The 1985 Can Am season was the eighteenth and penultimate running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype series and the ninth running of the revived series. [1] For the first time in series history, no major drivers would compete in the series. The dominant manufacturers were Chevrolet, BMW, and Hart. The dominant chassis were Frissbee-Lola, March, Lola, Frissbee, Osella, and Ralt. Rick Miaskiewicz was declared champion, with 81 points and three wins. [2]
Lou Sell won the two liter class in his March BMW. This would also mark the final year of the two liter class.
| Round | Circuit | Winning driver | Team | Car |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mosport |  Horst Kroll | Kroll Auto Service | Frissbee-Chevrolet |
| 2 | Lime Rock |  Bruce MacInnes | Claridge Racing | Lola-Chevrolet |
| 3 | Lime Rock | Rick Miaskiewicz | Mosquito Autosport | Frissbee-Chevrolet |
| 4 | Mosport | Rick Miaskiewicz | Mosquito Autosport | Frissbee-Chevrolet |
| 5 | St. Louis | Rick Miaskiewicz | Mosquito Autosport | Frissbee-Chevrolet |
| 6 | St. Petersburg | Lou Sell | Sell Racing | March-BMW |
Lola Cars Limited is a British automobile manufacturer founded in 1958 by Eric Broadley in Bromley, England. The company is now owned by Till Bechtolsheimer, which he purchased in 2022. Lola Cars endured for more than fifty years to become one of the oldest and largest manufacturers of racing cars in the world. Lola started by building small front-engine sports cars, and branched out into Formula Junior cars before diversifying into a wider range of sporting vehicles. In 2012, Lola Cars stopped operations. Lola is set to make a return to motorsport in 2024 by joining the Formula E World Championship as an entrant and a powertrain supplier in a technical partnership with Yamaha.
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.
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.
A Daytona Prototype was a type of sports prototype racing car developed specifically for the Grand American Road Racing Association's Rolex Sports Car Series as their top class of car, which replaced their main prototype racing class, specifically Le Mans Prototypes (LMPs). The cars later competed in the merged series of the IMSA SportsCar Championship, from 2014 to 2016, before being phased out and replaced by the Daytona Prototype International class in 2017. They are named after the main series event, the Rolex 24 at Daytona.
The 1976 World Sports Car Championship was a motor racing series open to Group 6 cars,. The championship was contested over a seven race series which ran from 4 April to 19 September and included a secondary award, the 1976 FIA Cup for Cars up to 2 Litres. 1976 was the 24th season of FIA World Sportscar Championship racing.
The Lola B98/10 was a Le Mans Prototype built by Lola Cars International for use in the International Sports Racing Series, American Le Mans Series, and 24 Hours of Le Mans. It would be the first international sports car built by Lola since they briefly left the sport in 1992 following the Lola T92/10. It would be succeeded in 2000 by the Lola B2K/10.
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 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 Lola T290, and its evolutions, the T292, T294, T296, T297, T298, and T299, are a series of Group 5 Sports 2000 prototype race cars, designed and developed by Bob Marston, John Barnard, Patrick Head, and Eric Broadley, and built by British manufacturer and constructor Lola, for European 2-Litre Championship sports car racing series, between 1972 and 1981.
The 1980 Can Am Series season was the thirteenth running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype based series and the fourth running of the revived series. Patrick Tambay was declared champion, winning six of the ten rounds and finishing third at Riverside. Chevrolet again swept the season. Lola, Holbert, and Prophet were the dominant chassis suppliers, with Intrepid finishing second at Watkins Glen and Frisbee finishing first at Laguna Seca.
The 1981 Can Am series season was the fourteenth running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype-based series, and the fifth running of the revived series. Geoff Brabham was declared champion, despite only winning two races. Chevrolet again dominated the season. The dominant chassis manufacturers were March, Lola, Holbert, Frissbee, and VDS. IndyCar drivers Al Unser and Bobby Rahal also podiumed at Road America and Mosport, respectively.
The 1982 Can Am Series season was the fifteenth running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype series, and the sixth running of the revived series. 1982 brought new competition for Chevrolet in the form of Hart and Cosworth. Hart would podium in three races while Cosworth would podium in two. The most dominant chassis were Frissbee, Marguey, March, VDS-001, and Ensign. Al Unser Jr. would win at Road Atlanta, Laguna Seca, and Mosport twice, with a podium at Mid Ohio, at Riverside, and at Caesar's Palacae. Unser would be declared champion.
The 1983 Can Am season was the sixteenth running of the Sports Car Club of America's prototype series and the seventh of the revived series. 1983 marked the second year of Chevrolet having major competition, with Cosworth taking second at Mosport, first at Lime Rock, second at Trois-Rivières, first at the second race at Mosport, and second at Sears Point. Hart would take third at Lime Rock and third at Trois-Rivières. Porsche would get its first podiums this season, with a win at Road America and third at the second race at Mosport. The dominant chassis were Frissbee, Ensign, Lola, VDS, Scandia, and Ralt. Jacques Villeneuve, Sr. was declared champion, with podiums in almost every race. He would, however, become the final major racecar driver to win a Can Am championship.
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 1986 Can-Am season was the nineteenth running of the Sports Car Club of Americas prototype series, and the tenth running of the revived series. The dominant manufacturers were Cosworth, BMW, and Volkswagen for the first time with a third-place finish at Summit Point. The dominant chassis were Lola, March, Oscella, Yorkshire, Frissbee-Lola, and Frissbee. After 1986, Can Am would become the Can Am Teams championship, using modified CART March 86Cs. In 1989, the name was again revived with a spec Shelby series. Horst Kroll was declared champion.
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 liter 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 March 86G was a Group C and IMSA GTP sports racing car built by March Engineering. Built as simply a chassis with no engine, it was branded as one of three cars, the BMW GTP, the Buick Hawk or the Nissan R86V depending on which engine was placed in the chassis and which team was running it. There were a number of subtle bodywork changes to reflect the manufacturer which ran the car.
The Osella PA9 was a 2-liter, Group 6, sports car prototype, developed in 1981 by the Turin racing car manufacturer Osella and used by the factory in sports car and hill climb races until 1988.
The Frissbee KR4 was an American sports prototype racing car, built by Frissbee in 1984 for the Can-Am series. Originally built by Lola Cars as a Lola T330, it featured a 5-liter Chevrolet V8 engine, and was used by Horst Kroll Racing between 1986 and 1987. Paul Tracy and Bill Adam both drove the car in Can-Am in 1986, and Jacques Villeneuve and Mike Engstrand drove the car in the Canadian American Thundercars Championship in 1987.
Horst Kroll was a German-born Canadian race driver who won the final Can-Am racing championship in 1986. At age 50 he had become the second Canadian winner of the Canadian-American Challenge Cup series The Sports Car Club of America's pro racing sanctioning body had dropped the original Can-Am series in 1974, only to revive it three years later when Kroll led the first race at Mont-Tremblant, QC, but finished third. Kroll was inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame in 1994.