great photo of the Penske team servicing winning Mark Donohue/Chuck Parsons Lola T70/Chev. winners Daytona 24 1969

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10227135310088890&set=gm.3132162863643609&idorvanity=527146584145263

the official Penske U-Haul, 1967

https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=10226047291888293&set=pcb.3086212314905331

an extensive and terrific list of all the cheating methods and devices in racing, some are pure genius, some are incredibly imaginative innovations. I posted just my favorites, the rest are at the link

https://www.facebook.com/groups/808547945893612/posts/24926999833621753/

My favorites are:

cars that picked up the start clock signal and released the cars from the stage start with zero drivers reaction times, but the FIA had a hunch they were doing it so just before the actual start signal, they broadcasted a fake one that got all of the cheaters to jump the start at the 1999 European grand prix

Skip the first 45 seconds

titanium hubs sprayed with metallic paint so the magnet would stick.

traction control chip in the MSD box.

frame rail and fire extinguisher filled with nitrous

Pro stock would run weak oil rings and loose guides so they consumed oil. Then used Used Top Fuel Oil contaminated with Nitro Methane

Alan Johnson Top Fuel car using huge amount of connection wiring from ignition control unit changing the rev limiter ceiling

Ryan Newman engineered a carburetor that didn't go against NASCAR rules but was ultimately banned because it had lower CFM to optimize fuel mileage with only a 2 HP loss. Hence gaining 7 extra laps on a tank of fuel

Gary Nelson’s pumps inside the gas dump cans to speed up the fueling time, had mercury switches so when can was upside down it turned on

SCCA late 50's into the 60's cars with tail light cut out switches to suck competitor's deeper into the corners, causing them to spin

Jim Hall’s Chaparral had a switch mated to the accelerator, which activated when the throttle pedal was deactivated. The tail lights came on before the brake pedal was ever touched, giving the impression that the brakes were applied before the brake pedal was depressed. The following car would therefore brake before the Chaparral.

Penske’s TransAm Camaros and Javelins with two gallon filler necks on the fuel tanks, because the rulebook only specified the size of the tank

Smokey's extra tall front bumper that effectively was an air dam

Stirling moss actually synchronized his watch with that of the starter. Other drivers watched for the flag to drop, Stirling was watching the second hand on his watch.

the Lancia rally team manager paid for a bunch of salt spread on roads overnight, then next morning Lancia were the only team on proper tarmac tires, everyone else expected snow on the roads.

SCCA spec racer w/ spec chassis and suspension. An accident 'repair' led to a narrowed chassis that added negative camber. Took a while for inspectors to catch it.

Knaus/Johnson getting caught drilling 1/128” holes in valve stems so the tires could be filled to the “hot” psi and as the tire heats up it bleeds off excess pressure to maintain optimum pressure.

Penske used 25kg, 55lb mufflers, to move the weight lower in the can in Australian touring cars.

very clever wording in this ad

 

https://www.flickr.com/photos/lightning72/4179877810/

adding dry ice, super cooling the hi octane so more would fit in the fuel tank, and be cooler than the competition's, packing more energy per drop than track temp fuel the competition was using. The Unfair Advantage, as Mark Donohue called it

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1271044631698557&set=a.717965483673144

There is a free online driver development program that offers advice from the very best and most successful drivers completely for free, the Road Racing Drivers Club. (thank you Judy!)

About 300 contributors from Formula 1, IndyCar, IMSA and other top-level championships have been featured in video tutorials to bring together drivers, team bosses, engineers and other motorsport professionals who want to give back to the sport

https://www.youtube.com/@SAFEisFAST

The Road Racing Drivers Club was formed in 1952 as a way to give champion drivers a say in their sport, particularly in the areas of safety, and has evolved to serve the future of road racing by mentoring new drivers on both amateur and professional levels. 

The Mark Donohue Foundation was created by the RRDC in 2017 to support the SAFEisFAST initiative. https://rrdc.org/mark-donohue-foundation. 

