Shelby's Toyotas

[oldster69]

Newbie here, doing research on an obscure chapter in Shelby history when Shelby had the contract to develop and race the Toyota 2000GT in the US. This was during the '68 season for SCCA C Production events, a single-season project that seemed to end when Toyota didn't get the desired results against Porsche on and off track. There's lots of info on the team's two cars and drivers Scooter Patrick and Davey Jordan -- I'm hoping someone might have details specific to the races and results for the season. Thanks much for any help!

[oldster69]

Eye candy handout from Monterey 2008

[Richstang]

There's a document (looks like a Shelby blueprint) that shows the planned race schedule across all (7) seven SCCA regions for the entire 1968 season in the 'C' class.
There are no driver names visible in the document. The jpeg copy is very poor in quality and thus very difficult to read.

It appears to show;
Las Vegas as the first race in the Southern Pacific region on the 24-25 of February.
Green Valley as the first race in the Southwest region in February (10-11th?).

Maybe someone here will have a readable copy to share with us???

[98SVT - was 06GT]

Some back story and how Brock rained on Shelby's Toyota parade. I remember Brock saying one time he got info from inside Shelby's camp at which regionals they were going to run the Toyotas and BRE would show up to deny them getting any points.   https://www.hagerty.com/media/people/how-peter-brock-beat-odds-and-carroll-shelby-with-a-hino/

[kranky]

Your best bet is to contact the International Motor Racing Research Center: https://www.racingarchives.org/ 

You can have them do a driver's search on both Scooter Patrick and Davey Jordan, or manufacturers search on the Toyota 2000 GT....1968 season, C-Production Toyota 2000 GT to be more specific.

Your second option is to join on to one of the newspaper archives sites (two of them are currently running free 7-day trials) and use similar search inquires (Shelby American, Toyota 2000 GT, Scca 1968, etc.): Newspaperarchive.com or Newspapers.com

[oldster69]

Kranky, your suggestions sound very promising! Because these were SCCA amateur events through many regions and many years ago, they didn't attract much attention -- maybe a local media blurb or a mention in Autoweek -- so trying to locate details is daunting. The fact that information is so obscure makes it seem that much more worthwhile. Thanks for any leads that help narrow the process 👍

[kranky]

The above mentioned sites are mostly free....If you are looking for coverage in "Competition Press and Autoweek" you might want to contact Allen Brown: allen@oldracingcars.com  his collection of Autoweek and several other Motorsport magazines, SCCA club magazines is quite large, but he also charges a fee for research.  As you probably know, many official SCCA records have been lost over the years, through moves, floods, etc...and many other publications going in to the later 1960's only covered the top finishers of each class.  The best luck that I've had with the IMRRC is working with Bill Green...I've had good results just on doing the driver searches.  What you are going to be looking into are SCCA National events.....not necessarily Regionals as noted in the Hagerty article about BRE.

[kranky]

Here's a link to the final race of the season results for C-Production at Riverside ARRC-November 1968:

http://virhistory.com/cars/arrc/scans/68-res-2.jpg

[honker]

This is from Vintage Racecar Journal & Market Report, July '99. There is a seven page profile on the Shelby Toyota 2000 GT effort

in 1968. I can scan the rest of the piece and post it here if there is interest.

In the article there are only results for eight races, but says that the team had 26 starts, does that mean 13 starts per car, or 26

events in total ?

Mike

[honker]

In the Toyota 2000GT book by Shin Yoshikawa, (my copy pub.2002, 1st. printing) there are 13 pages on The Shelby effort in '68,

some images from back in the day, and some of the two restored cars. The only mention of results I quote below.

"The freshman Shelby Toyota 2000GTs showed true potential and stamina in SCCA C-production, most famously by scoring three

1-2 finishes. All told, the pair racked up four first-place wins, eight seconds, six thirds, two fourths, and one fifth, with an overall

finishing record above 80%. This not only proved the already famous reliability of Toyota and development skills of Shelby

American, but also the inherent speed of the Toyota 2000GT itself. The season ended with the Toyotas finishing fourth in the

championship race behind two 911S Porsches and a six-cylinder Triumph TR250"

These results differ from the article I posted above ? I have the Autoweek and Competition Press papers from that time frame, I

will have a look to see if there is any more info, I can't get to them at the moment, a lot of my stuff is still boxed up from a major

move  13 years ago, does that sound like some people who say they will restore a car one day  Maybe this will give me

incentive to dig them out ? 

Mike

photo from the Toyota 2000GT book, I think this is Riverside ? (no credit given)

[kranky]

To Honker:

I think your posted photo is from the Tucson races....

To Richstang:  Here's a link to the "blueprint schedule" you mentioned....also a poor copy (jpeg)(need to scroll down the page to see the blueprint):

https://www.drivingline.com/articles/davey-jordan-and-the-shelby-toyota-2000gt/

I think this is the tentative schedule noted in the "blueprint schedule"....the ones in the boxes and arrows are the ones most likely attended:

Las Vegas-February 24-25, 1968-Southern Pacific Division
Willow Springs-March 9-10, 1968-Southern Pacific Division
Tucson-March 30-31, 1968-Southern Pacific Division
Stuttgart-April 20-21, 1968-Midwest Division-blueprint shows this as an added race in hand drawn box
Kent-May 18-19, 1968-Northern Pacific Division
Road America-June 15-16, 1968-Central Division
Orange County International Raceway-June 22-23, 1968-Southern Pacific Division-blueprint shows this as an added race that is hand written in...I don't know if this race happened on that particular date.  There was a Scca National race on the following weekend (June 29-30 at Orange County).
Lime Rock-July 6-7, 1968-Northeastern Division
Bridgehampton-July 20-21, 1968-Northeastern Division
Riverside-August 3-4, 1968-Southern Pacific Division
Mid Ohio-September 7-8, 1968-Central Division-blueprint shows this event is just circled
San Diego-October 19-20, 1968-Southern Pacific Division-I think this race was cancelled and rescheduled to happen at Phoenix instead on the same date though on the Scca National schedule (although crosslinking with another site has this event happening on the 12-13th of October....so you might want to check that date also).
Riverside ARRC-November 22-24, 1968-

Many of the internet articles mention that the Toyotas were also raced at War Bonnet and Odessa...no dates are listed.  The Scca National schedule for the Odessa National (Southwest Division) race September 14-15, 1968 and the War Bonnet Scca National on September 1-2, 1968 or October 5-6, 1968.  The following link shows a photo from the San Diego Stadium National race (possible date as July 20-21 (this interferes with the Bridgehampton race) or the Regional race on October 5-6.

http://johnstraub.blogspot.com/2011/03/toyota-2000-gt-day-japan-broke-mold.html

There are no noted races in the Southeastern Division, which would mean that the Toyotas did not race in all "7" divisions during 1968, unless your research shows otherwise.

[honker]

kranky, thanks for posting that list of races, much more comprehensive than what I found. !

Mike

[Side-Oilers]

Honker:  Pix is not RIR.   

[oldster69]

This is from Vintage Racecar Journal & Market Report, July '99. There is a seven page profile on the Shelby Toyota 2000 GT effort

in 1968. I can scan the rest of the piece and post it here if there is interest.

Mike

This looks like a good article! I'd vote for more -- and request higher resolution or larger image size for the scans if possible to increase readability. It's frustrating not being able to read the whole thing 

[Richstang]

Testing 10001 with ronnie Bucknam

Another test session with Remington looking at the right rear ...and the Shelby team support van behind the wall