autos, triumph, trans am series is alive and well after triumphant opener at sebring

Photo credit: Chris Clark Photography

While IndyCar kicked off its season in downtown St. Petersburg at the St. Pete Grand Prix last weekend, exactly 104 miles due east another series was starting off its season at Sebring International Raceway, but hardly anyone noticed.

Too bad. The Trans Am series dates back more than 50 years, when Ford Mustangs and Chevrolet Camaros and other pony cars battled it out on road courses or tight street courses like St. Petersburg. That first Trans Am race was also at Sebring, on March 25, 1966, and in that debut year drivers like Jochen Rindt, Bob Tullius, A.J. Foyt, Richard Petty, Jerry Titus and Jacky Ickx took to the track in Trans Am cars, and the next year Mark Donohue entered the series and won 29 times for team owner Roger Penske, along with three championships.

autos, triumph, trans am series is alive and well after triumphant opener at sebring

Photo credit: Hearst Owned

Before long, Parnelli Jones signed up, along with Peter Revson, George Follmer Jim Hall, Vic Elford, Sam Posey and Swede Savage. It was one of the top series of its time, as fans loved seeing accomplished drivers behind the wheel of cars that looked just like the Ford Mustangs, Chevrolet Camaros, Dodge Challengers, Plymouth Barracudas and American Motors Javelins that populated the parking lots.

Many Trans Am fans may be surprised to learn that the series is still around, and still looks a lot like it did 56 years ago.

Trans Am is now, and has been since 2016, part of the Sportscar Vintage Racing Association, and the SVRA has basically included two Trans Am races as part of the show. Saturday, the Trans Am 1 race took place, with Trans Am 2 running on Saturday, populated by Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers.

And you might be surprised that there are still some moderately big names competing. In TA1, which are powered by 850-horsepower V-8s that are very similar to NASCAR Cup engines, two-time American Le Mans Series champion Chris Dyson won the race, followed by Wally Dallenbach, Jr., veteran of 226 NASCAR Cup races.

autos, triumph, trans am series is alive and well after triumphant opener at sebring

Photo credit: Chris Clark Photography

Also in the field was Paul Menard, another Cup racer who won the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Boris Said, the sports car racer who was one of the original road course ringers in Cup racing, where he scored eight top-10s and two poles, and Amy Ruman, two-time TA1 champion who joined the series in 2009, after two years of inactivity for the Trans Am series.

And in the paddock, for the first time in years, was Paul Gentilozzi, who holds the Trans Am record for wins with 31, poles, top three finishes and prize money won. He has also won the 24 Hours of Daytona overall against a 63-car field, and has a GTS class win there, too.

autos, triumph, trans am series is alive and well after triumphant opener at sebring

Photo credit: Hearst Owned

This time Gentilozzi isn’t here as a driver. At 72, he is back fielding a car for racer and Hollywood advertising executive Tomy Drissi, who drove a Gentilozzi-built car in Trans Am years ago. Gentilozzi is building a new Mustang for Drissi, an accomplished gentleman driver and a former champion, while they run an existing car in the first three races of the 11-race season. Drissi finished sixth in the Lucas Oil Mustang, held back by some niggling problems with the car.

“It’s good to be back,” Gentilozzi said. “It was great shaking hands with some folks I haven’t seen since I left the series.”

Gentilozzi was impressed with the level of competition in TA1, which also featured the SGT class, which included Porsche 911s. The real growth has come in the TA2 class, which has Mustangs, Camaros and Challengers in a near-spec configuration, powered by sealed V-8 engines that are about 490 horsepower.

autos, triumph, trans am series is alive and well after triumphant opener at sebring

Photo credit: Chris Clark Photography

Former IndyCar driver Raphael Matos, a two time champion in T2, won the race, followed by teammate Mike Skeen, both in Mustangs. Still another teammate, Adam Andretti, started on the outside pole but had mechanical issues and dropped back to 31st. That’s right, 31st—there were 48 cars in the field. Skeen had the fastest time of 2 minutes, 7.858 seconds; by comparison, Dyson’s best TA1 time was 2.00.894.

The competition is there, and the series may get the attention it deserves this year thanks to a new broadcast package. SpeedTour.TV will stream the Trans Am races live, and free, and CBS will air some of the races on a delayed basis. The Sebring TA2 event will air on CBS Sports Network (CBSSN) on March 3 at 7:30 p.m. ET, with a replay at 1 a.m. ET. The TA1 race will be broadcast on the network on Sunday, March 6 at 10:30 a.m. ET, followed by an 11:30 p.m. replay.

That, plus title sponsorship from tire supplier Pirelli, may be what the series needs to move to the next level. “It’s a great show,” Gentilozzi said. “It deserves a wider audience.”

Next up is the Charlotte Motors Speedway roval on March 17-20.

autos, triumph, trans am series is alive and well after triumphant opener at sebring

Photo credit: Steven Cole Smith

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