The Trans-Am Series is an automobile racing series created in 1966.
History The Trans-Am Series is an automobile racing series that was created in 1966 by Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) President John Bishop. Originally known as the Trans-American Sedan Championship, the name was changed to the Trans-American Championship for 1967 and henceforth. The series has in fact gone by a variety of different names through the years, some linked to sponsors, some not. It has evolved over time from its original format as a Manufacturers' Championship series for modified passenger sedans and Coupés to its current form as a Drivers' / Manufacturers' Championship Series that is open to GT style racecars. Champion drivers have been officially recognized, and Drivers' Championship(s) have been awarded since the 1972 season.
The series was formed at the dawn of the pony car era, and was derived from the SCCA's A & B Sedan amateur Club Racing classes, Early Trans-Am Series racecars were just modified production cars. The series was open to FIA Group 2 Touring Cars,Trans-Am Retrieved from homepage.mac.com/frank_de_jong on August 14, 2009 and it featured two classes: "Over 2.0 Liter"—111 inch wheel base or less and engine displacement limited to 5.0 liters / 305 cubic inches (primarily American pony cars), and "Under 2.0 Liter" (predominantly European sedans), with both classes running together.
The series was best known for competition among American V8 coupes such as the Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, Plymouth Barracuda, Mercury Cougar, AMC Javelin, Pontiac Firebird, and Dodge Challenger in the 1960s and early 1970s, driven by some of the most famous names in auto racing, like Mark Donohue, Parnelli Jones, Dan Gurney, Sam Posey and Bob Tullius, to name just a few. Marques such as Porsche (until its 911 was reclassified as a sports car and not a sedan), Alfa Romeo, BMW, Datsun, Mini Cooper, Saab, and Volkswagen competed in the series' Under 2.0 Liter category.
Over the years, the series has raced on a variety of different types of race tracks (Permanent and temporary road courses / street circuits / airport circuits) all over the country, as well as at venues in Canada, Mexico, and even San Juan, Puerto Rico in 2003. Since 2015, Trans Am has been a national series (Continental U.S. only), racing at tracks primarily throughout the East Coast, South, and Midwest. Since the 2017 season, the stand-alone West Coast Championship Series has raced at four tracks—three on the West Coast, and one in Texas that is a 'shared event' with the Trans Am Championship Series. Each Championship Series is independent of the other, but both are run according to virtually identical rule books.
Beginnings (1966–1967)
The Trans-American Sedan Championship commenced on March 25, 1966, at Sebring International Raceway, beginning a seven race season. (After 1966, seasons would average 12 rounds until 1973) The overall win went to Jochen Rindt driving an Alfa Romeo GTA, a very successful car in Trans Am, until Porsche arrived. Bob Tullius (in a Dodge Dart) took second overall and first in the Over 2.0 Liter class.
Allan Moffat, in a 1600cc Lotus Cortina, won the third race at Bryar. Ford of Britain gave full factory support to the Alan Mann Lotus Cortinas. In 1966, the Over 2.0 Liter Manufacturers' Champion was Ford, with the Mustang of Tom Yeager and Bob Johnson scoring most of Ford's wins and points. The Under 2.0 Liter Manufacturers' Champion was Alfa Romeo, with Horst Kwech and Gaston Andrey's Alfa Romeo GTA scoring 39 of the 57 Manufacturers' points for Alfa.
For 1967, in the Over 2.0 Liter class, Ford edged out Mercury for its second Manufacturers' Championship. Porsche successfully lobbied the SCCA to reclassify the 911 as a sedan, and then went on to dominate the Under 2.0 Liter field, winning the first of ultimately three consecutive Manufacturers' Championships over Alfa Romeo. The second season would see the emergence of now familiar names like Mark Donohue (3 wins, 2 of them without a co-driver) and Dan Gurney.
Golden era (1968–1972) The 1968 season was notable for the addition of the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Daytona, the only year the Trans-American Championship featured those races. The '68 season also marked the first time the series ever left the United States, as the race at Mont-Tremblant, Quebec introduced Trans-American Championship racing to Canada. From 1969 on, co-drivers were not used, as most of the races were between 2.5 and 3 hours.
Penske Racing campaigned Chevrolet Camaro Z28s through 1969, and American Motors (AMC) Javelins in 1970 and 1971. Mark Donohue dominated the '68 season, winning 10 out of 12 races (only one of them with a co-driver), ultimately chalking up 29 race victories from 1967 to 1971, the last ten of them in a Javelin. He was instrumental in the Trans-Am Series becoming the greatest American Musclecar racing showdown there was in the late '60s and early '70s. After achieving so much success together and popularizing "Trans-Am" (Donohue in particular), Penske Racing and Mark Donohue both left the series after the '71 season.Mark Donohue made the Javelin a three-time winner in 1970, but five wins made it Parnelli Jones' greatest season ever, with Ford winning its first Manufacturers' title in two years. With Porsche's 911 moving to a 2.2L engine, 1970 also saw the resurgence of Alfa Romeo, dominating the Under 2 Liter class with a 9 win (out of 11) season. BMW picked up wins number one and two in the other races.As evidence of the original modified production car concept, a fan favorite in the 1971 Trans-American Championship was the "Grey Ghost", a 1964 Pontiac Tempest, prepared by Pontiac Special Projects Engineering Manager Herb Adams and a group of his young proteges: Tom Nell & Jeff Young (Engines), Joe Brady & Harry Quackenboss (Chassis), Ted Lambaris (Body), and Tom Goad (Logistics). The boxy, six year old Tempest had once been Adams' wife's daily driver, and had over 80,000 miles (130,000 km) on the odometer when it was turned into an A Sedan racer. It proved to be surprisingly fast, at a time when even a one year old car was considered out of step with the competition. And despite the big-name competition and factory supported race teams, it was entered in the opening round of the '71 Trans-Am Championship. Unable to qualify, the car was allowed to start at the rear of the field. With former winner Bob Tullius behind the wheel, it mowed through the field, and was running second behind eventual winner Mark Donohue's factory supported Penske Racing AMC Javelin when the engine expired. It was a very impressive performance for a boxy, six year old, converted 'grocery-getter' with no factory support.
