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Dramatic shot from the 1969 Bryar Trans-Am. Mark Donohue and Ed Leslie chase Parnelli Jones in the leading Bud Moore Mustang. The trio were about this far apart for the first 19 laps before Donohue found a way by. Leslie tried to follow, but he and Jones clashed, and the Mustang went off course. Leslie carried on to finish second, making for a Penske 1-2. This was Leslie's first race with the team, filling in for Ron Bucknum who'd broken his wrist in a road accident.

Jerry Thompson's Owens Corning Camaro in the pits at the 1970 Circuit Mont-Tremblant Trans-Am. The Owens Corning team of Tony DeLorenzo and Thompson had come from A/Production sports car racing, running big block Corvettes, and decided to build two brand new Camaros for the 1970 Trans-Am. They were the only team outside the factory Chaparral squad to run the new second-gen car in 1970. The cars looked great, but their development and competitiveness suffered from early delays and they never caught up.

 

One of my favorite images. This is Helmut Marko, these days head of Red Bulls youth driver program, kicking up the dust at Aspern, Austria, in early 1969. This is the very first Penske Racing Camaro. It recently returned to the US, now owned by Pat Ryan.

Smokey Yunick's beautiful black and gold 1967 Camaro, making its only Trans-Am appearance under Yunick's ownership at Sebring in 1968. Al Unser and Lloyd Ruby drove, and equaled the qualifying time of the fastest Penske Camaro which was also fastest of the Trans-Am cars. Unfortuntely, Smokey's motor blew on lap 43.

Hi everyone, thanks for the kind words. Sorry its taken me so long to post here. Things have been hectic lately and I've just written another two books since completing Racing Camaros.

Anyway, I wanted to share some of the beautiful images from my Racing Camaros book. I've been very fortunate to be able to access some amazing collections and I'm hugely grateful for that.

We have to kick things off with this one, for obvious reasons!

Hi everyone, I spent much of last year writing a book called Racing Camaros - An International Photographic History 1966 - 1984.

The book is approx 175 pages, and covers the advent of the Camaro and its involvement in motor racing. Much of the book spans the years 1966 through 1970, when Chevrolet played an active role in the racing programs. Although Camaros from around the world feature, the book focuses on the SCCA Trans-Am series.

It features approx 300 photos, many of which have never been published before. Although its called a Photographic History, there are over 30,000 words, plus detailed captions. I've also included some really nice pages from the Camaro homologation sheets.

Jon Mello was a huge help with the book, supplying a great amount of information and I'm forever grateful to him.

The book was published by Veloce Publishing who now have copies available. Stock is being sent to the US where you'll be able to order it from Amazon.com etc, but if you want a copy sooner, order direct from the publisher.

I'll post page and photo samples over the coming days and weeks, but Veloce Publishing have some page samples on their order page: https://www.veloce.co.uk/store/Racing-Camaros-p187276085

Steve,
Any chance you will print a Camaro Racing book version also? IF you have, please forgive my ignorance.

Yes, a Racing Camaros book is in the pipeline. Unfortunately Covid-19 has meant the publishers put the project on pause, until the world is less crazy. It should have been released this October, but I'm guessing it'll be sometime next year.

Norm Beechey won the 1965 Australian Touring Car Championship in his Mustang. The ATCC was contested as a single race, rather than a multi-race series. Bob Jane, in another Mustang, took pole position, while Beechey had a troubled qualifying and started down the grid. But he quickly moved forward to take a lead he would not relinquish.

Both the Beechey and Jane Mustangs were built using parts ordered from Shelby American. Group 2 Mustangs could essentially run the same mechanical components as the Shelby GT350 R-model race cars, and everything was available for these cars through the Shelby American parts catalogue. In addition, both Beechey and Jane ran a Shelby Cobra intake set-up with a quartet of 2-barrel Weber carburetors as opposed to the single 4-barrel fitted to the GT350 R-model.

This neat publicity photo was taken by John Stanley, showing the Neptune Racing Team, also comprising the Mini Cooper S of Peter Manton, and the Lotus Cortina of Jim McKeown. Note Beechey's Mustang is wearing steel wheels here. He would ultimately switch to magnesium American Racing Wheels.

