uke
est
M
y favourite four-wheeled motorsport
these days is undoubtedly IndyCar.
The US open-wheel series is
invariably unpredictable, action-
packed and features a spread of
winners. It remains true to its traditions, with
names like Andretti, Penske, Foyt and Ganassi
on the scene full-time. The cars, in my opinion,
look cool and the series’ guiding principle for
the future technical direction is ‘fast and loud’.
Sounds good to me!
Most of the drivers are absolute guns
who should probably be in Formula 1. They
are tested by a variety of tracks: short ovals,
superspeedways, street circuits and natural
terrain road courses. Hopefully the Cleveland
airport track – a fth genre of track – returns
one day. If it does, I’ll be jumping on a bomber
and heading stateside.
Last year I took my family to the USA for a
month to do the Griswold road trip thing. Of
course, in the nest traditions a petrolhead on
holidays, I made sure our schedule took in a
race meeting.
My missus was not surprised to learn there
just happened to be an IndyCar race near San
Francisco the weekend we ew into town. So,
on just our second day in the US, the tribe
found itself at Sonoma Raceway, formerly
Sears Point, about 45 minutes drive north of the
Golden Gate Bridge.
It was the title decider, with ultimate
champion Scott Dixon, Alexander Rossi andAussie Will Power all still in the hunt, the latter
just barely.
If I was excited pre-trip about seeing
IndyCars for the rst time in a decade, I was
beside myself when I looked at Sonoma’s
weekend schedule and noted the main support
category was Historic Trans-Am! Hallelujah!
The Historic Trans-Am Group came to my
attention when researching AMC #61’s Aussies
in Trans-Am issue in 2012. I discovered that
a surprising number of the very cars from the
legendary ‘ponycar wars’, 40-plus, not only
survived but raced on today. I vowed then to
one day see those cars race.
Fast forward to about 2016, when I was
still involved with helping organise the Muscle
Car Masters, I learnt a fellow MCM committee
member was heading to Laguna Seca’s Rolex
Monterey Motorsport Reunion. So I suggested
he extend the invitation for the class to race
at Sydney Motorsport Park. We put together
background info on MCM and basically the
plan was to ask HTAG the question ‘What
would it take to get you guys to the Muscle Car
Masters?’ We’d then see where things went
from there.
Truth be known, the rst two HTAG chiefs
our man approached showed pretty much zero
interest packing up their cars into containers
and sending them to Oz, even with nancial
inducement, and the plan went no further. Didn’t
hurt to ask...
Anyway, I’m pleased to say that I got tosee genuine ex-Trans Series cars race in their
natural habitat on one of the classic American
tracks. The fact that the Sunday race I saw was
won by an ex-Penske 1970 AMC Javelin was
worth the price of admission alone.
This was red, white and blue machine driven
to three victories that year – Bridgehampton,
Road America and Mt Tremblant – by Mark
Donohue. It’s owned today by Ken Epsman and
displayed in its 1972 livery, when it was in Roy
Woods’ hands. It was also driven by George
Follmer and Vic Elford in period.
If the Javelin was stunning, the ex-Sam
Posey Dodge Challenge now owned by Richard
Goldsmith, painted in its ‘Sublime’ and black
colour scheme, is the duck’s guts. It has to be
the most striking tin-top in racing history. Built
at Dan Gurney’s AAR shop, it too contested
the ’70 Trans-Am Series, when every brand of
American ponycar was represented.
Another tasty treat to take in at Sonoma
was a privateer Camaro, run in 1970 by Robert
Clemens, but now raced by, wait for it, Chip
Fudge. I kid you not.
And so it goes on. Not all of the cars that
raced at Sonoma the day I was there were ex-
Trans-Am Series, but all had period history. To
see, hear and even feel them charge up hill and
down dale around the undulating Californian
circuit – a track Trans-Am visited during its
halcyon days – was an obvious treat. It was
another bucket list item ticked off the list.
Next objective is Historic Can-Am.Luke West stepped out of AMC’s Editor’s chair last issue after eight years... and into the Editor-At-Large role. He’s a lifelong racing enthusiast with one
eye on the sport’s past, the other on its future. He’s worked in automotive publishing and PR for two decades, and was Supercars’ trackside announcer.Luke West