In 1972, the series would begin officially awarding Drivers' Championships, with the first-ever titles going to George Follmer in an ex-Penske Roy Woods AMC Javelin, and John Morton in a Datsun 510, before changing back to a single class for the '73, '74, and '75 seasons. Had the Drivers' Championship been in place right from the start, Mark Donohue would have been the first back-to-back winner in 1968 and 1969, and also the first three-time winner.
The "Golden Era" is now celebrated in various historic racing events. A 2022 Jay Leno's Garage episode featured Trans-Am of the era. Mike Joy told Leno in 1990, twenty Trans-Am race cars from this era participated in a Historic Trans-Am event at Lime Rock Park. In 1992, Monterey Historics brought 20 such cars from the same era to their event at Sears Point International Raceway. Joy owns and drives a Jerry Thompson-driven No. 4 Owens Corning Camaro, whilst owning a Walter Parkins driven No. 17 Camaro that his son Scott drives at historic car events. Today, Historic Trans-Am celebrates the "Golden Era," with period-correct cars being raced at various circuits today.
"Two-Five Challenge" For 1971 and 1972, the Under 2.0 Liter class' engine displacement limit was increased by 500cc to 2.5 Liters, and the classes renamed, with the "U2" class being renamed the "Two-Five Challenge". 1971 was very exciting as Horst Kwech, in a Herb Wetanson Alfa-Romeo GTV, and John Morton in Pete Brock's BRE Datsun 510, fought it out for the title. After a hard-fought season with much off-track puffing, Datsun won the first of their only two Manufacturers' Championships ever, but only after a tie-breaker (having more wins). In '72, Datsun would again defeat Alfa Romeo to win the Two-Five Challenge, and hence the title, this time convincingly. When these two marques dropped out after the 1972 season, interest in the series decreased. Already contributing to the Trans-Am Championship's decline was the dominance of AMC. Follmer and Donohue had switched to AMC in 1970, ending the Ford vs Chevy rivalry that had made the series famous.
Evolution (1973–1980) 1972 is considered to be the end of Trans-Am's "golden era". From 1973 onward, the Trans-Am Series would evolve into a lesser clone of the rival IMSA GT Championship: similarly modified cars, but with a more conventional focus. From the 1970s on, Trans-Am cars and/or drivers would also be seen running in the IMSA GT Championship. IMSA GT's focus on exotic cars such as Ferraris and Porsches provided a more adaptable format in comparison to Trans-Am's reliance on domestic performance sedans.
By the early '70s, insurance premiums for "muscle cars" had gotten to be extremely high, causing a significant sales decline. The 1973 oil crisis also hastened the demise of the "muscle car". This is generally considered to be the beginning of the decline of the Trans-Am Series. After 1972, there were a lot fewer races each season, with 1974 being the shortest Championship season ever at just 3 races. Seasons would start to lengthen again for good in the '80s.
During the 1973 through 1975 seasons, the series abandoned its two class format and went to a single class of competition, which proved to be a boon to both Peter Gregg and Porsche, winning two Championships apiece. John Greenwood and Chevrolet would 'rain on Peter Gregg's and Porsche's respective parades' in 1975.
The series revamped its class structure in 1975, using SCCA Club Racing's fastest production car classes as a basis for the new rules package. Also, beginning with the 1975 season, all races were approximately 100 miles in length, except for the Six Hours of Watkins Glen (1974-1980), and Trois-Rivieres (Various race lengths from 67.5 to 98.8 miles in 1976, 1979–1985, 1990–1999, 2002–2004, and 2011. See Trois-Rivieres for details) races.
In 1976, the Trans-Am Series returned to the two category (class) format, classifying FIA (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile) Group 4 and 5 cars as "Category 2". This two class structure would remain in effect through the 1979 season, after which, the series went back to a single class until 2011, when the series was again divided into two classes; TA1 and TA2. The series would subsequently add even more classes, some of which would not be retained (GGT, TA3-A, TA3-I, and TA5), until arriving at the present 4 class structure.
In 1978, the series left the United States and Canada for the first time, with the last race of the season being run at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez Grand Prix circuit in Mexico City, Mexico (Bob Tullius taking the win in a Jaguar XJS).Trans-Am gradually evolved and adapted, eventually becoming a tube-frame / silhouette racing car series, instead of being production-based, as it was prior to 1973.
GT era: Big money, turbos, and cost escalation (1980–1988)