I'm building a second gen Pontiac.  Can't wait to see detail shots and learn more about the neatest period in racing!

I am sure I will also learn more about Jerry Titus and his move to Godsal/Pontiac that Jon shared.  Neat stuff.

Very cool! A T/G Racing tribute?

I love that old video. Its rare to see tv coverage from the British series.

The '67 Camaro driven there by Martin Thomas is the car run in 1969/70 by Bill Shaw Racing, and driven by Roy Pierpoint.

Note further back the '70 Mustang of Martin Birrane is the car built by engineers at Kar-Kraft and used throughout Boss 302 Chassis Modification manual, created by Ford for teams wanting to build and race Sportsroof Mustangs. Chevrolet had done the same a couple years earlier.

I believe it was Don Yenko who arranged for Birrane to purchase the Mustang. 

In the 1965 chapter I've included several of the Shelby GT350 R-models, and who they were sold to. Shelby American used the same chassis numbering sequence regardless of whether the car was a street or race model. After 31 cars had been built, the S or R designation was included in the Shelby VIN, but the first R-model customer car was SFM5R094, the 94th car built. So the fact the early cars didn't include the S or R designation didn't matter.

On this page at top left is SFM5R102, which was sold to Bob Johnson.

At bottom left is SFM5R103, purchased by Randy Blessing. This car was raced by Walt Hane. This photo was taken before the sides of the roof were painted red.

On the right page is SFM5R105, purchased by Malcolm Starr. Starr would race the car himself in some regional events, but it was really bought for Mark Donohue, and served an important role in Donohue making the transition from amateur to professional driver. This is the car as it appeared very early on, before Donohue began playing around with suspension, tires, sway bar settings. Following a trailering accident, Donohue had the colors reversed, so it stood out from the other GT350s at the 1965 SCCA American Road Race of Champions.

The 1965 chapter focuses on the design, creation, and competition of the Shelby GT350. Ford wanted to take the Mustang road racing, and compete against the Corvette. It tried to muscle in on the SCCA B/production division, but the SCCA flatly refused to let the Mustang race, as they said it wasn't a sports car. So Ford commissioned Carroll Shelby to tackle the project, which resulted in the GT350.

Of course, everyone knows Shelby American built two versions of the 1965 model Shelby GT350; a street version and a race version. Rick Kopec, of SAAC, very kindly sent me a great number of images from the SAAC collection and from his personal collection, which includes all the original photos from the Shelby American parts catalogue. Carroll Shelby insisted every part that was fitted to the GT350 R-model should also be made available to anyone who wanted to buy them.

Steve,
Did you happen to speak with Jerry Swartz (before his untimely passing)? Im sure you know he was chief mechanic and fabricator @ Shelby American. I personally knew him and bought a car (not a Shelby) from him in the late 1980s. He was a heck of a nice guy, and had some fantastic in sites what occurred during his time with Shelby.

Sadly, no I didn't.

The 1965 chapter focuses on the design, creation, and competition of the Shelby GT350. Ford wanted to take the Mustang road racing, and compete against the Corvette. It tried to muscle in on the SCCA B/production division, but the SCCA flatly refused to let the Mustang race, as they said it wasn't a sports car. So Ford commissioned Carroll Shelby to tackle the project, which resulted in the GT350.

Of course, everyone knows Shelby American built two versions of the 1965 model Shelby GT350; a street version and a race version. Rick Kopec, of SAAC, very kindly sent me a great number of images from the SAAC collection and from his personal collection, which includes all the original photos from the Shelby American parts catalogue. Carroll Shelby insisted every part that was fitted to the GT350 R-model should also be made available to anyone who wanted to buy them.

Steve,
Thanks for posting your book info on here. I also read it on the Boss 302 web site too. Good luck on the sale.

Yes, thank you for suggesting this. I posted yesterday.

How much information in your book on the 1966 Shelby racing coupes??   They were very limited production... and any information on their early European race/rallye results?

The Group 2 Shelby notchbacks feature throughout the 1966 chapter, although mostly those competing in the Trans-Am. I really only covered the European rally Mustangs in the 1964 chapter, as Ford quickly moved on following the TdF. There was so much more I would have loved to include, but space was the enemy.