Tony Adamowicz
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Tony Adamowicz (born May 2, 1941 in Port Henry , New York - † October 10, 2016 ) was an American racing car driver .
Career in motorsport
If you add the period in historic motorsport, Tony Adamowicz's driving career spanned more than 35 years. The activities began in 1963 on a Volvo PV544 in national touring car racing . His successes added up to a second place in a national championship in 1964 and an overall victory in 1965.
The long partnership with Bob Tullius began in 1966 . Tullius had founded a racing team the year before and Adamowicz was one of the first dedicated drivers. Together with Tullius, he won the FIA Group racing class at the 4-hour race in Sebring on a Dodge Dart . The race at Sebring International Raceway was the first championship run in the history of the Trans-Am series . In 1968 he secured the overall ranking in the 2-liter class of this racing series . In a Porsche 911 he won six of ten races of the season and finished two in second place.
In 1969 he got into the monoposto sport . On an Eagle Mk5 he won five of the first six races of the North American Formula 5000 Championship , which there as a Formula A ran. In the middle of the season the technical lead of the MK5 was obtained. Until the end of the championship, David Hobbs dominated the championship races in the Surtees TS5 and Sam Posey in the McLaren M10 . In the end, Adamowicz secured the championship one point ahead of David Hobbs. In 1970 he tried to qualify for the Indianapolis 500 mile race , but failed in the first training session because of the slow average speed of the three timed laps. On the second attempt he had an accident and therefore missed the qualification. In 1973 he entered a second complete Formula 5000 championship, which this time he finished eighth overall.
Despite his involvement in monoposto sports, Adamowicz remained extremely active in sports cars. After Bob Tullius, Luigi Chinetti was the second essential partner in this phase of his career. Chinetti had emigrated to the USA after the Second World War and founded the North American Racing Team in 1957 together with George Arents and Jan de Vroom . Chinetti, now 69, enabled Adamowicz to make his debuts at the Sebring 12-hour race and the Le Mans 24-hour race in 1970 . The racing car was the Ferrari 312P with which he and his partner Luigi Chinetti junior retired at Sebring due to an overheated engine and was not classified in Le Mans with Chuck Parsons as a teammate due to a lack of laps. A year later , at Le Mans, he drove a Ferrari 512M (partner Sam Posey ) to third place in the overall standings and thus to the top three podium. He was also in the Can-Am series ; the 1971 championship he finished seventh on a McLaren M8B .
During the oil price crisis between 1974 and 1977 the career came to a standstill. At the end of the 1970s, he began to drive sports car races again. He started in the IMSA GTP series and returned to Le Mans in 1984 for his old friend Bob Tullius.
He competed in professional motorsport until 1989, when he retired after the Daytona 24-hour race . He remained active as a racing driver afterwards. He drove his championship winning car, the Eagle MK5, in historic Formula 5000 races in the USA and was the most successful driver there. In some cases, he managed to achieve lap times with the racing cars that are only slightly slower than in his professional days in 1969.
statistics
Le Mans results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 |
 North American Racing Team
|
Ferrari 312P |
Chuck Parsons
|
not classified | ||
| 1971 |
North American Racing Team
|
Ferrari 512M |
Sam Posey
|
Rank 3 | ||
| 1972 |
North American Racing Team
|
Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 |
Sam Posey
|
Rank 6 | ||
| 1984 |
Jaguar Group 44
|
Jaguar XJR-5 |
 Claude Ballot-Léna
|
 John Watson
|
failure | accident |
Sebring results
| year | team | vehicle | Teammate | Teammate | placement | Failure reason |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1970 |
NART
|
Ferrari 312P Coupe |
Luigi Chinetti junior
|
failure | Motor overheated | |
| 1972 |
NART
|
Ferrari 365 GTB / 4 |
Sam Posey
|
Rank 13 | ||
| 1984 |
Conte Racing
|
Lola T600 |
John Morton
|
Tony Garzia
|
Rank 7 |
Individual results in the sports car world championship
literature
- Ken Breslauer: Sebring. The official History of America's Great Sports Car Race. David Bull, Cambridge MA 1995, ISBN 0-9649722-0-4 .
- Peter Higham: The Guinness Guide to International Motor Racing. A complete Reference from Formula 1 to Touring Car. Guinness Publishing Ltd., London 1995, ISBN 0-85112-642-1 .
Web links
- Tony Adamowicz at HistoricRacing
- Tony Adamowicz at Racing Sports Cars
- Tony Adamowicz at the Driver Database
Individual evidence
- ^ Tony Adamowicz, 1941-2016 . ( Memento of the original from October 14, 2016 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. Racer.com, October 10, 2016, accessed October 13, 2016.
- ↑ Sebring 4 Hours: Date: March 25, 1966 . Racingsportscars.com, accessed October 13, 2016.
- ↑ US Formula A / F5000 Championship 1969 standings . Driver Database, accessed October 13, 2016.
- ↑ L&M F5000 Championship 1973 standings . Driver Database, accessed October 13, 2016.
- ↑ Canadian-American Challenge Cup 1971 standings . Driver Database, accessed October 13, 2016.
- ↑ Tom Stahler: Still Racing (and Winning) After All These Years: Tony Adamowicz . DrivingLine, January 18, 2015, accessed October 13, 2016.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Adamowicz, Tony |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American racing car driver |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 2, 1941 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Port Henry , New York |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 10, 2016 |