The Club's membership is by invitation only and includes champion race-car drivers, leading industry professionals and race officials

https://safeisfast.com/

Here's one I just learned about the Penske Donohue rapid fueling rig (I've already posted about the supercooled fuel) they started with a fuel drum 10 feet off the ground to test the race track's response to the new gadget during quals, THEN raised it to 20 feet for the race, for FASTER fuel loading!

Above the short tower, and by the looks of the pivot points, might even be articulated for height adjustment! Wouldn't that be amazing to learn they could lower it like with a crank that scissor jacked it from low to high, install fuel into the drum, and dry ice, then jack it up to height for the improved gravity drain?  

https://www.facebook.com/choppertown/videos/445945861441681

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=1271044631698557&set=a.717965483673144

Ever heard of how Penske and Donohue got the unfair advantage with the Javelin?

They took Porsche 917 brakes (Girling manufactured) to the AMC people, had AMC part numbers made for the Porsche brake parts, then had those Porsche 917 brakes sold over the counter to meet the SCCA regulations

https://theamcforum.com/forum/penskedonohue-javelin-replica_topic78747_page3.html

https://www.canepa.com/museum/1970-amc-javelin-trans-am/

great photo

https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=25013014254979290&set=pcb.2385685708291332

survivor Mark Donohue Javelin

before k rails were invented, to lean over, photographers got really up close and personal with the race cars on the curves

 https://grassrootsmotorsports.com/forum/off-topic-discussion/can-we-please-stop-hotlinking-pics/20411/page3784/

Here's a cheat that I haven't heard of before, 2 race cars, one under the minimum allowable weight, the other in spec. The underweight can pull better qualifing times, but isn't legal to race... Penske cheated to solve the problem

Notice the numbers for each car, 15 and 16.

Each car in the photos below wears the opposite number than it did in the actual race. The car with the vent window (wind wing) in the door is the '67 lightweight car from the previous season.

It was under minimum weight and did not get run through tech inspection. They ran the '68 through tech inspection twice by changing the car number in a closed airplane hangar between each inspection.

http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=7779.90

These are fantastic! Bruno had some small old photos of a race, possibly the 1966 Can Am in Mont Tremblant Quebec, and took the time to scan and share them! Thanks Bruno!

above, Stirling Moss gets interviewed, or is the racing news anchor

Thank you very much Bruno! 

racing photographer Ron Lathrop captured photos of the prominent racetracks and their drivers in America during the late 1960s, before going into the Air Force from 1965 - 69 and again from 1972 - 92.

Sunoco's 1969 Camaro "Inspection Cruiser". Huh, even though it's just a 307, it's still a 1969 Camaro, and that would be mighty cool to see show up

Above is the famous frozen fuel of the Penske Donahue Camaro... dry ice was used to super chill a barrel or drum of gas, which when loaded into the Camaro, was helpful in packing more fuel into the gas tank, and lower the fuel air mix temp at the carb, possibly lowering the engine temp - but certainly packing more oxygen atoms per cfm for more power

here's a better look at the drum in a barrel, being supercooled, and frosting the bottom half of the barrel

Ron was a freelance racing photographer dating back to 1963 and did work for Sports Car Graphic, Competition Press, Road and Track, as well as a number of karting magazines and even Rod and Custom.

https://bangshift.com/general-news/thursday-time-killer-a-massive-treasure-trove-of-vintage-late-1960s-trans-am-photos/
http://www.camaros.org/forum/index.php?topic=8309.0

Kettle Moraine Preservation & Restoration, dedicated to the integrity and preservation of the history of motorsports, ranging from fully race-ready vintage cars to the trophies they may have won 'in the day.'

Above, Penske CHOSE the KMPR team to restore the Mark Donohue raced 1972 Gurney All American Racers Indy Eagle #7225.   Here they are at the 2016 Milwaukee Concours d'Elegance, where KMPR's work won Best in Class for Race Cars.


