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-Rivières (~75 miles). [1]
Rd | Date | Circuit | Distance | Info |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | June 1 | Hallett Motor Racing Circuit | 100 miles (55 laps) | |
2 | June 15 | Portland International Raceway | 100 miles (50 laps) | |
3 | July 5 | Watkins Glen International | 6 hours (139 laps) | Also a round of the 1980 World Championship for Makes. |
4 | July 19 | Road America | 100 miles (25 laps) | |
5 | August 10 | Brainerd International Raceway | 100 miles (33 laps) | |
6 | August 23 | Circuit Trois-Rivières | 75 miles (35 laps) | |
7 | September 7 | Westwood Motorsport Park | 100 miles (56 laps) | |
8 | October 19 | Laguna Seca Raceway | 100 miles (52 laps) | |
9 | October 25 | Riverside International Raceway | 100 miles (40 laps) |
Round | Circuit | Winning driver | Winning vehicle |
---|---|---|---|
1 | Hallett | John Bauer | Porsche 911 |
2 | Portland | Mark Pielsticker | Chevrolet Monza |
3 | Watkins Glen | John Bauer Larry Green | Porsche 911 |
4 | Road America | Monte Sheldon | Porsche 911 |
5 | Brainerd | John Bauer | Porsche 911 |
6 | Trois-Rivières | Roy Woods | Chevrolet Camaro |
7 | Westwood | John Bauer | Porsche 911 |
8 | Laguna Seca | Greg Pickett | Chevrolet Corvette |
9 | Riverside | Greg Pickett | Chevrolet Corvette |
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. 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.
Watkins Glen International, nicknamed "The Glen", is an automobile race track located in the town of Dix just southwest of the village of Watkins Glen, New York, at the southern tip of Seneca Lake. It was long known around the world as the home of the Formula One United States Grand Prix, which it hosted for twenty consecutive years (1961–1980). In addition, the site has also been home to road racing of nearly every class, including the World Sportscar Championship, Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR Cup Series, the International Motor Sports Association and the IndyCar Series. The facility is currently owned by NASCAR.
Laguna Seca Raceway is a paved road racing track in central California used for both auto racing and motorcycle racing, built in 1957 near both Salinas and Monterey, California, United States.
The Trans-Am Series presented by Pirelli is a sports car racing series held in North America. Founded in 1966, it is sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA). Primarily based in the United States, the series competes on a variety of track types including road courses and street circuits. Trans-Am is split into the TA and TA2 classes for silhouette racing cars, while its production classes are the GT, SGT, and XGT.
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 was owned by Skip Barber from 1984 to April 2021, a former race car driver who started the Skip Barber Racing School in 1975. Now, it is owned by Lime Rock Group, LLC. 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.
Road America is a motorsport road course located near Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin on Wisconsin Highway 67. It has hosted races since the 1950s and currently hosts races in the IndyCar Series, IMSA SportsCar Championship, Sports Car Club of America GT World Challenge America and Trans-Am Series and the MotoAmerica Superbike Championship.
Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course is a road course auto racing facility located in Troy Township, Morrow County, Ohio, United States, just outside the village of Lexington. It hosts a number of racing series such as IndyCar, IMSA WeatherTech Sportscar Championship, and the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, along with other club events such has SCCA and National Auto Sport Association.
Dorsey Schroeder is an American race car driver. Since August 2015, he has served as Race Director for the Pirelli World Challenge series and since 2018 Race Director for the Trans Am Series presented by Pirelli SCCA Pro Racing. Over the course of his career in Sports car racing, he has won 40 professional races in 242 starts, including seventeen Trans-Am series wins. He also oversees the competition on-track at HSR events and enjoys racing vintage cars.
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.
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.
The Trans-Am Series, Rolex Sports Car Series, and American Le Mans Series have all held races in the Miami area.
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 rounds 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".
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 Chevrolet Grand Prix is an annual IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship race held every July at Canadian Tire Motorsport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada. The race originated in 1975 and is currently a two hour and forty minute race in order to fit the event into a television-friendly package. Previous editions of the Grand Prix were part of the World Sportscar Championship, the American Le Mans Series and the IMSA GT Championship.
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.