1967 Road America Can-Am

[Steve Holmes]

1967 was the second year of the Sports Car Club of Americas new Canadian-American Challenge Cup for big bore sports cars. The series found immediate success with the SCCA offering lucrative prize money that guaranteed big name stars and full factory participation.

There were 6 rounds in the 1966 season, and seven races, with the Laguna Seca round being split into two heats. Of those seven races, a Lola T70 reached the finish line first on six occasions, with Phil Hill taking Chaparrals one and only Can-Am victory in heat one at Laguna Seca. Lola works driver John Surtees won the ’66 Can-Am Championship, claiming three race victories along the way. Dan Gurney Lola/Ford, Mark Donohue Lola/Chevrolet, and Parnelli Jones Lola/Chevrolet were the other race winners.

Due to its overwhelming success during 1966, Lola was flooded with orders, and the ’67 season saw the T70 being the weapon of choice for most teams. McLaren, by comparison, had been less successful, even though the works M1Bs of Bruce McLaren and Chris Amon finished inside the top three at several events, and McLaren himself finished 3rd in the championship.

For 1967, most of the championship favourites were once again armed with Lola T70s, including Surtees, Jones, Donohue, Gurney, George Follmer, who would be driving a second Penske car, and Peter Revson. Jim Hall returned, this time with just a single high-winged big block Chaparral 2G, while Ford announced they would enter the Can-Am with a twin-pronged factory effort that included a Shelby American King Cobra, and Hollman-Moody Ford Honker.

However, the McLaren team arrived at round 1 of the ’67 championship, at Road America, best prepared, with their new M6A. The new McLaren featured a wedge-shaped body, and fuel-injected small block Chevy fitted into a rigid magnesium/aluminium riveted and bonded box chassis. And best of all, the McLaren had several months extensive testing under its belt, and was both fast and reliable by the time the new season arrived.

The sheer pace of the new McLarens shocked everyone at Road America, and those chasing the orange machines knew they were in for a long season. And so it proved, Bruce McLaren took two race victories, and two runner-up positions behind team mate Hulme over the six races to be crowned champion. Hulme won three times, and finished second in the championship. Surtees, having played catch-up all season in the works Lola, won the final race, after most of his rivals dropped out.

Like Lola, McLaren made a good portion of its income through selling chassis’ to customers, and success in the 1967 Can-Am set the still young company up for the future.

Here is that opening Can-Am race at Road America.

[Steve Holmes]

Part 2

[Ellis]

This DVD has some very good stuff in it.......



What a great series it was where the rule books were virtually thrown away .
Unlimited horse power , experimentation , innovation and some great builders thinking outside the square and daring drivers ruled the tracks. Times like these will never be seen again.

[Steve Holmes]

Thanks Ellis. I think I need to get a copy. Any footage of the Can-Am is guaranteed spectacular. I personally enjoyed the 1969 season the most, the last year in which the cars were allowed to run that tall rear suspension mounted aerofoils.

[Steve Holmes]

The news that Ford would enter the Can-Am for the '67 season was pretty exciting, as there was very little front line Ford involvement, other than the unit in the back of Dan Gurneys Lola.

The Ford effort was supposed to be big; three teams and six cars. But at Road America, only one car showed up, the swoopy purple 'Honker II', run by Holman-Moody, driven by Mario Andretti, and with Paul Newmans name on the nose. But it didn't even make it as far as qualifying. The Honker II entered four of the remaining five races, its best qualifying effort being 5th at Riverside, but it never looked like a race winner, even with the talent of Andretti behind the wheel.



Jerry Titus appeared at Riverside in a Shelby run King-Cobra, qualifying 13th, and retiring after 4 laps. And that was the extent of Fords effort in the '67 Can-Am.

They returned late in the '69 season with their beautiful Open Sports Ford (see discussion here: http://www.theroaringseason.com/show...en-Sports-Ford ), but the best Ford results in the Can-Am were those of Ford backed drivers running McLaren or Lola customer cars with Ford engines in the back.

[Steve Holmes]

Chris Amon was teamed with Bruce McLaren in 1966, but left at seasons end to join Ferrari, a move which probably made more sense for his F1 aspirations than those of Can-Am. He and team mate Jonathan Williams were given a pair of outdated P4s with the roofs cut off, and each fitted with a V12 stretched to 4.2 litres. But the venture wasn't at all successful, and Ferrari didn't seem to be taking it too seriously.



They debuted at round 4 (of 6) and qualified mid-pack, with a best result being 5th for Amon at Laguna Seca.

