The 1969 Trans-American Championship was the fourth running of the Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am Series. The championship was open to SCCA Sedan category cars competing in Over 2 liter and Under 2 liter classes. [1] 1969 marked the end of the use of co-drivers in the Trans-Am Championship, as most of the races were between 2.5 and 3 hours. The Over 2 liter and Under 2 liter Manufacturers' titles were won by Chevrolet (Due in large part to Mark Donohue's 6 wins, and a major crash at the St. Jovite, Canada race that nearly destroyed all the Ford and Shelby team cars.) and Porsche (Due in large part to Peter Gregg's 7 wins) respectively. [1]
The championship was contested over twelve races. [1]
Points were awarded for finishing positions in each class at each race on the following basis: [2]
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
9 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Only the highest-placed car of each make could earn points for its manufacturer [2] and only the best nine results for each manufacturer counted towards the championship totals. [2]
No Drivers titles were awarded in 1969 or in any other Trans-American Championship prior to 1972. [2]
Pos [1] | Manufacturer [1] | MIC | LRP | MDO | BRI | DON | BRY | MTB | WGL | LAG | PAC | SPT | RIV | Points [1] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Chevrolet | 2 | 3 | 1 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 78 (94) |
2 | Ford | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 8 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 64 (71) |
3 | Pontiac | 3 | 5 | 8 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 2 | 12 | 5 | 3 | 4 | 3 | 32 (34) |
4 | American Motors | 4 | 7 | 5 | 6 | 5 | 8 | 4 | 5 | 7 | 12 | 8 | 6 | 14 [3] |
Pos [1] | Manufacturer [1] | MIC | LRP | MDO | BRI | DON | BRY | MTB | WGL | LAG | PAC | SPT | RIV | Points [1] |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | Porsche | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 81 (106) |
2 | Alfa Romeo | 3 | 2 | 8 | 3 | 1 | 12 | 7 | 4 | 5 | 28 | |||
3 | BMW | 9 | 9 | 3 | 14 | 8 | 6 | 5 | ||||||
4 | British Leyland | 3 | 4 |
The following models contributed to the points totals of their respective manufacturers. [1]
1969 had marked the sales debut of the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am however the car's smallest engine was well over the 5000cc maximum set by the series at the time and it was not used in the 1969 championship. In using the name Trans Am, a registered trademark, General Motors agreed to pay $5 per car sold to the SCCA. [4]
The Pontiac Firebird is an American automobile that was built and produced by Pontiac from the 1967 to 2002 model years. Designed as a pony car to compete with the Ford Mustang, it was introduced on February 23, 1967, five months after GM's Chevrolet division's platform-sharing Camaro. This also coincided with the release of the 1967 Mercury Cougar, Ford's upscale, platform-sharing version of the Mustang.
Pony car is an American car classification for affordable, compact, highly styled coupés or convertibles with a "sporty" or performance-oriented image. Common characteristics include rear-wheel drive, a long hood, a short decklid, a wide range of options to individualize each car and use of mass-produced parts shared with other models.
The Trans-Am Series is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA).
The International Motor Sports Association (IMSA) is a North American sports car racing sanctioning body based in Daytona Beach, Florida under the jurisdiction of the ACCUS arm of the FIA. It was started by John Bishop, a former executive director of SCCA, and his wife Peggy in 1969 with help from Bill France Sr. of NASCAR. Beginning in 2014, IMSA is the sanctioning body of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the premier series resulting from the merger of Grand-Am Road Racing and the American Le Mans Series. IMSA is owned by NASCAR, as a division of the company.
Mark Neary Donohue Jr., nicknamed "Captain Nice," and later "Dark Monohue," was an American race car driver and engineer known for his ability to set up his own race car as well as driving it to victories.
The Mustang Boss 302 is a high-performance variant of the Ford Mustang originally produced by Ford in 1969 and 1970, alongside its more powerful sibling the Boss 429 Mustang. Ford revived the name for another two year production run in 2012 and 2013. It was produced for the Trans Am racing series.
Grand American was a NASCAR sanctioned series of pony car stock cars. The series ran from 1968 until 1972. The series was called "Grand Touring" from 1968 to 1969.
Dyson Racing is a professional sports car racing team based in Poughkeepsie, New York in the United States. Founded by Rob Dyson in 1974, the team competed successfully in North American sports car racing series, including the IMSA GT Championship and American Le Mans Series.
The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) is an American automobile club and sanctioning body that supports vintage racing in the United States. The organization was founded in 1981, and is regarded as the premier vintage racing organization in the U.S.
Horst Kwech was an Australian race car driver, race car constructor, engineer and inventor known primarily for his several wins in the early Trans-Am Series races of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s.
This article documents the events that occurred in motorsports in the 1960s.
The 1966 Trans-American Sedan Championship was the inaugural running of the Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am Series auto racing series. It was open to FIA Group 1 and FIA Group 2 cars and was contested over seven races. Manufacturers titles were awarded for both Over 2 Liter and Under 2 Liter cars with Ford and Alfa Romeo winning their respective class championships. Horst Kwech and Gaston Andrey were subsequently named Drivers Co-Champions in 1980 when the SCCA retroactively named drivers championships for the series after the 1980 season.
The 1967 Trans-American Championship was the second running of the Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am Series. After the dominance of Alfa Romeo in the under 2000cc class in 1966, Porsche would rise to prominence, starting a dynasty that would last for several years. 1967 would also mark the debut of Mercury, with Dan Gurney winning at Green Valley for the company in its new Cougar. David Pearson would also win in a Cougar at Riverside later that year. Ford and Mercury would both end the year strongly, with four wins apiece. Mark Donohue would provide the first win in the series for Chevrolet at Marlboro Speedway. He would go on to win at Stardust and Pacific Raceways, igniting the Ford vs Chevy rivalry that made the series legendary.
The 1968 Trans-American Championship was the third running of the Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am Series. 1968 marked the addition of the 12 Hours of Sebring and the 24 Hours of Daytona, the only year that the Trans-Am Series featured those races. The season also marked the first time that an event was held outside of the United States, when a race at Mont-Tremblant brought Trans-Am into Quebec, Canada.
The 1970 Trans-American Championship was a motor racing series organised by the Sports Car Club of America for SCCA Sedans. It was the fifth Trans-Am Championship. Ford and still potent Alfa Romeo won the Over 2 Litre and Under 2 Litre titles respectively.
Jerry Titus was an American race car driver, mechanic, and journalist.
Ken Duclos is a Americas former racing driver. Duclos competed in the Trans-Am Series, Atlantic Championship among other series.
Autodynamics Inc. is a former American racecar manufacturer based in Marblehead, Massachusetts. The company mainly produced Formula Vee and Formula Ford chassis. The company was also active in the Trans-Am Series entering Dodge Challengers in the 1970 season. Autodynamics was, along with Formcar, the main chassis provider for the series. Roger Barr finished second at the inaugural SCCA National Championship Runoffs for Formula Vee.