The 1973 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the eighth season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It consisted of FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. It began June 10, 1973, and ended October 28, 1973, after eight rounds. The season came amid the Oil Crisis, which ended interest in performance cars after an already-declining market over a several-year period. The golden age of the Trans Am Series ended after the 1972 season, leaving Can Am and Formula 5000 as the frontrunners of the SCCA. The season was also the penultimate season of the series, which would fold after 1974 before being revived in an entirely reworked series based on F5000 a few years later.
For 1973, the schedule was altered as the season continued on. The first race ran in a standard, single race format. Rounds two through four ran as two heats, with the results being determined by combined results. Rounds five through eight ran a Sprint qualifying heat first to determine the starting order for the Cup event. The results of the Sprint and Cup were not combined.
Rnd | Race | Circuit | Date |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Labatt's Blue Trophy | Mosport Park | June 10 |
2 | Carling Can-Am | Road Atlanta | July 8 |
3 | Watkins Glen Can-Am | Watkins Glen International | July 22 |
4 | Buckeye Cup | Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course | August 12 |
5 | Road America Can-Am | Road America | August 26 |
6 | Molson Cup | Edmonton Speedway Park | September 16 |
7 | Monterey Castrol Grand Prix | Laguna Seca Raceway | October 14 |
8 | Los Angeles Times Grand Prix | Riverside International Raceway | October 28 |
Rnd | Circuit | Winning Team | Results |
---|---|---|---|
Winning Driver | |||
1 | Mosport | #23 Rinzler Motoracing Royal Crown | Results |
Charlie Kemp | |||
2 | Road Atlanta | #16 Rinzler Motoracing Royal Crown | Results |
George Follmer | |||
3 | Watkins Glen | #6 Roger Penske Enterprises | Results |
Mark Donohue | |||
4 | Mid-Ohio | #6 Roger Penske Enterprises | Results |
Mark Donohue | |||
5 | Road America | #6 Roger Penske Enterprises | Results |
Mark Donohue | |||
6 | Edmonton | #6 Sunoco Porsche+Audi | Results |
Mark Donohue | |||
7 | Laguna Seca | #6 Roger Penske Enterprises | Results |
Mark Donohue | |||
8 | Riverside | #6 Roger Penske Enterprises | Results |
Mark Donohue |
Points are awarded to the top ten finishers in the order of 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1.
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Sports car racing is a form of motorsport road racing which utilises sports cars that have two seats and enclosed wheels. They may be either purpose-built sports prototypes which are the highest level in sports car racing or grand tourers based on road-going models and therefore, in general, not as fast as sports prototypes. Sports car racing is one of the main types of circuit auto racing, alongside open-wheel racing, touring car racing and stock car racing. Sports car races are often, though not always, endurance races that are run over particularly long distances or large amounts of time, resulting in a larger emphasis on the reliability and efficiency of the car and its drivers as opposed to outright car performance or driver skills. The FIA World Endurance Championship is an example of one of the best known sports car racing series.
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The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am, was an SCCA/CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1974, and again from 1977 to 1987.
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The 1966 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the inaugural season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It was for FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. It began September 11, 1966, and ended November 13, 1966, after six rounds.
The 1967 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the second season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It involved FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. It began September 3, 1967, and ended November 12, 1967, after six rounds.
The 1968 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the third season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It consisted of FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. It began September 1, 1968, and ended November 10, 1968, after six rounds.
The 1969 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the fourth season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It consisted of FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. It began June 1, 1969, and ended November 9, 1969, after eleven rounds.
The 1970 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the fifth season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It consisted of FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. It began June 14, 1970, and ended November 1, 1970, after ten rounds.
The 1971 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the sixth season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It was contested by FIA Group 7 two-seater racing cars competing in two-hour sprint races. The series began on 13 June 1971 and ended on 31 October 1971, after ten rounds. The series was given official recognition by the Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile for the first time in 1971.
The 1972 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the seventh season of the Can-Am auto racing series. It was contested by FIA Group 7 racing cars running two-hour sprint events. The series began June 11, 1972, and ended October 29, 1972, after nine rounds. It was jointly sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America and the Canadian Automobile Sports Club.
The 1974 Canadian-American Challenge Cup was the ninth and final season of the original Can-Am auto racing series. It consisted of FIA Group 7 racing cars running half hour Sprint races followed by hour-long Cup races. It began June 16, 1974, and was cancelled after the fifth round on August 25, 1974.
The McLaren M20 was a sports prototype developed by McLaren for the 1972 season of the Canadian-American Challenge Cup. It served as a replacement for the team's M8Fs, but it later became the final Can-Am design created by McLaren before the team left the series after failing to secure the 1972 championship title. M20s continued to be entered by private teams until the Can-Am championship was canceled at the conclusion of the 1974 season. McLaren driver Denny Hulme won two races during the 1972 season while Scooter Patrick won a single event in 1974 with a privately entered M20.
Anthony Gordon Dean was a British racing driver from England who competed in sports car racing, touring car racing, the Can-Am series and various single seat formulae, including non-championship Formula One, in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. He is known for winning a round of the Can-Am championship in 1970 as a privateer entrant.
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