A Few Old Riverside Trans-Am Photos

[Steve Holmes]

Last one. This is Parnelli Jones in one of the Bud Moore Mustangs. Bud Moore first entered the Trans-Am series in 1967, running the factory Mercury Cougars. The Cougars might have actually won the Trans-Am series that year but for a couple of mistakes in the final race. Certainly, the Cougars were quicker than the Shelby Mustangs in several races.

Ford moved Bud Moore across to the Nascar Grant Touring series in 1968, but after a disastrous Trans-Am season with the tunnel-port motors which saw the two Shelby Mustangs fail at several rounds, Ford upped their stakes for 1969, by bringing Bud Moore back.

Kar-Kraft built all the factory Mustangs to a point, then the teams added their personal touches, and ran the cars. Of the four factory Mustangs racing in 1969, Parnelli was usually the fastest driver. But he let Mark Donohue get under his skin a little bit too. Here in the final race, Parnelli took pole position, and was chasing Donohue in the early laps when he went running into the back of the Camaro driver and spun off the road. Frustrated, he waited a lap for Donohue to come around again, then he pulled out in front of him, slammed on the brakes, and both cars went skating off into the scenery. However, Donohue recovered, and went on to win the race. Parnelli took his battered Mustang back to the pits and retired.

Bud Moore actually entered 3 cars in this race, bringing along an extra car for Al Under. While the 1968 Trans-Am was bad for Ford, in some ways, 1969 was just as bad, as although fast and usually reliable, the four factory Mustangs were STILL beaten by the two car Penske Camaro effort.