SVRA to help ring in 50th Trans Am anniversary

ABOVE: Ron Fellows is making his SVRA debut racing this Dave Roberts-owned Group 6 1969 Z28 Camaro this weekend at Sebring. (Photo courtesy of Dave Roberts)

The SportsCar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) is throwing a big Happy Birthday bash at Sebring International Raceway this weekend and the guests of honor are Trans Am stars and cars, past and present. As they did five times last year the SVRA is welcoming the current Trans Am series to share the track this weekend.

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The paddock will be packed with a panoply of racecars from four different series. There are an SVRA Sebring event record-setting 300 entries on hand. In addition to the current Trans Am series there will be 200 SVRA vintage racers, 30 authenticated Historic Trans Am cars and 28 entries for the Stuttgart and Maranello Cups of the America's GT Cup series. The Historic Trans Am is a group of car owners with documented cars of the classic 1966-'72 era including machines driven by greats such as Parnelli Jones, Mark Donohue and Dan Gurney. America's GT Cup will run all of their races this season during six of the 16 SVRA race weekends this year.

"This track is steeped with American and international road racing heritage," says Tony Parella, the energetic SVRA president and CEO. "When it comes to road racing history on this continent, it just doesn't get any better than Sebring and this is especially true because Trans Am's very first race took place here back in 1966. We are back again to celebrate their 50th anniversary."

Appropriately enough, the man who won that first race, Bob Tullius, is serving as the event grand marshal. Tullius, well known for his accomplishments with British Leyland cars and especially Jaguar, drove a Dodge Dart in that first Trans Am contest.

"Scott Harvey, the rally executive for Chrysler at that time, approached me about running the Dodge Dart," says Tullius, a member of both the Sebring and the SCCA Halls of Fame. "It was a Team Starfish effort with some factory assistance. I always loved American V8s, so it was easy to decide. I appreciate Tony asking me to be here – it's a nice thing for the SVRA to do."

Tullius is joined by a host of other Trans Am legends including George Follmer, Willy T. Ribbs, Lyn St. James (pictured, RIGHT, in her Roush Racing Mustang during the 1988 season. Photo courtesy of Lyn St. James), Jack Baldwin, Ron Fellows and Tom Yeager. Fellows and Ribbs are among the most prolific race winners in Trans Am race history with 20 and 19 victories respectively. Follmer won his first of two Trans Am championships in 1972 (the other was 1976) and Baldwin took the crown 20 years later in 1992.

"Trans Am defined my career," says Baldwin, who competed in the IROC series in 1993 and '94 largely on the strength of five Trans Am victories at the wheel of the eye-catching Hot Wheels Camaro. "I will forever be associated with the Hot Wheels car, and that's fine with me."

Like the other legends, Baldwin and Fellows will be greeting fans and join a moderated panel discussion for a special Saturday evening banquet at the track, but they also will compete on the iconic airport circuit as well. Baldwin is at the wheel of his GTSport Racing Gen 2 Porsche Cayman S racer he drove in Pirelli Word Challenge the last four seasons. During that time he garnered eight victories, 30 podium finishes and 16 Pole Positions. He will compete in both the Suttgart Cup event as well as the SVRA Group 12 contest.

Fellows will race in the SVRA Group 6 races driving the Dave Roberts 1969 Z28 Camaro. The car is modeled after the Team Penske racer that won the 1969 Trans-Am championship with Mark Donohue driving. Roberts is Executive Chairman of the Carlisle Company, a holding company that has among its brands Hawk Performance, an associate sponsor of both the SVRA and IndyCar's Team Penske. Roberts, a regular driver with SVRA and a former Baja 1,000 class winner also plans to compete in Group 10 with a 2006 Pontiac GTO.

ABOVE: The Mustang Boss 302 Parnelli Jones drove to the Trans Am championship is racing in Historic Trans Am at Sebring. (Photo courtesy of Bill Ockerlund)

Amy Ruman, the first woman this side of drag racing to win a major auto racing series championship, leads today's Trans Am into the opening race of the 2016 season (RIGHT, Chris Clark photo). As the most prolific winner over the past two seasons, she has to figure heavily as a favorite to defend her crown. Trans Am's other class champions, Gar Robinson (TA2), Ernie Francis Jr. (TA3 American Muscle) and Lee Saunders (TA3 International) are back in the mix as well. Ruman plans to join the other Trans Am legends on the panel at the Saturday night banquet.

Two-time champion (1985 and '86) Wally Dallenbach Jr. is now a full-season Trans Am competitor with the Steve Petty Motorsports Camaro in the TA2 class. Dallenbach, who has a career total 10 race wins in the series, competed in the 2015 season finale at Daytona, but this will be his first full season since 1986. He was Rookie of the Year in 1984. Other widely recognized names among the Trans Am drivers in this weekend's field are Adam Andretti, Tommy Archer and Tony Ave.

The Historic Trans Am car owner's group will round out the 50th anniversary celebration in the most appropriate fashion. Among the cars that will not just be on display but also raced in their own competition are the most valuable of their kind in the world. All the racers are documented and authenticated by HTA experts. Some machines are valued in excess of $1.5 million. The organization takes pride in making the cars accessible to race fans. The owners are committed to taking time to answer questions on grid walks or more informally at any point during the weekend as people wander the paddock and garage area.

Headlining the HTA entry list will be perhaps the most dominant car in series history, the 1968 Roger Penske Sunoco Camaro developed and driven by 1972 Indianapolis 500 winner Mark Donohue. He destroyed his competition to win 10 of 13 races in that 1968 season – only falling short when foiled by mechanical gremlins. Donohue defended that championship in 1969 in another Penske Camaro that is also entered at Sebring.

Other championship-winning cars of the era that will be shown and raced include Parnelli Jones' 1970 Boss 302 Mustang, and Donohue's 1971 AMC Javelin (RIGHT, Jimmy Huston photo). The Plymouth Barracuda driven by Dan Gurney and Swede Savage as well as the lime green Dodge Challenger campaigned by Sam Posey are also in the mix. Gurney's All American Racers team developed both of those cars.

The SVRA is also staging one of their "shine and show" car shows of classic, exotic and performance cars on Saturday. This display, along with all the other cars on the grounds creates a terrific setting for photography and sharing through social networking apps.

Among the SVRA notables entered this weekend are Group 10 national champion Ike Keeler and Joey Selmants, the 23-year-old Sports 2000 pacesetter last season who won the pole for all eight races he entered. Collector car insurance magnate and SVRA founder Ford Heacock III, whose grandfather as a civic leader in Sebring, played a crucial role in organizing its original events in the 1950s will race his 1960 Porsche 356B Super 90 (LEFT, photo courtesy of Ford Heacock III).