Thirty minutes outside Milwaukee, there is a small warehouse in the back of a quiet industrial park. It is one hour south of Road America, one of the greatest and most storied road courses on this continent, and not by accident. There is no signage, nothing to identify the business, just a few parked trailers and a small gravel parking lot. The grass out front is neatly kept but slowly subsuming the rocks.

And then you walk inside, and there are Indianapolis race cars. There are also race car parts, from loose gears on a bench to shelves full of hand-lettered bodywork, the chassis attached to the latter long ago crashed or broken up.

Rick and his son Jacques are historians. The work of their shop, Kettle Moraine Preservation and Restoration (KMPR), has been showcased at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and lauded by Dan Gurney and Roger Penske.

Penske’s outfit asked the Dresangs for help when restoring one of the team’s enormous 1970s International Fleetstar transporters. Penske himself requested a Dresang-rebuilt Penske Eagle—the ex-Mark Donohue 1972 example shown here—to be present in 2016 when he received a lifetime achievement award from the International Motor Racing Research Center in Watkins Glen. Staff at Gurney’s All American Racers shop in California have referred to Kettle Moraine as “AAR East,” due to the store of Gurney blueprints and cars, and the Dresangs’ devotion to sleuthing the team’s past.

Even with those ties, KMPR is an odd bird in the world of motorsport: a top-shelf restoration facility with no customers. The shop was founded to maintain and share the Dresangs’ vehicles, but it’s more than just a collection of machinery.

“The sport is a flushing toilet, and only a few people make it to the rim. It’s like anything—if a war’s fought, we want to know about the losing side. At Indy, there are 32 losing sides.”

“We just want to share the stories,” Jacques says. Preferably, he adds, those from outside the spotlight.

It’s why the KMPR trophy cases are full of vintage cups, from America to Europe, engraved with obscure names. Why Jacques hunts down crew members from C-level teams, or even their relatives, gently inquiring about the past.

“When I started this, I just started calling people, collecting data,” Jacques says. “Cross-referencing things, crew-member A to crew-member B. I’m an ass for the truth. I don’t care if it’s not what I want it to be, I just want to know what it was."

The work may be tedious, but the result is valuable insight into the sport’s dimmer corners—that unglamorous zone where journalists and historians rarely tread.

The Dresangs have day jobs and thus mostly deal with Kettle Moraine business in after hours. Evenings and weekends of research, mechanical work, or simply helping the odd well- known driver sort through his history.

“Take David Hobbs . . . it was funny. We were going through old photos at his house with a bottle of wine. I was asking, Who’s this guy, who’s that guy? He said, ‘Why do you want to know about him?’ I said, Because he did this and this and this, with nothing. He goes, ‘You really like the little guys, eh?’

“Yes. Because they tried. And you if you go to the Wikipedia page, there’s nothing, and it bothers me.”
https://www.roadandtrack.com/car-culture/a13930479/the-wisconsin-shop-that-keeps-forgotten-indy-500-history-alive/
..................................................................................................................................................................

In 2009, the team found an ultra-rare 1977 All American Racers Eagle DGF Formula Ford in California.

After a year of restoration, the car took to the track at the SCCA Kettle Moraine Regionals, winning one of the two sprint races. The season-ending Fall Sprints Regional event at Blackhawk Farms Fall Sprints proved difficult for the team, losing longtime friend and team member Loyd Haslee to cancer the morning of qualifying. Dresang and the team went 10-10ths for their lost friend, capturing pole position, winning all three heat races and the feature event in a car many had thought was past its prime.

