Trans Am Series

Beginnings (1966–1967)

At first, the Trans-Am cars were modified versions of their road version. The competition was divided into two classes- an "Under 2-Liter" class (predominantly European sedans) and the "Over 2 Liter" class, 111 inch wheel base or less and displacement limited to 5.0 liters (primarily American pony cars).

The first race was in 1966 at Sebring International Raceway. The overall win went to Jochen Rindt driving an Alfa Romeo GTA (an Under 2-Liter entry), with Bob Tullius (driving a Dodge Dart) taking second overall and first in the Over 2-Liter class.

Allan Moffat in a 1600 cc Lotus Cortina won the third race at Bryar. Ford of Britain had full factory effort with the Alan Mann Lotus Cortinas. In 1966 the Over 2-Liter manufacturers' champion was Ford and the Under 2 Liter manufacturers' champion was Alfa Romeo, with Horst Kwech and Gaston Andrey's GTA scoring 39 of the 57 manufacturers' points for Alfa.

In 1967 Porsche lobbied the SCCA to reclassify the 911 as a sedan. Then dominated the Under 2-Liter field winning the manufacturers' championship over Alfa Romeo. In Over 2-Liter, Ford edged out Mercury to win the manufacturers' championship.

Golden era (1968–1972)

Penske Racing campaigned Chevrolet Camaro Z28s through 1969, then Roger Penske signed with American Motors to race the Javelin in 1970 and 1971. Mark Donohue would chalk up 20 race victories between 1967 and 1970.

In 1970, all of the American pony car manufacturers were represented with a factory team and top driving talent: Chevrolet had the Chaparral Team Camaro Z28 driven by Jim Hall, Ed Leslie, and Vic Elford. Ford's factory team was run by Bud Moore Engineering with Parnelli Jones and George Follmer the drivers. Plymouth hired All American Racers to run their team, with drivers Dan Gurney and Swede Savage. Dodge used Ray Caldwell's Autodynamics team; Sam Posey and occasionally Tony Adamowicz drove. Jerry Titus ran the Pontiac Team Firebird Trans Am. Penske Racing ran the effort for AMC Javelin, with drivers Mark Donohue and Peter Revson. In 1971 all the American manufacturers pulled their sponsorship from the series except for AMC.

As evidence of the original modified production car concept, a fan favorite in the 1971 Trans Am series was the "Grey Ghost", a '64 Pontiac Tempest, prepared by Pontiac Special Projects Engineering Manager Herb Adams and a group of his young proteges (Tom Nell/Jeff Young-Engines, Joe Brady/Harry Quackenboss-Chassis, Ted Lambaris-Body, Tom Goad-Logistics). The boxy six-year-old Tempest had once been Adams' wife's daily driver, with over 80,000 miles (130,000 km) on the odometer when it was turned into an A Sedan racer. It proved to be surprisingly fast, at a time when even a one-year-old car was considered out of step with the competition. It was entered in the opening round of the 1971 Trans-Am Championship. Unable to qualify, the car was allowed to start from the back of the pack. With Bob Tullius behind the wheel, it mowed through the field, and was running second behind eventual winner Mark Donohue's factory-supported Penske Racing AMC Javelin when the engine expired.

Two-Five Challenge

1971 the "U2" class was renamed the Two-Five challenge, as the engine displacement limit was increased to 2.5 liters. 1971 was very exciting as Horst Kwech in a Herb Wetanson Alfa-Romeo GTV and John Morton in Pete Brock's BRE Datsun 510 fought it out for the title. After a hard fought season with much off-track puffing, Datsun won. When these two marques dropped out, interest in the series waned and the SCCA cancelled the series.

Beginning in the 1970s, Trans-Am cars would also be seen running in the IMSA GT Championship.

Evolution

Rules changed over the years. Trans-Am became a tube frame silhouette racing car class instead of production-based. In 1976, Trans-Am returned to the two category format, classifying FIA Group 4 and 5 cars as "Category II".

