front of a 1963 Ford Falcon. If I'm seeing correctly, it might be Mike E's  car originally driven by James Taylor, although I wasn't aware it was raced that late.
Robert

[OCTARD]

Hello Robert,

I believe that Falcon you're seeing is the Holman-Moody Challenger III that ran in the A/Sports Racer class. As noted elsewhere by Jon Mello, the driver was W. Scott Clawson.

Here is a re-link to a previously posted photo by Jerry Melton of this car (at the Michigan Int'l Speedway "RAM Regionals", April 27, 1969).

[OG69Z]

Hello Octard,
  OK that makes sense now. These period photos have so much history in them. I find myself starring not only at the cars but the buildings and people too!
Thanks for the correction,
Robert

[Jon Mello]

One of the nice things about those two color photos from Robert Barg is we can see that the hood on the car is in primer and that doesn't really make itself evident in the B&W shots seen previously. Robert's car still had a flat hood on it just a few weeks before while running at Sebring so this is the first appearance of the hood on the car. It appears to be the factory fiberglass unit and Robert did relay to me over the weekend that his car was running the crossram during '69. His car owner Al Richards reminded him of that recently.

[MO]

Curious if the wheels on the 48 are 8" Corvette or widened. The offset looks pretty deep.

[Jon Mello]

Fred, the rules said the wheels could be not wider that 8" so I bet they are Corvette wheels that have had the offset changed. I agree that they have a deeper look than a stock Corvette 15x8" rally wheel.

[oldtransamdriver]

That is my engine man from 68, Brian Robertson, who is leaning in the window talking to Dick Hoffman.  Brian was not a trained mechanic, but just a backyard Chevy guy, who built my 302 engine out of parts he had lying around.

The number 48 was one that Dick like to use.  You can see that the T for touring is still on the car from Sebring.  Usually the tech guys would have told him to remove that.

Robert Barg