 Since 2011, the team primarily focuses on vintage open-wheel car racing and restoration, mainly with AAR Eagles as their specialty

http://kmvintage.net/news/coming-soon-to-road-track
http://www.kmvintage.net/about.html

Mark Donohue's book, the Unfair Advantage

In 1974, Mark Donohue retired from driving at the height of his racing career, and wrote a bio-documentary - "The Unfair Advantage," a candid and revealing book about his journey through the world of auto racing -- from amateur SCCA races in his own '57 Corvette to teaming up with Roger Penske in 1967, winning the 24 Hours Of Daytona, winning the Indy 500, dominating the 1971 Trans Am, and the 1973 Can Am

Things I learned or was impressed with:

when buying a 54 Chevy station wagon to tow his Elva race car, he rigged up a fogger system to deter people from riding his back bumper with high beams on. Using a reservoir of diesel fuel going into the engine through the vaccuum line of the windshield wipers.

He learned early in racing out of his own pocket that other racers could simply run him out of money by "challenging" his motor, which required a tear down and then, a rebuild. The rebuild cost $300, so he sent the SCCA a bill, they sent him a check for $125, he replied with a demand for them to rebuild a 350 for $125.

The increasing number of challenges inspired Mark and his engine builder Lou, to adapt to the effort to bankrupt him, and so they used the SCCA meeting to rebuild the engine in front of all other racers, and there was no challenge to have the engine examined that next race.

Downshifting while scrubbing speed and slowing down into a corner was discovered to be a bad idea. It upset the balance of the carefully tuned front to back brakes, and only one shift is needed, the next gear you'll need to accelerate out of the corner.

the Mark Donohue edition of the Javelin came about due to politics, Mark needed a specific rear spoiler made, but AMC would only do it if Mark signed off on selling Javelins with his name on them, as AMC had to build 2500 of them to "homologate" them. They had better than normal engines, with 4 bolt mains and open pot heads.
The kick needed to get publicity for them came from Penske who bought the 1st 18, and Sun Oil Co hired young women to drive them around the USA to Sunoco gas stations on a "beautification" campaign, checking on the cleanliness, professionalism of the employees, etc.

The Javelin had a bad oiling problem under acceleration, and they blew up engines constantly, until they adapted an oil pump from one to two rotors, where one simply scavenged oil and put it where the second would use it as engine oil supply. Cured the problem

Speaking of problems, in 1971, Mark's Lola lost the race due to the roll bar. Yes, the roll bar was the cause of the failure, as it was a hastily added piece to meet the new requirement by the SCCA, and due to the hast it was built with, and lack of clean and professional interior, it was the scale that flaked off that clogged the fuel tank vent, which kept fuel from flowing out of the tank.

The difference between Formula A and Formula 1 was that the engines in A were 5 liters  and cost 5 thou, and those in 1 were 3 liters and cost 20 thou

From lessons learned at Indy, Mark had a test rig built at Sun Oil, and they tried out several variations of dry break fuel nozzles, and the Ferrari Mark was engineering was also fitted with a dry break tank on the vent, which was helped along with a vacuum, to load fuel faster on pit stops. This proved to be faster, quieter, and less messy than anything before.

Penske invented and arranged the IROC. They started with Porsche Carreras because at 30 thou apiece, no other car was race ready, durable, and as well engineered.

A.J. Foyt, Roger McCluskey, Bobby Allison, Denis Hulme, Emerson Fittipaldi, Gordon Johncock, Richard Petty, Peter Revson, George Follmer, David Pearson, Mark Donohue and Bobby Unser.

http://justacarguy.blogspot.com/2017/03/iroc-1973-74.html

just duct tape the Ferrari and get back to racing, 1971 24 hours of Daytona. Has any Ferrari ever been as taped together?

in his book Unfair Advantage, Mark says they used miles of tape, and 14 brooksticks. It kept the Ferrari on the track, limping around to finish 3rd

https://www.reddit.com/r/sports/comments/6emc5w/mark_donohue_and_david_hobbs_ferrari_512_m/

Ever hear about the sabotage in the garages at the 1969 Can Am race at Riverside?

Controversy surrounding the 12th Riverside Grand Prix.

