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Chrysler and the 1966 Trans-Am Season
In 1966, The SCCA introduced a new class that allowed for head to head competition between Dodge Darts, Plymouth Barracudas, and Ford Mustangs. The rules were simple: competition was allowed between "Production Touring Cars" with a max wheelbase of 116". There were two classes, the "2 litre and under" class and the "2 litre to 5 litre" class. The Trans-Am class riles allowed few modifications to a production car. Drivers were allowed to remove bumpers, rear seats, and floor mats. Mufflers could be replaced with straight pipes and different rims could be used so long as the stock rim diameter and width were maintained. The 2 litre class saw competition between Alfa GTA's, Ford Lotus Cortinas, Austin Mini's, BMW's, Renault Gordini's, Volvo 120's, as well as entries of Volkwagens and Saabs. The 5 litre class hosted Plymouth Barracudas, Dodge Darts, Ford Mustangs, and Chevrolet Corvairs (out-cubed by the Ford 289 and Chrysler 273).
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Mopar teams in the 1966 Trans Am season were:
| Team | Cars | Drivers |
|---|---|---|
| Dart #9 | David Pearson/Brock Yates | |
| Team Starfish | Barracuda #14 | Richard Petty, Charlie Rainville |
| Team Starfish | Barracuda #15 | Scott Harvey/Bruce Jennings/Les Netherton |
| Barracuda #16 | Steve Durst/Albert Schall | |
| Group 44 | Dart #44 | Bob Tullius/Tony Adamowicz |
The first Trans Am race was at Sebring on March 25, 1966. It was the Dodge Dart driven by Bob Tullius that finished 1st in the "over 2 litre" class. Tullius would rank 3th overall in 1966, and would go on to have another 1st place and a 2nd place finish. Bob Johnson raced a Barracuda (before switching to a Mustang mid-season) and finshed 2nd overall in season points with 2 first place victories The overall (points leader of both the 2 litre and 5 litre classes) first place went to the Kwech/Andrey Alfa GTS team.
Bob Tullius' race team was called "Group 44" and had a good sponsorship with Quaker State for several years. Tony Adamowicz was hired as a 3rd driver for the team with Tullius and Martinshop. Group 44 raced Triumphs (TR4's, and later Spitfires) as well as the 1966 Dodge Darts. The team won the 1966 Marlboro 24hr Endurance race in car No.4, a 1966 Dodge Dart, driven by Adamowicz and Tullius.
For 1966, Darts and Barracudas were campaigned with good success in the series overall, and, for the most part, dominated the "over 2 litre" class. The cars raced were Dart 270 model coupes or GT coupes with 273/4bbls. Rules allowed for the use of any engine component available over the dealer parts counter, but this allowance was not utilized by the manufacturers in 1966 like it was later in the 60's by Ford and Chevrolet.
For whatever reason, Dodge and Plymouth dropped their factory backed Trans-Am support for the 1967 season. It was possibly due to the small cash winnings, or the fact that road racing crowds were a fraction of the size of the NASCAR and the drag racing crowds. It has been said the reason Chrysler pulled its factory support was that Mopars gave away too many cubes to the competition, but this an unlikely reason because Mopar dominated the 66 season! At this point GM had no involvement in the class (other than privateers racing corvairs), and only competitor was Ford, who was racing a 289. It wasn't until 68/69 when everyone maxed the cube limit. Chevy, Ford and Mercury each witha 302cid V8, AMC with a 304cid V8, and Ponitac with a destroked 303cid V8.
Without factory support in 1967, Dodges and Plymouths were raced but not with much success. Privateer Bob Tullius once again took the checker flag at the 1967 opening season race, and had 2 more top-10 finishes during the season and finished 10th overall.
The story doesn't end there, Dodge and Plymouth re-entered the Trans-Am series in 1970 with the new E-body Challengers and Barracudas. Their succccess was moderate, but evidently not what Chrysler wanted because they completely dropped their Trans-Am series support in 1971.
Elsewhere in SCCA racing in 1966, Ron Grable campaigned a Dart and won the National Championship for the A-SEDAN class.
