The
Canadian-American Challenge Cup or
Can-Am, was an
SCCA/
CASC sports car racing series from 1966 to
1974.
History
Can-Am started out as a race series for Group 7 sports racers with
two races in Canada (
Can) and four races in the
United States of America (
Am). The series was
initially sponsored by
Johnson
Wax. The Series was governed by rules called out under the FIA
Group 7 category with unrestricted engine capacity and few other
technical restrictions.
The Group 7 category was essentially a
formule libre for
sports cars; the regulations were minimal and permitted unlimited
engine sizes (and allowed
turbocharging and
supercharging), virtually unrestricted
aerodynamics, and were as close as any major international racing
series ever got to
anything goes. As long as the car had
two seats and bodywork enclosing the wheels, and met basic safety
standards, it was legal. Group 7 had arisen as a category for
non-homologated sports car 'specials' in Europe and for a while in
the 1960s Group 7 racing was popular in the United Kingdom as well
as a class in
hillclimb racing in Europe.
Group 7 cars were designed more for short-distance sprints than for
endurance racing. Some Group 7 cars
were also built in Japan by
Nissan and
Toyota, but these did not compete outside
their homeland (though some of the Can-Am competitors went over to
race against them occasionally).
SCCA sports car racing was becoming more popular with European
constructors and drivers, and the
United States Road Racing
Championship for large-capacity sports racers eventually gave
rise to the Group 7 Can-Am series. There was good prize and
appearance money and plenty of trade backing; the series was
lucrative for its competitors but resulted, by its end, in truly
outrageous cars with well over 1000
horsepower (750 kW) (some teams claimed in
qualifying trim), wings, active downforce generation, very light
weight and unheard of speeds. Similar Group 7 cars ran in the
European
Interserie series, but this was
much lower-key than the Can-Am.
On-track,
the series was initially dominated by Lola, followed by a period in which it became
known as the 'Bruce and Denny Show', the works McLaren
team
dominating until the Porsche 917 was
perfected and became almost unbeatable. After
Porsche's withdrawal, Shadow dominated the last
season before Can-Am faded away to be replaced by
Formula 5000. Racing was rarely close - one
marque was usually dominant - but the noise and spectacle of the
cars made the series highly popular.
The
energy crisis and the increased
cost of competing in Can-Am meant that the series folded after the
relatively lacklustre 1974 season; the single seater
Formula 5000 series became the leading
road-racing series in North America and many of the Can-Am drivers
and teams continued to race in this. F5000's reign lasted for only
two years, with a second generation of Can-Am following. This was a
fundamentally different series based initially on converted
Formula 5000 cars with closed-wheel
bodies. There was also a 2L class based on
Formula Two chassis. The second incarnation of
Can-Am faded away as
IMSA and
CART racing became more popular in the early 1980s but
remained active until 1987.
Can-Am remains a well-remembered form of racing due to its
popularity at the time, the spectacular cars and the lineup of
talented drivers. Can-Am cars remain popular in historic
racing.
Notable drivers
Notable drivers in the original Can-Am series included virtually
every acclaimed driver of the late 60s and early 70s.
Chris Amon,
Mario
Andretti,
Jack Brabham,
John Cannon,
Mark Donohue,
Vic
Elford,
Masten Gregory,
Dan Gurney,
Jim Hall,
Phil Hill,
Denny Hulme,
Jacky Ickx,
Parnelli Jones,
Roger McCluskey,
Bruce McLaren,
Paul
Newman,
Sam Posey,
Peter Revson,
Pedro RodrÃguez,
Jo Siffert,
John
Cordts,
David Hobbs,
Jackie Stewart and
John Surtees all drove Can-Am cars at one time
or another.
Pioneering Technology
Can-Am was the birth place and proving ground for (what was at the
time) outrageous technology. Can-Am cars were among the first race
cars to sport wings, effective
turbocharging, ground-effect aerodynamics, and
aerospace materials like titanium. This led to the eventual
downfall of the original series when costs got very much out of
hand, but during its height Can-Am cars were at the cutting edge of
racing technology and were frequently as fast as or even faster
around laps of circuits used by both series than their contemporary
Formula One cars.
Noted constructors in
the Can-Am Series included McLaren, Chaparral, Lola,
BRM, Shadow and Porsche.
The manufacturers
A McLaren M1A, one of the early Cam-Am
competitors that was equally at home in other sportscar
series.
