Grand American

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Grand American was one of the NASCAR discharged touring car racing series with so-called pony cars , which took place 1968-1971. In the first two years, 1968 and 1969, the series was originally called Grand Touring . It was often referred to as the Baby Grand series.

history

The racing series was founded in 1968 as the "Grand Touring" series and to compete with the touring car series of the United States Automobile Club and the Trans-Am series of the Sports Car Club of America . A total of 19 races were held in the opening season. After 35 races in the 1969 season, it was renamed “Grand American”. After the 1970 season, many smaller events were canceled from the calendar in 1971 and several races were merged with those of the Grand National Series .

In 1972 NASCAR changed its structure. Winston became the title sponsor of the Grand National Series, which was then called the "Winston Cup". This combined all the Grand National Series courses with a length of less than half a mile and all races with a race distance of less than 250 miles in a new series, the Grand National East Division . In this, cars from the Grand American, Grand National and 1969 models were allowed to compete. This series only ran for two years, in the last season in 1972 only four races were held.

dare

Cars competing in the Grand American included Ford Mustangs , Chevrolet Camaros , AMC Javelins , Mercury Cougars and Pontiac Trans Ams . Some of the cars that competed in the Grand American were ex-Trans-Am series racing cars that were extensively modified to meet NASCAR safety regulations and weight requirements.

The engines were originally limited to a displacement of 305  cubic inches (equivalent to 5.0  liters ). The displacement limit was later increased to 366 cubic inches to improve the performance and reliability of the Grand American racing cars.

Victory controversies

In 1971 there was a rethink among the US automobile manufacturers, who then invested less money in the racing series and thus also in NASCAR. This led to the fact that the field of participants in individual races of the Grand National Series, in which there was less prize money to win, shrank sharply. NASCAR then also allowed Grand American Series cars to take part in selected Grand National Series races. Grand American drivers Tiny Lund and Bobby Allison managed to win Grand National Series races. However, these victories are not counted towards the total number of their NASCAR victories, which is accordingly controversial. NASCAR stipulated that victory with a car from the Grand American Series would not be attributed to the driver or car in question and that no points would be awarded for this. In contrast, the victories were counted for the manufacturer, as was the number of races for the drivers.

driver

The series was dominated by Tiny Lund. Lund won 41 of the 109 races held in the series. He also won three of the four championships. The other championship was won by Ken Rush , who won twelve of the total of 26 races in the 1969 season.

Other notable drivers who competed regularly in the Grand American were Jim Paschal , Buck Baker , Dan Gurney , Parnelli Jones , Mark Donohue and Jim Hall .

Champions

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Glory Days ; David Tom; Retrieved October 3, 2007
  2. ↑ Biography ( Memento of the original from October 7, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Pete Hamilton in the New England Auto Racers Hall of Fame , Retrieved October 3, 2007  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.near1.com

Web links