 According to one documented account, the Group 7 unlimited horsepower cars driven by Chris Amon and Lothar Molschenbacher "had been tampered with" prior to the $70.000 Oct. 26 Canadian-American Challenge Cup race.

 Amon, veteran Formula 1 pilot from New Zealand, was assigned to a factory Ferrari which encountered numerous mechanical problems prior to the race. Amon's crew discovered, in a routine check before the staging on the grid, that the cotter pin had been removed from the balance bar, a vital part of the braking system. Another pin was inserted.

Although the 700-horsepower Ferrari started after the rest of the 36-car field had been led away by the Barracuda pace car, it was blackflagged off the track three laps later for a push start by its crew.

All cars must be started internally, according to SCCA rules. Soon after the start the new brake lining worked itself loose, forcing a pit stop which put the crimson-and-white car out of contention. It finished 16th.

Although the saboteur or saboteurs were never caught, one fact remains: They had easy access into the garage area, enabling them to perform such an act. Motschenbachcr. a German-born mechanic-driver from Beverly Hills, discovered a left rear flex line of his McLaren MK-12 Chevrolet had been cut, presumably with wire cutters. The Molschenbacher crew changed the flex line and bled the brakes, arriving 10 minutes late at the pre-grid.

Unlike other sanctioning bodies such as the United States Auto Club (USAC) and the National Assn. for Stock Car Racing (NASCAR), the SCCA does not enact stringent security measures to bar non-participants from the pits and garages.

Anyone (child, girlfriend or grandmother) can purchase a $5 paddock pass which allows free reign in the working garages. A milling throng of 80,200 attended the Riverside Grand Prix. It seemed they all had paddock passes. At 10 a.m. on race day, it looked like Times Square on V-J Day. Drooling babes in arms, girls wearing that blank expression of "What's going on here?" and the perennial camera buff loaded down with $2,000 worth of equipment, strolled through the garages.

One mechanic, working on Dan Gurney's McLeagle Chevy, had to push his way through a layer of. six bodies to reach the car. As soon as he bent down to work on the left rear wheel hub, the young man found himself entombed by spectators leering over his head. Under such conditions it would be a simple matter to drop a foreign object, like a bolt or rock, down the engine stacks of the intake manifold. The cutting of a fuel line or brake lining would pose no special problems.

Riverside president Les Lichter denied any connection between the spectators and the tampering. "Although they (the spectators) may cause some inconvenience to the workers in the garages." said Richter. "It is very doubtful that sabotaging of cars occurs because of them. I think it would be unfortunate to make a rule and just say, 'No, you can't come in here anymore.' For many of these fans, the garage activity is more interesting than the ' race."

Sometime between 5 p.m. Saturday and 9 a.m. Sunday, the tampering was rumored to have occurred. Whether it was a crew member of a rival outfit or a 'sadistic spectator,' no one seemed to know. But can the racing fraternity afford to shun the incident? Racing is inherently dangerous without adding the specter of sabotage. More stringent laws, limiting access lo the garage area lo drivers, crew members and working press, should be enacted by the SCCA. A novelty for spectators can hardly be an adequate excuse for endangering a driver's life.

November 7, 1969
Independent from Long Beach, California · Page 47

In Mark Donohue's book, Unfair Advantage, Mark says that he was told by mechanics that sparks set off some gasoline, the fire extinguisher wouldn't work, and then the fire got to some racing tires. Page 269

In the passenger seat area is a Nagra-Kudelski 1/4in reel to reel tape recorder (thanks for the info in the comment section!)

Mark Donohue, 1967
http://gwadagone.fotki.com/trans-am-racing1966/?view=roll#170

Racing, late 1960s, thanks to Carlo Krupp for posting these on the Vintage Road Racing Facebook page!

Dan Gurney McLaren M6B

Found on https://www.facebook.com/groups/505973489414476/?fref=nf

Jerry Hansen McLaren M6A

 Chuck Parson, Lola t 160,

Mark Donohue McLaren M6B