Gordy Oftedahl

[mstets]

The Cale Yarborough tribute thread spurred me go looking for Gordy and I found that he passed away in January 2021.

https://www.downsfh.com/obituary/gordon-gordy-oftedahl

I seem to recall that Gordy told me he worked on the GT40 LeMans program, for Shelby American I think. In the late 1970s he owned at least two Lola F5000 cars, which ran in sporadic F5000 races and in the single seat CanAm with Riley bodywook. I have no idea what racing he may have been involved in during the roughly 10 year period between the GT40 and F5000 programs. Hope someone else does.

See Lola T330 HU15 here:
https://www.oldracingcars.com/lola/t330/

See Lola T332 (scroll down to 1977 mystery cars) here:
https://www.oldracingcars.com/lola/t332/

Drivers of those cars included Tom Bagley, Bob Lazier and Milt Minter.

After selling the T332 Gordy built at least 2 Camaros for the Trans Am series. I first remember seeing them at Mosport in 1981 but the first car(s) may have been built in 1977. By 1983 Gordy had either built new cars with Pontiac Trans Am bodywork or had put new bodies on the Camaro chassis. The cars were often rented out but when Gordy could find some sponsorship money he would put one of his preferred drivers in the cars. Bob Lazier finished 7th in the 1977 points after running the first 4 races for Oftedahl, but many of his points came from winning the Watkins Glen 6 hour race with John Wood in his Porsche 911. Other regular drivers were Chris Gleason, Bob Raub, Carl Shafer, and Roy Woods. Gene Felton led the 1983 Trans Am points after winning the season opener for Gordy at Moroso Park. I couldn't find results for the 1983 season but I was at many of the races that year and remember the team struggling as the season progressed, largely stemming from lack of funding. If you want an interesting account of how the team operated at the time, look up a copy of Sam Moses's book "Fast Guys Rich Guys and Idiots". Sam was the motorsports editor at Sports Illustrated and a want to be race car driver. Gordy put him in one of the Firebirds for the Daytona 24, teamed with Bob Raub and Carl Shafer. The car was fast, qualifying fourth in GTO, faster than several 935s/GTPs. See partial grid below.
Sam was OK during practice but stuffed the car into a concrete barrier entering turn 1 on his first lap in the race, possibly due to not getting enough heat in the brakes. My favorite memories of that race are Gordy brazing water necks on a replacement radiator and the cheers of folks in the pit lane as we pushed the car back to our pit to re-enter the race. That was the only time I remember him working on the cars but he was certainly capable. Gordy didn't let Sam back in the car, and of course the engine expired in short order due to being driven almost a full lap lacking coolant.

I wouldn't be surprised if 50 or more drivers drove for Gordy over the years but results are surprisingly hard to find. I need to go through my On Track magazines at some point and see what I can find out. But some additional drivers included: Warren Tope, Gordon Smiley, Chip Mead, and Scott Goodyear.