McLaren
cars were specially designed race cars. The Can-Am cars were
developments of the sports cars which were introduced in 1964 for
the North American sports car races. The development variants M1A
and M1B were raced as factory cars in the 1966 with Bruce McLaren
and Chris Amon as drivers. In 1967, specifically for the Can-Am
series, the McLaren team introduced a new model, the
M6A. The McLaren M6A also introduced what was to
become the trademark orange color for the team. The McLaren team
was considered very "multi national" for the times and consisted of
team owner and leader Bruce McLaren, fellow New Zealander Chris
Amon and another "Kiwi" and the 1967 Formula One World
Champion,Denny Hulme, Team Manager Teddy Mayer, Mechanics Tyler
Alexander, Gary Knutson, Lee Muir, George Bolthoff, Gary Knutson,
Frank Zimmerman, Tom Anderson and Haig Altoonian & (USA), Don
Beresford & Alec Greaves(UK),Cary Taylor, Jimmy Stone, Chris
Charles, Colin Beanland, Alan McCall and Alistair Caldwell(NZ). The
M6 series were a full aluminum monocoque design with no uncommon
features but, for the times, there was an uncommon attention to
detail in preparation by the team members. The M6 series of cars
were powered by smallblock Chevy engines built by Al Bartz Engines
in Van Nuys, CA., They were the model of reliability. This was
followed in 1968 by the M8A, a new design based around the Chevy
Mark IV "big block"
engine as a stressed member of the chassis. McLaren went "in house"
with their engine shop in 1969. The M8B, M8C, M8D and M20C were
developments of that aluminum monocoque chassis.McLaren so
dominated the 1967-1971 seasons that Can-Am was often called the
"Bruce and Denny Show" after the drivers who very often finished
1-2. In fact there waseven a 1-2-3 finish at the Michigan
International Speedway on September 28, 1969. McLaren 1st, Hulme
2nd, Gurney 3rd.
Sadly, 9 months later, Bruce McLaren lost his
life on June 2, 1970 at Goodwood
when the
rear bodywork of his prototype M8D detached during testing
resulting in a totally uncontrollable car and a fatal highspeed
crash. McLaren continued to succeed in Can-Am after Bruce's
death with a number of other drivers, but the works
Porsche effort with turbocharged flat-12 engines and
a high development budget meant that they could not keep up with
the 917. Although private McLarens continued in the series, the
works team withdrew to concentrate on Formula One (and USAC, for
several years). Team McLaren went on to become a several time
F1 champion and is still very much a part of
F1.
Jim Hall's
Chaparral were very
innovative, following his success in the United States Road Racing
Championship (USRRC).Jim Hall's 2 series Chaparrals (built and
engineered with a high degree of covert support from
Chevrolet's research and development division)
were leaders in the application of aerodynamics to racecars
culminating with the introduction of the 2E in 1966, the first of
the high wing race cars. The 2E was a defining design, and the 2G
was a development of that basic design. The FIA banned movable
aerodynamic devices and Chaparral responded with the 2H 1969. The
2H broke new ground, seeking to reduce drag but didn't achieve much
success. The 2J that followed was perhaps the ultimate example of
what Group 7 rules could allow in a racing car. It was a
twin-engined car, with the by-then usual big-block Chevrolet engine
providing the driving force, and a tiny snowmobile engine powering
a pair of fans at the back of the car. These fans, combined with
the moveable
Lexan 'skirts' around the bottom
of the car created a vacuum underneath the car, effectively
providing the same level of downforce as the huge wings of previous
vehicles, without the drag. Although far too mechanically complex
to survive in racing environments, the theory was sound, and would
appear in Formula One a few years later, first in
Colin Chapman's
Lotus cars, and even more directly in the
BT46B 'Fan Car' of 1978.
The
Lola T-70, T-160-165,
T-220, T-260, and T-310 were campaigned by the factory and various
customers, and were primarily
Chevy powered.
The
Lola T-70 driven by
John Surtees won the first Can-Am championship
in 1966.
Lola continued to
experiment with new designs versus McLaren
which
refined the design each year. The 1971
Lola T-260 had some success with
Jackie Stewart taking two victories. In 1972
a radical new design, the
Lola T-310, made
its appearance. The T-310 was the longest and widest Can-Am car of
the era versus the short stubby T-260.
The T-310 was
delivered late and suffered handling problems the entire year with
its best finish a fourth at Watkins Glen
.
British-born mechanic and engineer Peter Bryant designed the
Ti22 (occasionally known as the
Autocoast after one of the team's major backers)
as an American-built challenger to the British McLarens and Lolas.