[bry3500]

http://www.canamfilm.com/trailer.html

[bry3500]

[bry3500]

[Steve Holmes]

Jim Hall ran his amazing series of Chaparral cars in the Can-Am from 1966 through 1970, but only took one race victory. But Halls contribution to the Can-Am was way bigger than his single victory. As an engineer, Hall was years ahead of his time. His Chaparral 2E of 1966 featured an automatic transmission which allowed him to develop an incredible adjustable tall aerofoil over the back wheels and mounted to the rear suspension struts. The wing sat way up high, out of the turbulent air created by the vehicles body.



The wing was driver actuated, flatten it out on the straight, then flip it up to increase rear downforce in the corners. So clever. And because it was mounted on the rear hubs, and not the bodywork, it applied its downforce to the rear wheels, not the bodywork.

There were two 2E's built for 1966, and driven by Hall and Phil Hill. And it was Hill who took the one and only Chaparral victory in heat 1 at Laguna Seca. At the end of the season at a non-championship race at Nassau, the rear wing failed on one of the cars with Hap Sharp at the wheel, and wrote itself off against a tree.

Hall ran just a single car in the '67 Can-Am. It was based on the 2E, but featured enough changes, including an alloy big block 427, but be given a new designation, the 2G. The 2G was raced by Hall throughout '67 and into 1968, until he collided with the rear of Lothar Motschenbachers McLaren M8A at the final round at Las Vegas, and went skywards, ending his career as a driver.

The rear hub mounted aerofoil was a design masterpiece. By 1968, other Can-Am teams were trying it, as were teams in F1, where there were multiple failures, forcing the FIA to ban the concept. Fortunately for Can-Am, their decision came too late for the wings to be banned for the '69 season, as several teams had developed them into their cars, and removing them could be even more dangerous. And so the '69 Can-Am would be the last in which these were used. By this stage most cars had them, and rolling start images from '69 produce the amazing sight of a field of low-slung big bore sports cars fitted with tall aerofoils mounted on spindly struts.

The concept was a good one, its just that some teams took it to its extreme, and didn't make the structure strong enough to withstand the forces places upon it.

[bry3500]

http://www.canamfilm.com/trailer.html

Jim Hall ran his amazing series of Chaparral cars in the Can-Am from 1966 through 1970, but only took one race victory. But Halls contribution to the Can-Am was way bigger than his single victory. As an engineer, Hall was years ahead of his time. His Chaparral 2E of 1966 featured an automatic transmission which allowed him to develop an incredible adjustable tall aerofoil over the back wheels and mounted to the rear suspension struts. The wing sat way up high, out of the turbulent air created by the vehicles body.



The wing was driver actuated, flatten it out on the straight, then flip it up to increase rear downforce in the corners. So clever. And because it was mounted on the rear hubs, and not the bodywork, it applied its downforce to the rear wheels, not the bodywork.

There were two 2E's built for 1966, and driven by Hall and Phil Hill. And it was Hill who took the one and only Chaparral victory in heat 1 at Laguna Seca. At the end of the season at a non-championship race at Nassau, the rear wing failed on one of the cars with Hap Sharp at the wheel, and wrote itself off against a tree.

Hall ran just a single car in the '67 Can-Am. It was based on the 2E, but featured enough changes, including an alloy big block 427, but be given a new designation, the 2G. The 2G was raced by Hall throughout '67 and into 1968, until he collided with the rear of Lothar Motschenbachers McLaren M8A at the final round at Las Vegas, and went skywards, ending his career as a driver.

The rear hub mounted aerofoil was a design masterpiece. By 1968, other Can-Am teams were trying it, as were teams in F1, where there were multiple failures, forcing the FIA to ban the concept. Fortunately for Can-Am, their decision came too late for the wings to be banned for the '69 season, as several teams had developed them into their cars, and removing them could be even more dangerous. And so the '69 Can-Am would be the last in which these were used. By this stage most cars had them, and rolling start images from '69 produce the amazing sight of a field of low-slung big bore sports cars fitted with tall aerofoils mounted on spindly struts.

The concept was a good one, its just that some teams took it to its extreme, and didn't make the structure strong enough to withstand the forces places upon it.

[Steve Holmes]

Oh yeah! Fantastic!

