<VV> LM Racing

james rice ricebugg at mtco.com
Wed Apr 30 22:34:59 EDT 2008


 Scotty said:  "The late models  improved on the earlies (the earlies were
designed as economy cars--it wasn't 'til a few years later that they got
their "sporty" reputation and the lates were so well-handling that they
could be raced in sportscar competition with little or no changes, except
maybe stiffer shocks. Those cars were called  "Yenko Stingers.")

Scotty from Hollyweird"

The problem with racing EM's is that there were very few events in this
country for sedans.  When events were held, the EM's held their own against
factory efforts from across the pond, where sedan racing was popular.  Think
of factory sponsored cars and F1 drivers in Ford Lotus Cortinias, Alfa's,
SAAB's and Volvo's.

LM's were also raced in SCCA's regional A-Sedan class which begun in 1965.
Jerry Thompson won the Central Division A-sedan Championship that year,
which lead to RST Engineering getting involved with Don Yenko and his
Stinger effort.  In '66 A-Sedan became a National class, and two or three
LM's actually ran a few Trans-Am events that year.  There was also a LM
A-Sedan at the '67 SCCA Runofffs, the year Jerry Thompson won the
D-Production championship with a Stinger.  Funny part is that Jerry did not
know the A-Sedan car was there, as there had been no contact between his
team or Yenko Sportscars that anybody knows about.

Beside the LM's being out horse-powered by the ponycars, the SCCA banned IRS
in over 2 liter cars in 1968.  There were rumors Ford and Chevrolet were
going to do make IRS an option on their ponycars.  The prototype '68 Mustang
with IRS is in private hands today.  Don't know if Chevrolet actually got
around to doing a IRS Camaro, or what happened to it if they did.

My current writing project for the Communique is about Corvair sedan racing
and the first couple years of Stinger racing.  You can expect to see it in
the Communique.....sometime, but not soon.

Historically Yours,
			James Rice







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