Right after the 4th of July in 1968 and our Country’s celebration of the Red,White and Blue, the American Motors Corporation Team had a “home” race outside of the Chicago Area in Carpentersville, Illinois at the Meadowdale International Raceway. The 3.2 Mile road course had been built in the the late 1950’s by the Besinger Family who was a local developer and builder. The track became to be known as the Midwest Monster being built in the style of a number of the European circuits and even boosted a controversial “Monza” wall banked turn like the famous track in Italy. In 1968 the track was reopened after taking down the very dangerous Monza Wall turn that led back on to the long main down hill straight past the paddock area.<\/p>\n
The “Professional” SCCA Trans Am Series race from 1968 would be the last major event held at Meadowdale and all of the bib teams showed up for the 7th race of the season. The Penske Team was there with Chevy Camaros for Mark Donohue and Sam Posey. Shelby Racing had two of their famed Tequila Yellow and Black Ford Mustang coupes for the previous years Champion Jerry Titus and local Chicago driver, Horst Kwech. The “Big Draw” was for the local team from AMC with the bright Red, White and Blue Javelins for Peter Revson and George Follmer. It was also the first time that a Pontiac Firebird would race in the SCCA Trans Am series with former Penske partner Terry Godsall as owner and driven by Craig Fisher.<\/p>\n
In the race , both Shelby Mustangs had their typical “Tunnel Port Headed” problems that were experienced with Ford in the ’68 Season, although Jerry Titus did post the fastest lap. George Follmer in the #4 Javelin was disqualified for his blatant and deliberate ramming of one of the Mustangs and his point and finishing did not count. After 75 laps, Mark Donohue’s Penske-Sunoco Camaro had pretty much run away with the race for the win,followed by Peter Revson with a very solid drive in the #3 Javelin for second place. Posey was third and in it’s first official Trans Am appearance, the Firebird driven by Craig Fisher was a decent fourth place. The under 2 liter cars also ran in this same race and Tony Adamowicz, Fred Baker and Peter Harrison, all in dominant Porsche 911’s, were 5th-7th and first,second and third in the U-2 Class.<\/p>\n
I was able to be at that race , as we lived about 10 minutes from the track, and I was with my Dad and a few of the Team members from the Javelin’s. At that time, Pop was working for Ronnie Kaplan Engineering (RKE) who was building the Javelins for AMC and running the team. Dad was the painter for those famous and iconic Red, White and Blue Javelin Trans Am big #3 and #4 racing machines from 1968 and 1969.<\/p>\n
Please stay tuned and until next time………TACH IT UP……..!<\/p>\n
Here is our latest posted clip on You-Tube of Meadowdale 8mm footage cleaned up through our sister site at racemotionpix.com…..Enjoy.<\/p>\n