[Rod Grimwood]

Steve, I will endeavor to put some bits together on this guy. His name is Skip Scott (Robert Livingston Scott) and he did a heap of racing in Can Am and Le Mans Etc back in the 60/70's. He was actually a personal friend of Mr Ford. Any way in his later years he shifted over to NZ and up to the Bay of Islands and had a big charter boat. I got to know him very well and unfortunatly Skip passed on about 5 years ago from a illness which was caused by his previous life and his fancy of Vodka. This started when his best friend Peter Revson was killed basically in front of him It was very sad actually to see a person who had done so much go down hill so badly. We spent alot of time fishing before Skip became ill and we spent alot of time talking/discussing the days of racing and how it was then and how it is now. Skip was here on his own and we became kind of family to him as he would spend xmas day with us and spoilt my daughters. My wife and myself spent the last 2 years of Skips life doing our best to look after him. His family (children) are very nice people and gave me some videos of Skip racing but I sent them back to them when Skip passed, i wish i had copied them. I will try and make contact and see what i can get. He was a bit of a hard case and charmer when we could keep him away from the Vody with an amazing history of racing in all sorts. He co-drove with Denny Hulme and all sorts, so i will try and put some bits together.
I still think of him and wonder what a waste of great career, and not many people even knew of his past he just told me one day he used to race and was a mate of Mr Ford.

[Murray Maunder]

Sad story Rod, had no idea Skip who was pretty well known as a racer in the USA 60s and 70s as you said, moved to NZ. Revson was a popular guy and as I recall the McLaren guys (for whom Revvie previously drove) were shook up by his death and some say it made Denny's mind up about retiring. CanAm for it's liberal rules proved far less dangerous than F1 and I don't recall any deaths in the heyday when I was following the orange cars.

[Rod Grimwood]

I will endeavour to put a bit more together Murray, As Skip became pretty close to us over the time we knew him and he told me some great bits about different things that happened, he was kind of sheltered and would only talk about the "old days" as he called them to me on occassion. he was flatting with Revson when he had his accident and he also mentioned the influence on himself and Denny at the time, it knocked them around.
I have never spoken to anybody about our association, but I feel this is a good place to mention some of it. Skip was a nice sincere guy, but unfortunatly he had some problems which would take a toll on him in later life.
If people look up "Skip Scott" on Google there is some information on there and also a list of cars and drivers he drove with. He did a bit and told me that after one Le Mans his mate Mr Ford gave him the GT40 and he had it years in storage.
I must admit we were pretty upset when Skip passed but were lucky to have spent a few years with him.

[Steve Holmes]

Steve, I will endeavor to put some bits together on this guy. His name is Skip Scott (Robert Livingston Scott) and he did a heap of racing in Can Am and Le Mans Etc back in the 60/70's. He was actually a personal friend of Mr Ford. Any way in his later years he shifted over to NZ and up to the Bay of Islands and had a big charter boat. I got to know him very well and unfortunatly Skip passed on about 5 years ago from a illness which was caused by his previous life and his fancy of Vodka. This started when his best friend Peter Revson was killed basically in front of him It was very sad actually to see a person who had done so much go down hill so badly. We spent alot of time fishing before Skip became ill and we spent alot of time talking/discussing the days of racing and how it was then and how it is now. Skip was here on his own and we became kind of family to him as he would spend xmas day with us and spoilt my daughters. My wife and myself spent the last 2 years of Skips life doing our best to look after him. His family (children) are very nice people and gave me some videos of Skip racing but I sent them back to them when Skip passed, i wish i had copied them. I will try and make contact and see what i can get. He was a bit of a hard case and charmer when we could keep him away from the Vody with an amazing history of racing in all sorts. He co-drove with Denny Hulme and all sorts, so i will try and put some bits together.
I still think of him and wonder what a waste of great career, and not many people even knew of his past he just told me one day he used to race and was a mate of Mr Ford.

Rod, many thanks. I would love to hear of anything you can share about Skip Scott. He was one of a small number of prominent "go-to" guys during the 1960s and early '70s that was very adaptable in road racing, and could be plugged into any type of car and drive it very well. Really sad to hear of his later years in life. That is tragic. I often wondered why he seemed to have vanished from the racing scene.

[Tom Grannis]

Found your terrific web site while looking for information about the 1967 Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca. I was there and took many photos, including one of Skip Scott, which I'd like to share. Can't figure out how to get it from My Photos to here. Looks like a nice forum to be in.

[Steve Holmes]

Hi there Tom, thanks for your kind words. Its great to have you here. Welcome to the site. I would really love to see your Can-Am photos, as I'm sure other forum members would too. I have sent you a personal mail with regards to posting images on here. If you get stuck, just let me know.

[Tom Grannis]

I took this one of Skip Scott at Laguna Seca in 1967 prior to the Can Am race.
Unfortunately, I did not get to meet or chat with him. Wish that I had.

[Michael Clark]

In the book produced for the Festival of Motor Racing earlier this year called 'Chris Amon - A celebration of a Kiwi Icon', Chris talks about the relative merits of those early Can-Am cars - plus some interesting comparisons between the Ferrari and the McLaren M8B - both of which he raced in 1969.

In fact Howden Ganley has made a wider comparison - the M8B/something, the March 707, and the BRM Can-Am car. He tested them all and raced the BRM which he described as "easily the best"