The 1977 Can Am season was the tenth running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype-based series. Despite the revived name, however, the new series was entirely unrelated to the previous series which had folded in 1974. Most of the competitive cars were based on Formula 5000 chassis. Also, the first time under 2-litre cars were allowed to race, but with no separate class. Patrick Tambay was declared champion, [1] winning six of the nine races that year for Carl Haas. While Lola chassis dominated the series, a Chevrolet powered Schkee DB1 driven by Tom Klausler won the first race at Mont Tremblant. [2] Other competitive cars included the 1974 champions Shadow, who now used Dodge engines and Wolf with a Dallara-built chassis. While Chevrolet was not the only engine supplier, they swept the entire season. This season also marked a resurgence of interest in SCCA events, with Can Am accompanying F5000 and the Trans Am Series seeing a mild resurgence in the eighties.
Formula 5000 itself would also be classified as "single-seat Can Am", despite two-seater cars also entering the series.
Lola Cars International Ltd. was a British race car engineering company in operation from 1958 to 2012. The company was founded by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England, before moving to new premises in Slough, Buckinghamshire and finally Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire, and endured for more than fifty years to become one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola Cars started by building small front-engined sports cars, and branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles. Lola was acquired by Martin Birrane in 1998 after the unsuccessful MasterCard Lola attempt at Formula One.
Connew Racing Team, commonly known as Connew, was a short lived British Formula One constructor. Founded in 1971 by Peter Connew, the team constructed a single car, the PC1. The first monococque had to be aborted due to a change in regulations and the second tub was known as PC2. However, record books show the car driven by Migault and others as PC1. The intent was to compete in the Formula One World Championship in 1972, but a lack of financial and technical resources meant that the car only managed to start in one championship race, the 1972 Austrian Grand Prix, with French driver François Migault at the wheel. Following the Austrian race, the car competed in a handful of non-championship races before being converted to meet Formula 5000 specifications for the 1973 season. The chassis was damaged beyond repair during the season finale at Brands Hatch and the team closed.
John Cannon was a sports car racer, who competed under the banner of Canada, though he was born in London, U.K. He raced in the USRRC series, the CanAm Series and the L&M Continental Series.
Vernon John Schuppan is a retired Australian motor racing driver. Schuppan drove in various categories, participating in Formula One, the Indianapolis 500 and most successfully in sports car racing.
Circuit Mont-Tremblant is a 4.26 km (2.65 mi) race circuit about 13 km (8.1 mi) south of the village of Mont-Tremblant, Quebec, Canada. The name of the village of Saint-Jovite was often included in the name of the circuit, but since the village was amalgamated into Mont-Tremblant in the year 2000, it is no longer considered or functions as an independent entity.
March Engineering was a Formula One constructor and manufacturer of customer racing cars from the United Kingdom. Although only moderately successful in Grand Prix competition, March racing cars enjoyed much better success in other categories of competition, including Formula Two, Formula Three, IndyCar and IMSA GTP sportscar racing.
The Canadian-American Challenge Cup, or Can-Am, was an SCCA/CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to 1987.
Formula 5000 was an open wheel, single seater auto-racing formula that ran in different series in various regions around the world from 1968 to 1982. It was originally intended as a low-cost series aimed at open-wheel racing cars that no longer fit into any particular formula. The '5000' denomination comes from the maximum 5.0 litre engine capacity allowed in the cars, although many cars ran with smaller engines. Manufacturers included McLaren, Eagle, March, Lola, Lotus, Elfin, Matich and Chevron.
The Matich name was applied to a series of sports racing cars and open wheel racing cars produced in Australia between 1967 and 1974 under the direction of Sydney-based racing driver and engineer Frank Matich.
The Lola T332 was a race car designed and built by Lola Cars for use in Formula 5000 racing and made its racing debut in 1973. The T332 was successful around the globe with race victories in places such as Australia, the United Kingdom, New Zealand and the United States. The Lola commonly used the 5.0-litre Chevrolet V8 engine, though some competitors in Australia and New Zealand used the slightly cheaper and less powerful Australian made 5.0-litre Repco Holden V8.
Tony Southgate is a British engineer and former racing car designer. He designed many successful cars, including Jaguar's Le Mans-winning XJR-9, and cars for almost every type of circuit racing. He was responsible for the chassis design of Ford's RS200 Group B rally car. Southgate was employed as chief designer or technical director for many Formula One teams for over twenty years. These teams included BRM, Shadow and Arrows. Southgate retired after producing the Audi R8C, which was a major influence in the Bentley Speed 8, which won Le Mans in 2003. He continues to be a regular visitor to current and historic race meetings.
The 1978 Can-Am season was the eleventh running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype based series and the second running of the revived series. Alan Jones was declared champion, winning five of the ten rounds. Chevrolet again swept the season. Lola was not as dominant this season, as Elliot Forbes-Robinson won at Charlotte in a Spyder, SCCA legend George Follmer at Mont Tremblant in a Prophet, and Forbes-Robinson again at Trois-Rivieres.
The 1979 Can-Am season was the twelfth running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype-based series and the third running of the revived series. Formula One legend Jacky Ickx was declared champion, winning five of the ten rounds and finishing second at Road Atlanta. Chevrolet again dominated the season. The top chassis builders were Lola, Prophet, and Spyder, with Vern Schuppan finishing third at Watkins Glen in an Elfin and Al Holbert finishing third at Road America in a Hogan.
The 1984 Can Am season was the seventeenth running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype series, and the eighth running of the revived series. 1984 would mark a major downturn in the series, as Juan Manuel Fangio II would become the last major driver to podium in a Can Am Series race, finishing third at Dallas. The dominant manufacturers were Chevrolet, Hart, BMW for the first time with a third-place finish at Brainerd, Cosworth, Lola, Ralt, and March. Dominant chassis were VDS, March, Frissbee-Lola, Ralt, and Williams with their first podium with a third-place finish at Lime Rock. Michael Roe was declared champion, with seven wins. The final race at Green Valley would feature the final truly notable driver in series history, John Andretti.
The Mildren name was used on a series of racing vehicles constructed for, or acquired by, Australian racing team owner Alec Mildren during the 1960s and early 1970s.
The 1975 SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 Championship was the ninth running of the Sports Car Club of America's professional open wheel automobile racing series and the second to be sanctioned jointly by the Sports Car Club of America and the United States Automobile Club. The championship was open to cars complying with the SCCA's 5 litre American stock block engine specifications and to cars complying with the USAC's 161 cid turbocharged, 255 cid DOHC or 320 cid stock block engine regulations.
The Spyder NF-10 was an American sports prototype racing car built for the Can-Am series in 1978. It was based on a Lola T333CS, and was developed into the Spyder NF-11 in 1979. Two NF-10s were built in 1978, whilst four NF-11s were built in 1979, two of which were originally NF-10s. Both the NF-10 and NF-11 featured a 5-litre Chevrolet V8 engine.
Keith Holland is a British former racing driver from England who competed in various classes of racing in the 1960s and 1970s. He is known for winning the 1969 Madrid Grand Prix in a Formula 5000 car in a field which contained several Formula One entries. He was also a regular competitor in the British Formula 5000 Championship finishing third in the title standings on two occasions.
Gerald Jon 'Jerry' Hansen is a former racing driver. Hansen has won a record of 27 SCCA National Championships. Hansen has also competed in Can-Am, the Atlantic Championship, USAC ChampCar 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.
