History vibrant at COTA’s SVRA Championship races

One of the highlights of the Sports Car Vintage Racing Association's National Championships weekend had nothing to do with those feature contests for the Bell Helmet Trophies. The Historic Trans-Am series joined forces with SVRA to put on a special treat for fans of one of the most colorful eras of America road racing – the classic Trans-Am races of the late 1960's and early '70s. The event also captured the imagination of some prominent figures in motorsport, such as Mike Joy (LEFT), Fox Sports' NASCAR Sprint Cup lap-by-lap announcer, and Vic Edelbrock Jr., president of Edelbrock, LLC, a highly revered specialty performance aftermarket parts supplier.

"When I drive an historic Trans-Am car into the paddock the years just melt away," Joy says. "I feel like I'm 25 again."

Joy, who has driven in a number of vintage races, leaps at the chance to race the classic Trans-Am cars when it works with his schedule. Since Joy's first TV motorsports reporting assignment at the 1970 Lime Rock round of the original Trans-Am series he has loved the cars. Parnelli Jones drove his Boss 302 Mustang to victory in that race.

"Everything I have done in my career stems from that race," Joy reflects. "In 2006 I returned to Lime Rock to race a vintage Trans-Am car and all the memories came flooding back. My eyes literally welled up."

Joy is friends with Ken Epsman and Tom McIntyre who run Historic Trans-Am. Epsman owns a Roger Penske Javelin, an ex-Peter Gregg Mustang and the "notch back" 1966 305 CID Mustang Joy drove Sunday afternoon.

What's special about the Historic Trans-Am series is the authenticity of the cars. Several of the machines on hand at COTA were raced by indisputable legends of the sport such as Jones, Gregg, George Follmer, Mark Donohue and Sam Posey. Edelbrock drove an ex-Follmer Mustang originally prepared by mechanical wizard Bud Moore.

"These cars are beyond faithfully restored," Joy asserts. "These are the original, SCCA brass-tag cars. The real deal."

Massive history runs deep throughout the paddock. In Paddock B, away from the Trans-Am cars, you can track down a Frank Arciero Lotus 23 driven by a who's who of giants: Parnelli, Bobby Unser, Al Unser, Dan Gurney, Jim Hurtubise and Ken Miles. Beside it was a pea-green 1964 British Racing Partnership (BRP) Formula 1 car powered by a BRM engine. Indianapolis 500 veteran Alfred Moss, father of Sir Stirling, founded BRP. The car was driven by Innes Ireland.

A trip to the garage area uncovers other gems. One eye-popper was Reed Yates' 1935 MG N-Type, a former concours d' elegance car from Silverstone. Among its interesting features is a triangular-shaped "diffuser" device required by officials when the machine competed at the legendary Brooklands track in England during the 1930s.

{igallery id=2472|cid=229|pid=5|type=category|children=0|addlinks=0|tags=|limit=0}