Labor Day festivities were in full swing at Drag City Raceway last Sunday afternoon when the track inaugurated a new series, the Vintage Trans Am race! Open to real “survivor” Trans Am racers and the expertly prepared clones of the originals, a judges panel scrutinized every car for accuracy to make sure every detail was done the way it was true to the original SCCA Trans Am series in its glory days between 1968-73. All the heavy hitters you would expect were there: Ford Mustangs, Mercury Cougars, Chevy Camaros, Dodge Challengers and Plymouth Cudas, all running under the strictly enforced 5 liter limit.
The excitement was big and loud, and included a dead-tie down to the thousandth of a second in the first heat, between the #1 Camaro of Jim Hall and the #86 AMC Javelin, which resulted in a rematch for the following heat.
The series was able to begin once I finally received the car I had been looking for since March, the #6 Donohue Camaro that Auto World claimed would be available by April and didn’t show up until almost the end of August. As it turned out, it was worth the wait…well, sort of…considering that I bought a home-made Jim Hall Camaro and created my own Dan Gurney Cougar.
An unexpected technical problem was encountered with the track equipment that delayed the race by several hours. After several disasterous start attempts that resulted in all the cars flying off the track, the decision was made to attempt to use the 120 ohm controllers again. Regular readers may recall my mentioning these some time ago (“Controller Confusion”, Jan 4 2021). I was extremely disappointed with the quality of them, but running these stock cars with stock traction magnets and tires required more resistance if any car was ever going to complete a lap. I was able to find a solution for the sticking and unresponsive feel of the wiper inside each controller; using a #2 flat blade screwdriver I was able to separate the plastic “vents” on the sides of the controllers enough to stick a tiny hobby brush coated with dielectric tune-up grease inside and coat the rheostat coil with it, which stopped the sticking effect and gave the controllers a smoother feel. They still feel terribly cheap and are not satisfactory, but until I can find some 90 ohm resisters for my Parma controllers-or buy a new set with them installed-they are going to have to do.
There were a few other last minute changes, including a racing number alteration to the Penske Javelin (from #11 to #56) and a couple of wheel and tires swaps. As promised, however, everything of consequence was “box stock.” The final battle came down to a race between that #1 car and an older Camaro, the iconic dark blue 1968 car of the Mark Donohue team. The #6 car took the win by a mere .01.266 seconds, taking the tournament trophy!
That was a tight race for sure and great win! I remember all the issues with the various controllers. I’m glad you were able to find a solution for the problems you were having with this one.