The GT era, big money, turbos and cost escalation (1980–1988)

In 1980, the SCCA developed a weight-to-displacement ratio for handicapping cars. Five-liter, 2600-pound vehicles dominated the field. Soon, tube-frame cars, often based upon commercially available and relatively inexpensive short-track stock car chassis, would begin to appear, eventually becoming the standard for Trans-Am competitors. Turbocharged, small-displacement-engined cars would also appear and proliferate as the decade wore on.

In 1983 Neil DeAtley assembed a two-car team of Camaros for the Trans-Am series. DeAtley's major sponsor was Budweiser, which marked the association of truly major sponsor to the series. David Hobbs and Willy T. Ribbs dominated the 1983 season, with Ribbs winning five races and Hobbs winning four. Hobbs took the championship with his more consistent finishes, while Ribbs was named Trans-Am Rookie of the Year.

For the 1984 season, Mercury took the manufacturers' title with their Ribbs as the lead driver for Roush Racing. For the next six years Roush entries would dominate the series, winning 46 of the 83 races. Back with Roush again for the 1985 season, Ribbs scored seven victories and became the leading money winner in Trans-Am series history, yet finished second in points, as teammate Wally Dallenbach, Jr. used his consistently higher finishes to take the championship.

1986 was wildly competitive as the turbocharged, small-displacement-engined cars would become more powerful and go from field fillers to race winners. The Roush Racing Mercury Capri V8s and Merkur XR4Ti turbo 4s were head to head against Camaro V8s, and the turbocharged Buick Somerset, when actor/race driver Paul Newman took round 8 in his Nissan 300ZX Turbo. Dallenbach would again take the championship, this time in a Protofab Camaro.

The Roush Merkurs of Scott Pruett and Pete Halsmer dominated the 1987 season, winning all but one race, with Elliott Forbes-Robinson taking that win in his Porsche 944 Turbo. Pruett would take home the championship.

In 1988, after years of rallying, Audi would enter the series with the 200 turbo quattro via the services of Bob Tullius's Group 44 Racing. Running Audi's Quattro system, the cars piloted by Hurley Haywood with both Walter Röhrl and Hans Joachim Stuck sharing duties steamrolled the opposition taking eight out of thirteen wins. As Audi would defect to IMSA by the end of the season, the SCCA would change the regulation to a two-wheel drive only and banning cars with non American engines from taking part.

Modern era (1989–2006)

1989 marked a major change in the Trans-Am Series, as throughout much of the nineties Trans-Am would evolve into an American manufacturer-based series, with aftermarket V8s stuffed into any American branded car. This would last until the rise of Jaguar at the turn of the millennium.

In the 1990s Tommy Kendall, in a Ford, was the driver to beat—he would take four driver's championships in this decade. Chevrolet was also prominent in this time period, with 6 drivers' champions in their cars.

Paul Gentilozzi rose to the fore beginning in 1998 with his first championship in Trans-Am. He would win four more championships, driving a Chevrolet, Ford, and Jaguar. These latter years also saw more marques enter the field, with exotics such as the Panoz Esperante, Qvale Mangusta and Jaguar XKR. Later in the 2004 season, a Rocketsports Racing Jaguar XKR raced with a production-based 4.5-liter 650 hp (485 kW) DOHC AJ-V8.

Due to a lack of participants and interest, the series all but ceased operations after the 2005 season. However the SCCA continued to own the name and permitted Heartland Park Topeka to run two races in September and October 2006 using Trans-Am rules and the Trans-Am name. Fields were shored up by a makeshift assortment of SCCA GT-1 class amateur racers in town for the National Championship Runoffs later that week.

Return (2009–2011)

It was announced on December 11, 2008 that Trans Am would be returning in 2009, with former champion Greg Pickett sponsoring the series with the Muscle Milk brand, using the SCCA's GT-1 category rules. The first race was held March 22, 2009. The revived series utilized the same vehicle rules as SCCA's amateur GT-1 class, providing top GT-1 competitors a professional series to progress to. Tomy Drissi was the first champion upon the series' return.

In 2011, in an effort to increase grid sizes which typically numbered in the single digits in 2010, the Trans-Am Series introduced two additional classes of competition in addition to the 2010 spec which race as "TA1". The new TA2 class consists of SCCA GT2 and GTA class cars while the new TA3 class consists of SCCA GT3 class cars.

