I don't know much about road racing, but I'm trying to better understand this race series. Thought I'd come here for a history lesson and any other info. I do know that the Trans-Am series was extremely successful and popular in late 60's into 70's, with big name drivers, big sponsors, and huge crowds. Now, it seems like a ghost town, yet the racing looks pretty good, albiet small fields. What happened? Series went dead a couple years ago, then revived again last year somehow. - Was the introduction of Grand-Am in 1999 just a more popular concept that led to the TA decline? - Is the GT cl*** in Grand-Am the same as the Trans-Am cars? (tube ch***is production replicas) - Is the purchase of Grand-Am by NASCAR last year going to be too much for TA to compete against? - What happened to all the love for American road racing? - Is it fair to compare Grand-Am and Trans-Am, or are they 2 different beasts? Thanks for any insight.
I guess this thread kind of reeks like that.... but I'm really trying to get an objective opinion, particularly considering the history. There has been loads of road racing knowledge shared on here before, particularly about Can-Am racing - thought it might be worth a shot.
There were never very big crowds from what I understand. Yes, the original series was started in something like 1966, but the high-water mark for most was when Penske / Donohue, PJ / Follmer, Gurney / Posey and others were running the Camaros, Mustangs, Javelins, Cudas and Challengers. If there was a "new" series exclusively for current model Camaros, Mustangs and Challengers, and there were big name drivers put in the cars, with big name sponsors, and with a TV deal, oh yeah, that's not going to happen anyrime soon until 1) our economy gets back on track 2) people wise up and support American car mfgs. instead of the imports. Hey, just a thought.
I traveled with Grand Am and Trans Am for 4 years and both are unique to themselves. Grand Am was a continuation of what was then european road racing but run by NASCAR to grow road racing in America (think having a series for JC France to play). The original GT (AGT for American GT) cl*** was very similar to the newer Trans Am cars. Yes, they are tube ch***is with fibergl*** bodies (some carbon fiber). Trans Am almost completely died and went on a 2 year almost death spiral. Now Trans Am is running in conjunction with some SCCA Nationals and includes current SCCA GT1 cars. Grand Am has always been run by the NASCAR execs. I left when the Daytona Prototypes came on due to the demise of the SR2/LMP2 open ****pit cars. Grand Am didn't want anything to do with the old european model. Could have been a measure to help NASCAR drivers have a place to hone their road race skills outside of the Cup cars. American road racing has never enjoyed the level of support the Europeans give to road racing (not the heyday of American road racing). In the early days small teams could compete with production based cars. Now it takes a fortune to field a compe***ive entry. When we were there in 99-2002 it would take about $150,000 just to run the 24hrs and that was barely scaping by. Even in American LeMans it took a ton of money to field for each race and first prize money was $25,000 (try about $50-75k per race to run a mid to back pack car). A lot of teams that were around 5 years ago have long disbanded. Today entry fees for Trans Am run about $1000 for entry. No TV and no corporate support makes this a difficult proposition for most teams. Remains a game for the wealthy with a boat load of money to throw away. A lot of things would have to change to make road racing profitable like NASCAR. Could be done but will take an enormous amout of changes. Still have friends in all three major series and it's getting more and more difficult to continue on...... Hope this helps a bit. I'm sure there are lots of theories from a ton of different views. This is just my take from what I saw. Rod
Trans-Am racing has ebbed and flowed through the years. Everyone remembers the glory years of 1966 until 1971 when the factory money tap was turned off. The mid 70's saw the series evolve from the unibody based cars to the full tube frame cars run almost exclusively by privateers. Almost a lost decade of racing. The mid 80's saw another factory renaissance with Ford and GM providing heavy support slugging it out through the mid 90's. Then the long downhill slide began. GM left, and with Ford funding drying up (and nobody to beat), Roush left to run NASCAR exclusively. For the last decade the series has been a shadow of itself. The SCCA did not want to incur the expense of running the series, and it limped along under a couple of different administrative groups until the whole thing collapsed a few years ago. The series has been resurrected running a few races a year, and is trying to get going again. It is mostly filled with SCCA GT-1 cars, most of which are hand-me-down Trans-Am cars. If anything, in the last decade, the T/A series had a relevance problem for getting manufacturers ($$$) involved with their tube frame series, versus the SCCA World Challenge series which mandates cars with production platform roots. All the momentum that T/A had shifted to World Challenge. In many ways, the WC series has been the "new Trans-Am".
There have been many books written on the Trans Am series with, Trans Am racing by Albert Bochroch being very complete until 1985. I staffed SCCA races for nearly 40 years, and drove in regional cl*** races in various cl***es. The years upto 1990 were great, then the insurance companies started dictating things and racing went downhill from there and I ended up here. Another problem The Trans Am series faced was SCCA, or as members referred to it as the Secert Car Club of America, They did a very poor job of promoting them selfs and race promotion was left up to the tracks, and in many areas there was very little public awareness thus making it hard to retain sponsors. If you have any more questions pm me. jim h
All great points. The question remains if Trans Am can come back from the dead. I think the tube ch***is cars sped up the demise of the series. World Challenge should be a wake up call to American road racers. Cost must come down and we have to attract smaller teams. A production based product would help with the parity. Perhaps someday they will mandate production cars from American companies (or is that now government companies). Again, alot of things will have to change to bring American road racing to the forefront. Many of us cannot afford professional road racing at it's current costs and returns.....
EXCELLENT information, thanks for the input. I knew there was good knowledge here (as usual). Kind of sad that once such a strong brand name is in such bad shape.
I worked for a few T/A teams ,now work with a speed world challenge team.When genollizi (sp)took over the series it was the death blow.I became if you did not run a jag you could'nt compete.Sedan based road racing has never been a huge crowd draw,but the fans are ********. Dave P.S. you can also pm me if you want more racing dirt!
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