1970 Watkins Glen

[deathsled]

I was only seven years old when this went down.  I wish I could have attended but my dad was handling a Texaco gas station at the time and a broken marriage so going to a Trans Am race would have been far off of his radar screen at the time.  If only I could go back in time as an adult to see one of these races with all the greats there and the great cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Rc8AhuBSY
Thankfully the advent of the motion picture camera kinda helps, right?

[shelbydoug]

That video captures the nature of the T/A series pretty well.

Chris Economaki was always on ABC's "Wide World of Sports" and was the commentator the first time I saw the GT40's on TV at Daytona and Shelby was always in his comments. 'Coupes', roadsters, '40s, "Mustangs" all on the track together. Quite an overwhelming scene.


If you ever saw T/A in person it was like a suicide event. Cars were run just flat out at every point and for drivers it was just a trial of courage.

In retrospect though I'm not sure what any of it proved. The most competitive cars were one that could be completely rebuilt and perhaps re-invented before the next race which meant big money for basically nothing other then being able to claim you won over everyone else?

Look at the big names there. Pensky, Hall, Donahue, Jones, etc. Those owners paid for it out of their own pockets and those drivers did not drive for free.



One of the post T/A comments that I found interesting was from Shelby where he said" I'm not interested in that kind of racing".

I'm not sure anyone ever asked him exactly what he meant by that but I suspect he was referring to the extreme effort and expense with little return of such a cut throat event?



When you watched the race in person, my thought was find a place that was the safest you could find because it was inevitable that there was going to be a major accident and as a spectator you didn't want to be involved in that.

The only other kind of racing that resembled this is European Rally's where at any turn a car could wind up in the crowd of fans lining the roadway.



It is difficult to describe the feeling I had as an observer. It was an almost surreal thing and I felt like pinching myself for days grasping for reality. People would constantly ask, "what's wrong with you?" Was it a dream or was it real?

I'm still not 100% sure 50 years later.

[jguyer]

I was only seven years old when this went down.  I wish I could have attended but my dad was handling a Texaco gas station at the time and a broken marriage so going to a Trans Am race would have been far off of his radar screen at the time.  If only I could go back in time as an adult to see one of these races with all the greats there and the great cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Rc8AhuBSY
Thankfully the advent of the motion picture camera kinda helps, right?

I was old enough to see this race, but didn't go. Would you trade being 21 in 1970 for being 14 years older now?

shelbydoug: "When you watched the race in person, my thought was find a place that was the safest you could find because it was inevitable that there was going to be a major accident and as a spectator you didn't want to be involved in that."

Is this how you felt then? I know at the races I did attend back then, that was the furthest from my mind. Looked for the spot where those kind of events were more likely to happen. You were probably more mature.

[shelbydoug]

I was only seven years old when this went down.  I wish I could have attended but my dad was handling a Texaco gas station at the time and a broken marriage so going to a Trans Am race would have been far off of his radar screen at the time.  If only I could go back in time as an adult to see one of these races with all the greats there and the great cars.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=21Rc8AhuBSY
Thankfully the advent of the motion picture camera kinda helps, right?

I was old enough to see this race, but didn't go. Would you trade being 21 in 1970 for being 14 years older now?

shelbydoug: "When you watched the race in person, my thought was find a place that was the safest you could find because it was inevitable that there was going to be a major accident and as a spectator you didn't want to be involved in that."

Is this how you felt then? I know at the races I did attend back then, that was the furthest from my mind. Looked for the spot where those kind of events were more likely to happen. You were probably more mature.

Well on the T/A races, yes. It was so flat out that it was like a demolition derby in the sense that you expected something to happen at any second and usually it did.

If you look at a track like Lime Rock, there are a couple of places high up that you felt safer on and could see more of the track. Often though a wipe out would happen on the other side of the track where you couldn't see it and often couldn't hear it either.

Some driver would just loose control in a turn trying to take it to hard and run off the track with no big impact sounds.


Bridgehampton on LI was like that too. There cars would run into the sand dunes.


The really big tracks like Charlotte, Daytonna or Pocono have big stands that you didn't want to be in with the sun. Many converted to aluminum and they were like being on a stove.


It was the nature of the Trans Am races to me more then any others. There you related to the cars because they "looked" like the ones you could buy. There was a small issue with them then because guys, not being sexist here since very few girls were buyers, would buy one and think they were trans am racers on the street trying to shift at 7,500 rpm.


It was a different era. I have difficulty relating to even the GT cars now since so many don't look like what you can buy as a street car because of the allowed "ground effects" added.


I've even lost interest in Formula 1. Those are now like electric slot cars controlled by a computer with telemetry and the driver is seemingly just an added decoration.

[deathsled]

I am surprised actually that you guys were that old to see these races.  My mental perception of you and Shelbydoug in particular as well as others on this site have the feel of someone in their forties or early fifties.  I never knew.  Not being able to see any of you maybe I am projecting my residual self onto all of you Matrix style. 

Would I trade being 21 at that time for being 14 years older today?  Maybe.  Because all things considered, I would still have had those 14 years but merely spent them in a different era.  Perhaps I would have had one successful marriage due to different attitudes back then instead of the three train wrecks I have survived.  Maybe I would have become a race car driver and had a successful career in racing(or not) before moving on to something else.  It was a dream of mine to race at Le Mans not that such and endeavor would have been era specific.  But I view life as a bubble of air.  It is finite in it's dimensions and its duration.  It depends on where on the time line that air bubble sits.  The 50s 60s and 70s had their problems but look like choice years to live as a young adult.  So maybe I would trade it.  Depends on what the outcome of such a timeline might have been however.  Interesting ideas from all that make me think.

[shelbydoug]

Yes I was actually 21 in 1970. I just think that I'm younger now!