1977 IROC Camaro Race car info needed.

[Camaroz]

Al, the 180 degree set-up was very popular back in the 1980's in speedway. Have you tried contacting "Dr Gas (or Doctor Gas)" on the net! Otherwise people like Bartz, Morand etc, I think 180 systwms were also used in F5000!

GP boring, must sleep now. Chat tomorrow.
email is rowan@motoringevents.com.au

[Camaroz]

Imps!!! Did you ever meet Graham 'Tubby' Ritter from Australia? He was connected with I think 'Bevan' back then.

[Al Weyman]

Oh blimey, more boring motorsport coming up, Formula Women, (can't be worse than F1 just was) at least some of the girls are better to look at than Shuie, I have an engine to put together thanks for the info I will check it out, see ya.

[Al Weyman]

Naw Beven was the opposition.

[carrera]

Been digging around checking race results, the names may be familiar to some of the forum members and perhaps will help to piece together some history of the Camaros in the UK.

ATAC 1985

Anthony Wolfe, John Herman, Gary Wills, Antony Dervis, Richard Scantlebury, Mark/Fred Henderson, Lee Wallace, Chris Parton and Shener Dervis all raced 5.7 Camaros. Wolfe entered his as an IROC Camaro. No more than 6 Camaros appeared in any one race.

ASCAR 1986

Drivers were Wills, Parton, Jerry Hibbert, Wolfe, Roy Yates and Terry Fletcher. Wolfe did not race his Camaro in the second half of the season when Hibbert appeared. 4 appeared in one race.

Thundersaloons 1989

Found another 5.7 Camaro in the hands of Nick Crocker/Roger Hollingshead (owner). Roger was a former F1 stockcar driver, the car ex-ASCAR. Hibbert/Prior were also in the race so at least 2 cars about in 89.

[Al Weyman]

No only the two genuine IROC's were bought into the country, I have that from Penske direct, they were sold to Brian Rice, mine and Orangethingy's, that's if his is the real McCoy (sounds kosher) mine certainly is, I am waiting for him to make contact so we can compare notes, the rest were constructed overhere I should think. I used to race (well I stll have them) various model Camaro's in ModProds and run into a few of those other cars usually in the BARC Lynton Trailers series I think it was, that was often on with us. Of those including Dervis's which definitely was not one of the IROC's as I quequed up behind it at scrutineering once. Actually thinking about it I do recollect seeing a horrid orange Camaro going around at Oulton, going reasonably well as I recollect, that was either mine or Orangethingy's.

[Anuauto]

I seem to recall front steer being relatively new in Nascar Grand National around that time and being on some superspeedway cars only, with short track cars all rear steer?

[Al Weyman]

I think the space framed cars may have been outlawed when they formed ASCAR as I was looking at it at the time and maybe it was felt that the IROCS would have frightened people off, it would have done me and I bought a fast back Mustang and was starting to prpare it to the rules.

I started the ModProd championship with the same guy that set ASCAR and Formula Saloons, and I looked at an outragous Mustang he had built and I am sure it retained the origial body shell, may be wrong it was a long time ago.

[Camaroz]

Hey Al,

You may already know of the Camaro mentioned below. There was a photo attached. Easiest way to find the detail is put Camaro in Search and go to the ThunderSports and ThunderSaloon topic.

Cheers.

May 11 2004
Jim Mensley used to be my neighbour (when I was a kid), and when he moved he'd already started on his awesome Honda Legend (I remember when the bare shell arrived from the dealership in Leicester and Mark started cutting it up in preparation for the new arches etc).

Jim also raced an awesome ex-Unser Camaro prior to the Honda Legend, and before that a Rover 3500. A former hot rod champion, he lost the sight of one eye in a garage accident, which cut short his career. I'll never forget travelling to Donington one day in his V6 Transit Van, as he slid it round the lanes with my dad hanging on with white knuckles

[Camaroz]

Al,

make that May 30 not May 11!!!

[Al Weyman]

Yes I knew Jim from Hot rodding , he won't remember me though. I had the honour of whopping him and the whole of the Spedworth Boston boys, Grimers etc. at a Hotrod meeting in Boston years ago in a little 1380 Mini on 10" rims. Mind you I have got to add this to the tale, I was a Red Top at my home track and should have started from the back of the grid but on the day had towed a novice White Top who had never raced, up to the circuit and was helping him out for the day as I had aquired the car for him. Anyhow he was about to climb in the car for the first race and he got an attack of the nerves and asked me to stand in for him, so I grabbed his helmet and overalls and went out to the front of the grid where I held the lot of them off for the whole race and won. Joke was he got his nerve back for the next heat only to be thrown off the grid when he lined up as the start marshall recognised he was not the first driver, he furiously beckoned me over and I did the honours again and won the heat. I went out in the final and I think I was just pipped to the post by one of the Grimer's but wow what a meeting and the Motoring News did a great story and photo which I still have but the killer was they heaped all the praise on my young friend who had bottled out of the drive!

