The 1972 Trans-American Championship was the seventh running of the Sports Car Club of America's Trans-Am Series. The first seven rounds used split classes, while the last four classes had the Under 2500cc class only. Milt Minter brought Pontiac its first win, at Mid-Ohio. George Follmer and American Motors won the over 2.5L division, while John Morton led Datsun to the championship title of the "Two-Five Challenge".
1972 is considered to be the end of the series' "golden era". From 1973 onward, Trans Am would evolve into a lesser clone of the rival IMSA GT Championship, with similarly modified cars, but with a more conventional focus with vehicles such as the Chevrolet Beretta being used. IMSA GT's focus on exotic cars such as Ferraris and Porsches provided a more adaptable format, in comparison to Trans Am's reliance on domestic performance sedans.
The points system was as follows:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th | 7th | 8th | 9th | 10th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | 15 | 12 | 10 | 8 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Only the highest-finishing car scored points for the manufacturer. The points system was as follows:
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 4th | 5th | 6th |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 9 | 6 | 4 | 3 | 2 | 1 |
Best 6 results count toward the championship.
| Pos | Manufacturer | LRP | BRY | MDO | WGL | DON | ELK | SAN | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | American Motors | 1 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 48 (52) |
| 2 | Ford | 5 | 5 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 34 |
| 3 | Pontiac | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 28 | ||
| 4 | Chevrolet | 2 | 3 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 4 | 3 | 24 (26) |
| [1] [2] | |||||||||
Best 9 results count towards the championship.
| Pos | Manufacturer | LRP | BRY | MDO | WGL | DON | ELK | SAN | ATL | POR | LAG | RIV | Pts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Datsun | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 81 (88) |
| 2 | Alfa Romeo | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 4 | 4 | 2 | 3 | 40 (51) |
| 3 | Toyota | 5 | 3 | 6 | |||||||||
| 4 | Ford | 3 | 4 | ||||||||||
| 5 | Volkswagen | 6 | 6 | 5 | 4 | ||||||||
| 6 | Volvo | 5 | 2 | ||||||||||
| 7 | BMW | 6 | 6 | 2 | |||||||||
| 8 | Austin | 6 | 1 | ||||||||||
| [1] [2] | |||||||||||||
Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be purpose-built prototypes or grand tourers based on road-going models. Broadly speaking, sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel single-seater racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over relatively large distances, and there is usually a larger emphasis placed on the reliability and efficiency of the car as opposed to outright speed of the driver. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of a sports car racing series.
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.
Lime Rock Park is a natural-terrain motorsport road racing venue located in Lakeville, Connecticut, United States, a hamlet in the town of Salisbury, in the state's northwest corner. Built in 1956, it is the nation's third oldest continuously operating road racing venue, behind Road America (1955) and Willow Springs International Motorsports Park (1953). The track is owned by Skip Barber, a former race car driver who started the Skip Barber Racing School in 1975. It was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2009.
Road Atlanta is a 2.540 mi (4.088 km) road course located just north of Braselton, Georgia, United States. The facility is utilized for a wide variety of events, including professional and amateur sports car and motorcycle races, racing and driving schools, corporate programs and testing for motorsports teams. The track has 12 turns, including the famous "esses" between turns three and five; and Turn 12, a downhill, diving turn. The track is owned by IMSA Holdings, LLC through its subsidiary Road Atlanta, LLC, and is the home to the Petit Le Mans, as well as AMA motorcycle racing, and smaller events throughout the year. Michelin acquired naming rights to the facility in 2018.
Peter Holden Gregg was an American race car driver during the golden age of the Trans-Am Series and a four-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona. He was also the owner of Brumos, a Jacksonville, Florida car dealership and racing team.
Jan Heylen is a championship-winning Belgian racing driver, based out of Tampa, Florida.
IMSA GT was a sports car racing series organized by International Motor Sports Association. Races took place primarily in the United States, and occasionally in Canada.
The 1974 Camel GT Challenge season was the 4th season of the IMSA GT Championship auto racing series. The series was for GTO and GTU class Grand tourer racing cars. It began April 21, 1974, and ended December 1, 1974, after twelve rounds. 1974 would be the first time that the series would leave the United States, with races in Canada and Mexico. It would also be the only time IMSA GT would leave northern North America. The TO and TU classes, which had been composed of former Trans Am Series cars from before the championship's debut, were dropped due to Trans Am having been "absorbed" by IMSA GT and thus becoming nigh indistinguishable from IMSA.
The 1973 Camel GT season was the 3rd season of the IMSA GT Championship auto racing series. It was for Grand Tourer-style racing cars which ran in the GTO and GTU classes, as well as former Trans Am Series cars in the TO and TU classes. It began March 24, 1973, and ended November 25, 1973, after ten rounds. This year marked the decline of Trans Am and the beginning of it and IMSA GT becoming nigh indistinguishable.
The 1972 Camel GT Challenge season was the 2nd season of the IMSA GT Championship auto racing series. It was for Grand Tourer-style racing cars which ran in the GTO and GTU classes, as well as former Trans Am Series cars in the TO and TU classes. It began December 4, 1971, and ended November 19, 1972, after ten rounds.
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 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. 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 and Porsche respectively.
The 1980 Trans-Am Series was the fifteenth running of the Sports Car Club of America's premier series. After several years of recovery from the decline of demand for muscle cars in the early seventies and the 1973 Oil Crisis, Trans Am evolved into a support series for the IMSA GT Championship, using vehicles that were also used in IMSA GT races. This would set the standard for the series thereafter, and this standard would be applied to the SCCA's World Challenge series many years later. Almost all of the races ran for approximately one hundred miles. Besides Watkins Glen, the only exception was Trois-Rivieres.
Gene Felton (1936-2020) was an American race car driver. He hailed from Atlanta, GA. Felton graduated from the University of North Carolina and served in the United States Marine Corps (USMC). He resided in Roswell, GA. at the time of his death
The IMSA SportsCar Championship, currently known as the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship under sponsorship, is a sports car racing series based in the United States and Canada and organized by the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA). It is a result of a merger between two existing North American sports car racing series, the American Le Mans Series and Rolex Sports Car Series. At its inception, the name was United SportsCar Championship, which subsequently changed to IMSA SportsCar Championship in 2016. Rolex SA's Tudor brand was the championship's title sponsor in 2014 and 2015, and since 2016 WeatherTech has served as title sponsor.
The 2014 IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship (TUSC) was the inaugural season of the International Motor Sports Association's new series created out of a merger of the Rolex Sports Car Series and the American Le Mans Series and the first to be held under the name as the Tudor United SportsCar Championship. It began with the 24 Hours of Daytona, the first time since the 1997 IMSA GT Championship season that IMSA sanctioned an event at Daytona International Speedway on 25 January and ended on 4 October at Petit Le Mans. It was the 44th overall season of IMSA GT championship racing tracing its lineage to the 1971 IMSA GT Championship.
Paul Fix II is an American racecar driver based in Williamsville, New York, United States. He has been competing in the SCCA Professional Trans-Am Series since 2000.
The 2015 IMSA Tudor United SportsCar Championship (TUSC) was the second season of the International Motor Sports Association's Tudor United SportsCar Championship and last to be held under that name. It was also the 45th overall season of the IMSA GT championship tracing its lineage to the 1971 IMSA season. It began January 24 with the 24 Hours of Daytona. and ended on October 3 at Petit Le Mans.
