Original T/A racing photographs, late 60's & early 70's

[Steve Holmes]

Wow, outstanding images! Thanks for sharing. Great to see one of the old Autodynamics Challengers in privateer hands.

The #88 Mo Carter Camaro. Is this an ex-Chaparral car?

The #76 '69 Camaro is, I believe, Joe Chamberlain? Joe raced this car in NZ in 1972/73, just as he did his first '69 Camaro a couple of years earlier. 

[Steve Holmes]

Harley Davidson legend Cal Rayborn raced a '67 Z-28 for a short time and had it entered in the '69 Riverside Trans-Am. It ran during
practice but for some unknown reason did not make the race.


Jon Mello Collection

Fascinating image of Cal Rayborn. Thanks Jon. I didn't realise he raced a Camaro. As you rightly say, he was a motorbike racer, and a very accomplished one. He was killed in New Zealand in late 1973, racing a motorbike at Pukekohe, which is just as wild and bumpy today as it was back then.

He'd had a Lola Formula A/5000 car (ex-AAR John Cannon car I believe) shipped out to NZ that he was going to race in the Tasman Series, but was killed a week before the opening race. The Lola was later used to build an extremely radical Chrysler Valiant Charger sedan race car with tube-frame chassis and the motor in the back. It still exists today, still with the Rayborn Lola parts in it. 

[Jon Mello]

Steve, very interesting tidbit about Rayborn driving a F5000 car and perishing in an accident in the car down in NZ. I don't think I knew that fact. Thanks for the insight.

[Bruce302]

Steve, very interesting tidbit about Rayborn driving a F5000 car and perishing in an accident in the car down in NZ. I don't think I knew that fact. Thanks for the insight.

Cal Rayborn died after being thrown from his motorcycle at Pukekohe (near Auckland) in practice for the main event. He was riding a two stroke (Suzuki from memory )and as they do sometimes, it went lean, seized and locked the back wheel. Having been used to 4 stroke bikes he wasn't used to having the clutch at the ready when the semi inevitable happened.

Bruce.

[Jon Mello]

Thanks, Bruce.  Steve said it right.  For some reason I just screwed up my reply.  It's all good now.  

[1109RWHP]

http://41.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lw1v0iW0o21qcdxvpo1_1280.jpg

[Jon Mello]

Thanks for posting. The car still survives and you can read more about it's history at the following link... http://ricksclassics.com/one/00-One/medallion.html

[group/7]

Jon, this photo has probably been on the forum before ? what can you tell us about this Camaro at the Giants despair hill climb PA, july 29th. 1967  (rosenthall photo/Revs site)

Mike (group7)

[Jon Mello]

Mike, that is the Marina Blue '67 Z-28 that was bought new and raced by Steve Elfenbein in SCCA A/Sedan events. It never ran in the Trans-Am series. Steve sold it in 1970 and the guy he sold it to still has the car, the last that I knew. It is untouched from how it last raced in the mid-70s. I didn't know Steve ran it in hillclimb events. That's pretty cool info. Thanks.

[maroman]

Mike, that is the Marina Blue '67 Z-28 that was bought new and raced by Steve Elfenbein in SCCA A/Sedan events. It never ran in the Trans-Am series. Steve sold it in 1970 and the guy he sold it to still has the car, the last that I knew. It is untouched from how it last raced in the mid-70s. I didn't know Steve ran it in hillclimb events. That's pretty cool info. Thanks.

Jon, if he ran Giant's Dispair he was part of PHA, Pa. hillclimb Assoc.  May have run Hershey but I don't remember it. They have a historian that may be able to provide you with more pictures or history. Email me for his contact info.

[Jon Mello]

OK, thanks Doug.

[group/7]

not Trans-Am racing, but any ideas on where this 70 & 1/2 Camaro is, looks like a dragstrip. I was thinking Australia, but the car looks to have New Jersey tags, and is left hand drive.
Mike (group/7)

(unattributed photo)

[Steve Holmes]

not Trans-Am racing, but any ideas on where this 70 & 1/2 Camaro is, looks like a dragstrip. I was thinking Australia, but the car looks to have New Jersey tags, and is left hand drive.
Mike (group/7)

(unattributed photo)

Wow, thats a cool photo! Its taken in New Zealand. Its a Z28 owned by Kiwi racer Red Dawson. He bought the Camaro as a road car in 1971 on a trip to the US, and shipped it home and converted it for road racing. He had been hoping to buy a turn-key Trans-Am car, but none were available to his liking.

In New Zealand, many of the sedan drivers during this era also took their cars drag racing on the weekends they weren't doing the roundy-roundy stuff. Dawson came from a speedway background.

[Jon Mello]

Many thanks for that ID, Steve.

By the way, that's a blue & yellow California license plate, not one from New Jersey.

[group/7]

 here's another pic of the Steve Elfenbein '67 Z, loaded up at Cumberland, 1970.