1968 Trans-Am season review

[Jon Mello]

Daytona 24-Hour coverage from the July '68 issue of Cars Illustrated magazine. (Jon Mello Collection)

[Jon Mello]

Reserved

[Jon Mello]

National Speed Sport News coverage between Daytona and Sebring. (Jon Mello Collection)


Feb. 14th



February 21st
Peyton Cramer has sold his half of Dana Chevrolet and gone back to work for Shelby. I believe this left Paul Dombrowski with complete ownership.







March 6th







March 13th



March 20th

[Jon Mello]

Sebring 12-Hour race report as found in Stock Car Racing magazine. (Jon Mello Collection)

[Jon Mello]

Sebring 12-Hour race report as found in National Speed Sport News. (Jon Mello Collection)

[Jon Mello]

More Sebring 12-Hour coverage from National Speed Sport News. (Jon Mello Collection)
Certainly one of the bigger stories from this race, besides the fantastic finishing positions of the Penske Camaros,
3rd & 4th overall, was Paul Hawkins' bashing of Liane Engeman and for that matter female drivers in general.

[Jon Mello]

Sebring 12-Hour coverage as found in Corvette News, courtesy of Robert Lodewyk.

[Jon Mello]

Sebring 12-Hour coverage from Competition Press & Autoweek. (Jon Mello Collection)






























In the back of the issue was this Yenko advertisement.

[Jon Mello]

Sebring 12-Hour coverage as found in Canada Track and Traffic magazine. (Jon Mello Collection)

[SMKZ28]

Great stuff as usual Jon.  I'm amazed at the items you have in your collection.

[Jon Mello]

Thanks, Scott. Here's a rare item from the late Johnny Moore's scrapbook.

Sebring 12-Hour report as seen in the Washington Daily News.

[Jon Mello]

Sebring 12-Hour report as found in Sports Car Graphic magazine. (Jon Mello Collection)

[Jon Mello]

Joie Chitwood signed on to co-drive with Dave Horchler and Dick Hoffman in their Camaro at Sebring. Here we see
Horchler coming up on the hairpin turn way too fast and locking up the brakes. He got a flat right front tire and went
up the dirt berm after not being able to make the sharp righthander. Then he got stuck having to walk back to the pits
to get a spare tire and haul it back so he could change it. Read more about Dave Horchler's Camaro experience here.

[group/7]

jon, I have a question. back in post #55 you show the heishman '68 camaro at sebring in 1968. am I correct in understanding that this car had the drive train from your '67 ? does the '68 car still exist ?, and what drive train is in yours ? hope I'm not being to inquisitive ? I did read your tale about the '67 which was from I believe, the rich McCabe site. you are one lucky guy to have it, and a bonus find.  were there other cars that underwent the same conversion as the heishman '68 ?

  thanks mike

[Jon Mello]

Mike, that's correct. The yellow Heishman '68 Camaro got the drivetrain from my gold car and the original rollbar as well. The original drivetrain from the yellow car went in mine when it got converted back to street use and sold after the '68 Daytona 24-Hour. As for other cars having the same thing happen, yes there were others but I'll have to think on which ones they were (that I know about).