American Road Race of Champions (Formula A class)

Daytona, 29 Nov 1969

All cars are 5-litre F5000 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T142 [SL142/21] (Chuck Dietrich): See full history: Lola T142 SL142/21.
2. McLaren M10A [300-09] (Bob Esseks): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-09.
3. LeGrand Mk 7 (Tom McBurnie): Tom McBurnie (Santa Barbara, CA) SCCA events 1968 with Ford engine. Won SCCA Regionals at Riverside 27 Oct 1968 and at Stardust International 9 Nov 1968. Placed seventh in Road Race of Champions at Daytona 29 Nov 1969. Advertised 23 May 1970, when it was noted as having a Chevrolet engine and Hewland LG600 gearbox. Al James of the LeGrand Registry has information that this car went to "Joe Simpson" and was destroyed, so this may be the car that Joe Simmons "demolished" at Riverside in February 1971.
4. Hodges Special (Jerry Hodges): Jerry Hodges (Overland, MO) raced a Hodges Special in Midwest Division Formula A in 1970. He retired from the Lake Garnett Grand Prix, a Kansas City Region SCCA National, in July 1969, and from the Indianapolis Region SCCA National at Indianapolis Raceway Park in early October, but then won his class in an SCCA National at War Bonnet a week later. The nine points from this win were enough to give him a three-way tie for the championship, with Frank Egger's Lotus 38 and Jack Eiteljorg's Eisert. Hodges attended the Road Race of Champions at Daytona in November with the car, but again retired. Hodges recalls that he later had a towing accident with the car, after which he salvaged what he could and the remainder of the car went to the scrapyard.
5. LeGrand Mk 11 (Rex Ramsey): Raced by Rex Ramsey in late 1969, winning at Trois-Rivières in September, but well off the pace in the L&M series. Jim Paul raced the car in 1970, with a best result of eighth in the Pro race at Laguna Seca, and appeared a few times in 1971 and early 1972. To Keith Saunders (Albuquerque, NM) for SCCA racing later in 1972, then to Bill Swope (Albuquerque, NM) for 1973. Swope advertised it late 1975, and it seems likely that this was the LeGrand used by JB Walton in SCCA Regionals in Utah Region in 1978. The next time it was seen was when Harold Janke owned it in Nebraska in the late 1990s. To Kirk Severson and racing in historic events by 2001. To Marty Fidrich (Elisabeth, CO) by 2007.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

1968 US information has been taken from SCCA results sheets with additional information from Autoweek race reports and from some entry lists. Thanks to David McKinney and Wolfgang Klopfer for providing these. Identifying the classes and model of some entries has proved very difficult so all new information would be welcomed.

1969-1971 US information has been collated by Chris Townsend using Autoweek reports. All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome.

1972-1976 US information was originally collated by Wolfgang Klopfer, converted to database format by Dawn Harrison and checked by Jim Thurman and Don Capps. Wolfgang's main sources are Autoweek and individual SCCA results bulletins but Autosport, Autocourse and Road Racing Annual have also been consulted.

US SCCA Runoffs, Nationals and Regionals results were collated by Wolfgang Klopfer from Autoweek reports. These reports were usually very brief so the information on the majority of races is limited just to the identity of the FA class winner.

Some race programs have also been used for entry lists and other information. My thanks to Richard Coe for the generous contributions from his collection.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen if you can add anything.