1966 Season Results and Mopar Highlights: ps. points/awards team / entry 1 68 / $1675 Horst Kwech,Gaston Andrey / Alfa GTA 3 67 / $1826 Bob Johnson / Barracuda/Mustang 4 60 / $1511 Bob Tullius / Dart 5 54 / $1330 Tony Adamowicz / Dart 6 52 / $1502 Tom Yeager / Mustang 7 40 / $1263 Bruce Jennings / Barracuda 8 37 / $939 Charlie Rainville / Barracuda 9 32 / $822 John McComb / Mustang 10 32 / $687 Brad Brooker / Mustang NOTES: John McComb won the SCCA A-SEDAN class in 1967 in his Mustang. Partial Race Results Sebring 1st Jochen Rindt 2nd Tullius/Adamowicz Dart 5th Kwech/Andrey Alfa GTA 7th Rainville/Jennings Barracuda driver Bob McLean is killed in accident. Resulting from a Mario Andretti/Don Wester crash, four spectators are killed. Mid-America 1st Johnson Barracuda 2nd Kwech/Andrey Alfa GTA 7th McComb Mustang 8th Rainville/Jennings Barracuda 15th Tullius/Adamowicz Dart St. Louis track was built late in 1965 and closed in 1985. Bryar Park 2nd Jennings Barracuda 3rd Kwech/Andrey Alfa GTA 4th Tom Yeager Mustang 7th Tullius Dart 23rd Rainville Barracuda Virgina 1st Johnson/Yeager Mustang 2nd Feistmann/Norburn Mustang 3rd Kwech/Andrey Alfa GTA 4th Richards/Alderman Alfa GTA 5th Baker/McQueen Alfa GTA 6th Jennings/Netherton Barracuda 7th Rolo BMW TISA 8th Riley/Mollin Volvo 122S 9th Simon/Steele Alfa GTA 10th Cunningham/Stone Volvo 122S 11th Taylor/Pratt Alfa GTA 12th Peritz/Dolman Alfa GTA 13th Beuter/Murphy Mini-Cooper S 14th Sellers/Mercer Renault Gordini 15th Durst/Schall Barracuda 16th Newman/Yates Saab 96 17th McDaniel/Moore Volkswagen 33rd Tullius/Adamowicz Dart 34th Rainville Barracuda Marlboro 1st Tullius/Adamowicz Dart 2nd Rainville Barracuda 3rd Jennings Barracuda 9th Yeager/Johnson Mustang Marlboro County Maryland track opened in 1955 and was in use through the 60's. Green Valley 1st McComb/Brooker Mustang 2nd Kwech/Andrey Alfa GTA 3rd Rainville Barracuda 6th Tullius/Adamowicz Dart 13th Jennings Barracuda Riverside 2nd Tullius/Adamowicz Dart 4th McComb/Brooker Mustang 6th Kwech/Andrey Alfa GTA 8th Rainville/Johnson Barracuda 25th Jennings Barracuda
More on Bob Tullius
Prior to racing Darts in the 1966-67 seasons, Bob Tullius raced Triumphs. He earned the National Champion title in 1964 in the SCCA D Production class. During the 66 season, in addition to his Dart, he campaigned a Trimuph TR4A. After Dodge dropped factory support of the Trans Am series in 1967, he continued to race a Dart but switched to Firebirds in the late sixties. Tullius's greatest racing days came in the 70's and 80's with Jaguar. Starting in 1973, Tullius won several National titles in the 70's including the 1975 SCCA B-Production title. He continued throughthe 70's racing the XJR series Jaguar GTP cars in IMSA GTP competition, winning several races, and carried Jaguar's colors at LeMans in 1984, following the marque's absence of some 25 years.
More on Tony Adamowicz
First of all, I need to apologize for butchering Tony's last name on this page for the past five to six years. Finding information about the 1966 T/A Season was, at the time, a real challenge and as I recall the records I found of Tony almost consistently spelled his name Akamowiz instead of Adamowicz!
Like Bob Tullius, Tony Adamowicz continued his racing career after the 1966 T/A season with great success in the Can/Am series. The Can/Am series is one that I would also like to write about someday, as it was the first racing series that I was exposed to as a small kid in the 1970s.
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