Racing Camaros Book

[Steve Holmes]

When Penske Racing was done with the 1967 lightweight following Sebring, Terry Godsall took it to Canada, where it was driven mostly by Craig Fisher. It was given a new coat of paint; white and black. It was later converted into a Pontiac Firebird.

[Steve Holmes]

Superb shot of Ron Bucknum's Penske Racing Camaro at the 1969 Lime Rock Trans-Am. This angle really illustrates the radical nose droop the Penske cars had early in the season.

[Steve Holmes]

I love this photo! Jean-Guy Roy's new 1967 Camaro arrives ready for battle at Circuit Mont-Tremblant, being towed by a Chevy Impala wagon. Roy became a real Camaro advocate, and raced the models for years.

[Steve Holmes]

Vic Elford looks for a short-cut in his pursuit of Sam Posey's Dodge Challenger in the 1970 Circuit Mont-Tremblant Trans-Am. This was Elford's first race at the wheel of the factory Chaparral Camaro, just vacated by Jim Hall. Although he didn't finish here, Elford went on to win the Watkins Glen race a few months later, scoring the only Trans-Am victory for a second-gen Camaro in the original 1966 - 1972 era.

[Steve Holmes]

Warren Agor worked for Penske Racing in 1968, before leaving to start his own team. He purchased a brand new Hugger Orange 1969 Z/28 in late 1968, and he and his small team converted it to SCCA A/Sedan spec. Roger Penske, Mark Donohue and other Penske team memebrs called in to check progress on the new car while it was being built. This photo was taken on his parents driveway in Pittsford, New York. It was here the finishing touches were applied to the car. But it wasn't here for long; the neighbors soon got tired of the engine start-ups and test runs up and down the street! The Camaro had only just been completed here, and Agor was about to load up to attend driving school at Watkins Glen.

[Steve Holmes]

Long-time Canadian Camaro racer Maurice 'Mo' Carter makes a pit stop in the 1971 Riverside Trans-Am. Carter purchased one of the 1970 Chaparral Camaros and ran it for several years. It looked great in his traditional red and white colors.

[Steve Holmes]

Sam Posey acclimatizes to his new surroundings in his first race in the Penske Racing Camaro. This is the car built by Penske for the 1968 endurance races at Daytona and Sebring, before the teams second car was completed, which Donohue drove from Round 3 of the Trans-Am. This car had a different dash to the second car, and didn't feature the 'X' bars in the B-pillar section of the roll cage like the second car did. This is the car that went to Europe in late 1969.

[Steve Holmes]

This photo spread is from the 1969 chapter.

On the left are some rough sketches that were supplied to me by the International Motor Racing Research Center. These sketches accompanied the 1969 Camaro homologation sheet, parts of which they also provided for the book. I'm only guessing but I thought these might have been drawn by Walt Hane, who was head SCCA tech inspector, and was battling the factory Trans-Am teams and their increasingly radical bodywork modifications. Shown here are detailed measurements taken from a stock 1969 Camaro, so they can be compared with the factory race cars.

Meanwhile, the photos on the right page are from Canadian racer Al Mason, who visited Smokey Yunick's Best Damn Garage In Town in early 1969 to purchase a Smokey race motor for his own 1968 Camaro A/Sedan. Thats Al's blue Chevy pick-up that he drove all the way to Smokey's shop and back.

[Steve Holmes]

One of Penske Racings 'unfair advantages' in 1969, was its fuel rigs. The team could fill a 22 gallon tank lightning fast, but fuel went everywhere!

[Jon Mello]

Great pics, Steve.  Looks like an awesome book.  Thanks for posting.

Any knowledge on why it says Club Cougar on the front fender of Jean-Guy Roy's '67 Camaro?

[Steve Holmes]

Hi everyone, Amazon.com finally have stock of the book. Amazon lets you view the first 15 pages. Thanks all for your patience: https://www.amazon.com/Racing-Camaros-International-Photographic-1966-1986/dp/1787115127/ref=pd_sbs_3/135-5943010-7759300?pd_rd_w=hskXg&pf_rd_p=3676f086-9496-4fd7-8490-77cf7f43f846&pf_rd_r=5WBSTDGF8BQYGBT2FC7R&pd_rd_r=df384706-6d52-4d89-9c28-8444f2cf1045&pd_rd_wg=k6asj&pd_rd_i=1787115127&psc=1

[Jon Mello]

Thanks for letting us know, Steve!

[ric1969]

  Great book,Great pics was Smokey's 68 camaro originally 67 rs or had a few first gen's.

[Jon Mello]

Smokey had more than one 1st-gen Camaro but the car he tried to run at Riverside in late '67 was the same car that he tried to run at the Daytona 24hr.  They only let him run practice laps and not the actual race.  The same car was then made legal enough to run at Sebring in late March '68.  Smokey had some other Camaros that ran at Bonneville (along with the '67) and which also ran in Nascar GT.

[maroman]

Only Smokey would be allowed to make practice runs when the car didn't pass inspections. Any one else would have been shown the hiway.