The car made extensive use of
titanium in
its chassis and suspension, and Bryant experimented with
aerodynamics and with early use of
carbon-fibre to reduce weight. Although the car
was quick it did not achieve consistent success; problems with the
team's funding saw Bryant move on to Don Nichols'
UOP-sponsored
Shadow team. The Shadow marque
had made its debut with an astonishing car with tiny wheels and
radiators mounted on top of the rear wing designed by Trevor
Harris; this was unsuccessful, and more conventional cars designed
by Bryant replaced them; Bryant was sidelined when Shadow moved
into Formula One but after his departure turbocharged Shadow came
to dominate as Porsche and McLaren faded from the scene.
The
Porsche 908 spyder
was used in Can Am, but was underpowered (350 hp) and mainly used
by underfunded teams.
It did win the 1970 Road Atlanta
race though when the more powerful cars fell
out. The 917PA, a spyder version of the
917K Le Mans car, was raced, but its normally
aspirated
flat-12 was underpowered (530 hp).
In 1971 the 917/10 was introduced. This was still not turbocharged,
but was lighter and had cleaner body work, and
Jo Siffert managed to finish fourth in the
championship.
Porsche 917/30, in
Stuttgart-Zuffenhausen Museum.
For 1972 the 917/10K with a turbo charged 900 horsepower 5 liter
flat-12 was introduced. Prepared by
Roger
Penske and driven by Mark Donohue and George Follmer these cars
won six of the nine races. In 1972 Porsche introduced an even more
powerful car, the 917/30KL. Nicknamed the Turbopanzer this car was
truly a monster. With 1100/1580 horsepower (820/1161 kW in
race/qualifying spec) on tap from a 5.4 liter flat-12 and only
weighing in at 1800 lb (816 kg) with better downforce this car
won every race in the
1973
championship . The Porsche dominance was such that engine rules
were changed to try to reduce the dominance of one marque by
enforcing a fuel-consumption rule for 1974. This kind of alteration
of rules to promote equality is not unknown in other forms of
American motorsport.
In 1975, after the demise of the category for
which the car had been created, Mark Donohue drove this car to a
closed course world speed record of 221 mph (356 km/h) at the
Talladega
Superspeedway
(then called the Alabama International Motor
Speedway). It was capable of over 250 mph
(402 km/h) on the straights.
These marques dominated the series for most of its existence; other
vehicles occasionally appeared but were essentially making up the
numbers. Well-established European manufacturers like
Ferrari and
BRM appeared at various times with
little success,
March tried to get
a share of the lucrative market in 1970-1 but couldn't establish
themselves, and
Ford flitted
across the scene with a number of unsuccessful cars based on the
GT40 and its successors. Americam specialist marques like McKee and
Caldwell competed, alongside real exotica like the astonishing
four-engined
Macs-It special.
Decline and revival
1974 was the last year for the original Can-Am championship.
Spiraling costs, a recession in North America following the
oil crisis, and dwindling support
and interest led to the series being cancelled and the last
scheduled race of the 1974 season not being run. The Can-Am name
still held enough drawing power to lead SCCA to introduce a revised
Can-Am series in 1977 based on a closed-wheel version of the rules
of the recently canceled Formula A/5000 series. This grew steadily
in status, particularly during the USAC/CART wars of the late 70s
and early 80s, and attracted some top road-racing teams and drivers
and a range of vehicles including specials based on rebodied single
seaters (particularly Lola F5000s) and also bespoke cars from
constructors like March as well as smaller manufacturers. To
broaden the appeal of the series a 2L class was introduced for the
last several years - cars often being derived from F2/Formula
Atlantic. The series peaked in the early 80s but as the CART
Indycar series and
IMSA's
GTP championship grew in stature it
faded away and was gone by 1986.
The name was once again revived in 1998, when the
United States Road Racing
Championship broke away from IMSA. Their top prototype class
was named Can-Am, but the series would fold before the end of 1999
before being replaced by the
Grand American Road
Racing Championship. The Can-Am name would not be retained in
the new series.
Champions
Under 2 Liter class champions
External links
Notes
- http://www.wspr-racing.com/wspr/results/canam/canam1973.html
1973 Can Am results
Bibliography
- Can-Am, Pete Lyons, Motorbooks International
- Can-Am Races 1966-1969, Brooklands Books
- Can-Am Races 1970-1974, Brooklands Books
- Can-Am Racing Cars 1966-1974, Brooklands Books
- Can-Am Challenger, Peter Bryant, David Bull
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