[Al Weyman]

Camaroz for you interest (or not).

Here is a couple of shots of me in one of my old Camaros when I raced in The ModProds. The first one shows me as often happened, being chased by Peter Barnes who went on to by the ex-Peter Brock Holden Commodore (early shape). Good driver Peter (and a throughly nice chap), I think he runs 3 Sisters Circuit now and is a racing instructor as well (or was) we had some great races.

The second shot shows me and Ellis Bergman in the blue car, he is the one that embarrassed the HARA boys by finishing third on pure road rubber, not even specials, and was asked not to come back as it was deemed his 17" wheels were not in the'Spirit of the Regulations' fact was his old nail finished behind 2 £100,000(?) Historic lightweight Camaros and was built to ModProd regs and declared OK to race at the scrutineering so poor show from HARA.

[Camaroz]

Al,

Keep them coming! Do you know what happened to Franks 2nd Camaro?

I think I have attached some shots to this post, the prototype model of the Bob Jane 69 ZL1 and My car as it is at the moment.

Cheers.

[Al Weyman]

Can't see the shots Camaroz sure you have sized them right, this board seems to reject anything bigger than 400 pixels in any direction and higher than 72dpi, (I may be wrong but that works for me).

No Idea what happened to the 2nd Gen car, have you seen the video I mentioned, I thik it is still available and well worth having.

[Camaroz]

Al, didn't work. I will work it out tonight and try again.
Cheers.

[Al Weyman]

The other way of posting images is to size them as I have said, up load them to a folder on your site, click images and then type in your site addreess/the folder/the file ad the extention name and there you go. The board may prefer this(?) as it uses less of their allocated webspace up.

I'll post a picture tomorrow that was featured in Classic Car magazine of my car at Brands.

[Al Weyman]

Figured that posting pictures thing yet Camaroz

[Camaroz]

Al,

I will try and get onto it tonight, had other projects last night, sorry.

Cheers.

[Bruce302]

Camaroz,
Sorry, to refer back a few posts, but you mentioned the name "Curley". I've been asked that question by people from 3 different countries, but still don't know who he might be.
(And Dennis is penciled in for Fri)

Bruce

[Camaroz]

Bruce 302,

The "Curley" factor is one of the big unsolved mystries of Camaro Racing 'World Wide'!!!

The story goes that 'Curley' of 'Curley Coachworks'(a father and son operation, perhaps in London) imported a race Camaro from either the US or Europe in late 60's or very early 70's. Apparently both father and son, not long after, made the big move to Australia. The Camaro stayed behind to be discovered in a lock-up (storage garage)in the late 70's and the current owner (JB) is seeking any info on the whereabouts of 'Curley' or Curley Jnr. I wonder if there is any connection (Curley Jnr) to Clive Benson-Brown??????

[Camaroz]

Big Al, I will get the shots up over the weekend. Sorry for delay.

Cheers.

[Bruce302]

Camaroz,
Now I remember the "Curley" conundrum. JB certainly is persistant, and rightly so. But I have a feeling there maybe one or two slightly wrong key elements in the equation.
C B-B ? Certainly worth following.

Bruce

[Camaroz]

Big Al,

The 'Forum Rules' tell me that I can't post attachments!! This on top of trying for 10 weeks to get subscription!!! Maybe Steve Holmes can send shots of the BJ model and my car!

[Steve Holmes]

Camaroz, is this your Camaro on the link, in the pic next to Gardners? http://www.ssij.nu/brands72VR.htm

I kind of suspect that car is a Penske built car which I somehow ended up with a clipping on. It kinda looks like a 68. So maybe it isn't.

I'll bung up your pics for Al to see.

[Camaroz]

Steve,

That is a photo of the ex-Brian 'Yogi' Muir car, in this shot, being driven by Martin Thomas (BH July 15 1972). It was indeed a 68 Penske car, I think the second 68 built after Daytona in 1968. I went to Peter Reinhart in Germany at the end of 68 then sold to Malcolm Gartlan in the UK for Yogi and it ran as the "Wiggins Teape" car up until Gartland bought an RS Capri for Yogi and the Camaro went to Martin Thomas . The car is now back in the US in Historic Trans-Am, fully restored by Tom Armstrong. (www.historictransam.com)

The other car is (of course) Franks 70 and a 1/2 car that replaced mine.

My car was at this meeting but only for some 'shake down' laps in the new 'Jagermeister' colours before being sent to Germany to race in four rounds of the German TCC.

Thanks for getting that info to Big Al.

Cheers,