A new era (2012)

On Sept 29th 2011 SCCA announced that the Trans-Am Race Company, LLC will assume management of the Trans-Am Series from SCCA Pro Racing, beginning with the 2012. The Trans-Am Race Company will assume full marketing rights to the series and will be responsible for Trans-Am Series public relations and promotions. SCCA Pro Racing will continue to sanction Trans-Am events and provide contracted event operations services to the series. SCCA Pro Racing President Tom Campbell, cites not having the resources to support growing the series as one of the reason for the transition.

The Trans-Am Race Company is now owned by a group of Trans-Am team owners and competitors. The President of the Trans-Am Race Company is John Clagett. Clagett had a 22-year affiliation with SCCA Pro Racing and the Trans-Am Series, most recently as Executive Director of Trans-Am in 2005 when Champ Car operated and sanctioned the series.

Trans Am partnered with GoRacingTV.com to provide a new form of video coverage for the 2012 season. The partnership provided global coverage of the series. Trans Am coverage was also provided by MavTV.

The series, which is divided into three classes (TA, TA2 and TA3), has experienced record growth over the past two seasons and finds record numbers of entries at every race in 2015. In concert with the series' success, the television package has expanded to a total of 10 races (seven of the 12 events, three with coverage of two races, broken out as TA/TA3 and TA2) carried on CBS Sports Network.

TA

TA cars are high-performance Grand Touring race cars with tube-frame chassis and fiberglass bodies. They are powered by carbureted, naturally aspirated V8 engines producing over 850 horsepower. As of 2013, the majority of entries carry Chevrolet Corvette bodywork, But there are several Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros in the class as well, ranging from the modern cars to the old mid to late 90's body work.

TA2

TA2 class specifies a tube-frame chassis built by Howe Racing with Chevrolet Camaro, Ford Mustang or Dodge Challenger bodies. Currently, both fuel-injected and carbureted V8's are allowed, but eventually fuel-injected engines will be required. TA2 is, as of 2013, Trans-Am's most popular class among competitors.

TA3

TA3 group cars must adhere to SCCA GT2-class rules and be of a number of different specified models and year of manufacture. Until 2016 this class was known at TA3I

TA4

Cars are based on NASA American Iron Racing rules and must be a modern production-based Ford Mustang, Chevrolet Camaro, or Dodge Challenger. Both groups feature production-based cars. Until 2016 this class was known at TA3-A. This class complies more with the "classic" Trans-Am standards of the glory era.

TA5

The vehicles in the TA5 division, also introduced in 2016, run on racing slicks rather than the DOT tires of TA3. The class is intended for Porsche Carrera Cup cars.

Other series based on Trans-Am concept

The Trans-Am Series has used a tube frame-based format, similar to the original IMSA GT Series, since the early 1980s, with heavy emphasis on GT cars. The SCCA Pro Racing World Challenge and Continental Tire Sports Car Challenge racing series, run by the Sports Car Club of America, and the International Motor Sports Association, respectively, utilize modified production-based cars, sports cars, and touring cars, similar in spirit to the original Trans-Am racers. With the rise of these series, Trans-Am saw decreased attention from the media. However, Speedvision did occasionally cover Trans-Am races until the series' demise in 2006.

Champions

Trans-Am Manufacturers Championship points are awarded in all classes for 1st through 6th places, 9-6-4-3-2-1, with only the highest finishing example of a make receiving points. Beginning in 1972 SCCA instituted a Trans-Am Drivers Championship based on overall finishing position for 1st through 10th places, 20-15-12-10-8-6-4-3-2-1. Beginning in 1990 the top 25 finishers were awarded points, 30-27-25-23-21-19-18-17-16-15-14-13-12-11-10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1-1.

Retrospective drivers' champions

Race historians have rated the overall finishers in the early Trans-Am years by the driver points scheme in place from 1972 until 1989 to crown unofficial overall Drivers Champions for 1966–1971. This listing first appeared in Albert R. Bochroch’s 1986 book Trans-Am Racing 1966–1985.

Tributes