The 1988 SCCA Escort Trans-Am Championship [1] was the 23rd running of the Sports Car Club of America's premier series. 1988 would mark the end of the "GT era", in which the series had been the support series, and often the lesser classes, of the more popular IMSA GT Championship, which had overtaken Trans Am as the most popular road racing series in the United States beginning in 1973 after the decline of muscle cars and the 1973 Oil Crisis. This led to an increase in competitiveness from foreign manufacturers.
The Audi 200 quattro won the manufacturer's championship [2] and Hurley Haywood won the driver's championship. [3]
Round | Date | Circuit | Winning driver | Winning vehicle |
---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 16 April | Long Beach | Paul Gentilozzi | Oldsmobile Cutlass |
2 | 1 May | Dallas | Hurley Haywood | Audi 200 |
3 | 29 May | Sears Point | Willy T. Ribbs | Chevrolet Camaro |
4 | 18 June | Detroit | Hurley Haywood | Audi 200 |
5 | 26 June | Niagara Falls | Walter Röhrl | Audi 200 |
6 | 2 July | Cleveland | Hans-Joachim Stuck | Audi 200 |
7 | 17 July | Brainerd | Hans-Joachim Stuck | Audi 200 |
8 | 23 July | Meadowlands | Hans-Joachim Stuck | Audi 200 |
9 | 6 August | Lime Rock Park | Scott Pruett | Merkur XR4Ti |
10 | 3 September | Mid-Ohio | Hans-Joachim Stuck | Audi 200 |
11 | 10 September | Road America | Scott Pruett | Merkur XR4Ti |
12 | 25 September | Mosport | Darin Brassfield | Chevrolet Corvette |
13 | 23 October | St. Petersburg | Walter Röhrl | Audi 200 |
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The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) is a non-profit American automobile club and sanctioning body supporting Autocross, Rallycross, HPDE, Time Trial, Road Racing, and Hill Climbs in the United States. Formed in 1944, it runs many programs for both amateur and professional racers.
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.
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.
Canadian Tire Motorsport Park is a multi-track motorsport venue located north of Bowmanville, in Ontario, Canada, approximately 75 kilometers east of Toronto. The facility features a 3.957 km (2.459 mi), 10-turn road course; a 2.9 km (1.8 mi) advance driver and race driver training facility with a 0.402 km (0.250 mi) skid pad and a 1.5 km (0.93 mi) kart track. The name "Mosport", a portmanteau of Motor Sport, came from the enterprise formed to build the track.
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 GT World Challenge America is a North American auto racing series launched in 1990 by the Sports Car Club of America. It has been managed by the SRO Motorsports Group since 2018, and has been sanctioned by the United States Auto Club since 2017.
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.
Pacific Raceways is a mixed-use road racing and drag racing facility near Kent, Washington. The race track was constructed in 1959 and opened in 1960. The track was originally named Kent Pacific Raceways, then became known as Seattle International Raceways in 1969. After the landowner regained control of the track in 2002, the name reverted to Pacific Raceways.
Virginia International Raceway (VIR) is a race track located in Alton, Virginia, near Danville. It is less than a half-mile from the North Carolina/Virginia border just outside Milton, North Carolina, on the banks of the Dan River. VIR hosts amateur and professional automobile and motorcycle events, driving schools, club days, and private test rentals.
Peter Holden Gregg was an American race car driver during the golden age of the Trans-Am Series and a five-time winner of the 24 Hours of Daytona. He was also the owner of Brumos, a Jacksonville, Florida, car dealership and racing team.
The Circuit Trois-Rivières is a street circuit in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, Canada. The circuit has been the home of the annual Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières, the longest-running street race in North America, since 1967. The circuit is located on the Terrain de l'Exposition (fairgrounds) and is unusual in that it passes through Porte Duplessis, the narrow concrete gateway of the grounds at turn 3.
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.
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.
SCCA Pro Racing is the pro racing division of the Sports Car Club of America. SCCA Pro Racing was formed in 1963; the company is a fully owned subsidiary of SCCA.
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
James Joyce Fitzgerald was an American racing driver. He is the winningest driver in Sports Car Club of America history, with over 350 career wins. Fitzgerald was also at one time the oldest driver to run a NASCAR Winston Cup Series race, being 65 years old when he ran in the 1987 Budweiser 400 at Riverside International Raceway for Hendrick Motorsports.
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 2014 Pirelli World Challenge season was the 25th season of the Pirelli World Challenge championship. It marked the debut of a new "Touring Car A-Spec" class. A new "GT A-Spec" class also made its debut. These new classes featured amateur drivers. The series also held a round at Brainerd International Raceway for the first time in its history, with a touring car doubleheader held in support of a Trans Am Series event; also making its series debut was Barber Motorsports Park. The GT groups competed in sixteen fifty-minute sprints on nine circuits. The touring cars competed in fourteen sprints on seven road courses. The first race for GT cars at St. Petersburg was canceled due to heavy rain, so a make-up race was added for the series finale at Miller Motorsports Park. The second race for touring cars at Barber was also canceled due to rain, so a make-up race was added to the schedule at Mosport.
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