Can Am Laguna Seca 1982

1982 season finale of the once great america road racing series.

[@kevinmccorkle7476]

The cars were just so cool. Looked like they were from a kid's imagination.

[@user-gz3cc8vh7g]

Crazy how far racing broadcasting has come

[@danhirtle7825]

What the video fails to mention is that after Al Jr's morning warmup crash and frantic effort to get the car back together the SCCA let him take the track solo for a few shakedown laps during the break prior to the final race. There was no other sound other than his car and on his second lap he tried to take turn 2 flat, lost the rear, chopped the throttle for a millisecond as the car wiggled a bit then right back in it. Next lap he was flat through the same turn and the crowd went nuts. Those days were cool as they would run an SCCA National on Fri/Sat mixed with the CanAm event on Sat/Sun. I was wrenching for a buddy on his H prod Sprite and we all got pit passes for the whole weekend. Good times.

[@HODIUSDUDE]

Can-Am was truly influential in shaping the growth of CART from 1985 to 1995. So many of the connections between the drivers, teams, fans and race tracks were forged in this series.

[@randyjohnson-er9rd]

A couple of these guys also went on to f1 Allen Jones and Keke Rosberg went on to be champions.

[@user-gz3cc8vh7g]

Couple years later there were like 8 former can am racers in CART

[@brandond5209]

Racing was so cool back then. I remember seeing the Can Am cars run at Road Atlanta as a kid.

[@repetitivemotion]

I saw this season at Road America. These cars and the drivers were absolutely mesmerizing. Maybe not the classic Can Am of the original series, but they were badass nonetheless

[@r32143]

Thank you! Enjoyed seeing this.

[@saleemwaheed9956]

Alot of old school race fan compare this series to the original Can Am, and say it is no good. But I've always liked the cars and the drivers were stellar! Thanks for a really cool video!

[@user-gz3cc8vh7g]

Single seat Can Am had some of the greatest drivers in history

[@Trucker1957]

Sad, Mark Donohue isn't in the lineup, or he would have been in the pole for sure. R.I.P Mark

[@doowaditti]

1974 was the last year of Can-Am

[@horsthofsass765]

Yeah! There was nothing to left after the 917 monster

[@orionexplorer]

These were really nothing but Formula 5000 cars with skin on them. I went to several races of this era of Can-Am and the racing was really good. In fact, I had been at the race at Riverside the week before and really enjoyed it.

[@rcstraka]

Can Am, almost feel that the history of auto racing should have an asterisk next to it, all of the cars were on steroids!!! Love it !

[@marcelmeyer8616]

Shot the entire race in 1974 at Riverside raceway. Yes, the ground did shake.

[@rosegardner6455]

Wasn't even around when these cars were racing, but looking at the footage of this and a few other videos, makes me think these cars were the precursor to the modern open prototype racing seen in the WEC, ELMS and IMSA championships to day. Truly awesome.machines.

[@Karibanu]

They weren't by any means - these are more like F5000 cars with covered bodywork. If you want the precursors to modern sports prototypes you need to look at 1970 onwards, and especially the old CanAm from then ( Group 7? ) and Group 6 prototypes from the WCM, both classes from periods when aerodynamics was being properly integrated into the cars. 1982 was the year the Porsche 956 appeared. Really though you want to go back to the 1950s.

[@rosegardner6455]

Ah thanks for clearing that up for me, as I said I had never seen these cars in action before I watched a couple of videos before this one, and that was what they came across as to my eyes, but thanks for the info. Interesting racing concept though and some very good racing.

[@Trucker1957]

Stephen Hill Check out earlier Can AM from 1969-1974 Those were the glory days of Can AM, these cars are too much like F1, in fact by 1987 there wasn't much difference.

[@ernestogasulla7763]

Rather the opposite... at the same time, Europeans created Group C, which indeed was highly advanced and generated some of the greatest Sports cars ever, plus highly competitive racing. By settling down for dressed up F5000s, the US gave up any pretense to remain at the top. Only a few years later IMSA adopted Group C cars.

[@kdcobra64]

Great Video

[@eriktruchinskas3747]

You can see the mclaren/porche 917/30 influence in half the cars, and what looks like the beginning of modern day bodywork

[@PeterMayer]

I never really considered these can-ams.

[@HooperWest]

BAD ASS Cars!

[@donaldirvin1692]

Runner in can am come from the back to the top two or three.

[@PeterKKraus]

Seems so strange. In 1983 I saw Al Holbert racing a March- Porsche at Lime Rock and Danny Sullivan at Zandvoort driving a Tyrell. I really wasn't very familiar with either of them.

[@grandpapa2134]

Real races

[@donaldirvin1692]

Can't say they put f1 to shame, they're completely different cars. Power to weight favors f1. Nimbleness favors f1, but this was great racing, great noise. Both have 4 or 5 cars that are front runners, the rest are just obstacles to go around. I never saw a front re

[@georgemallory797]

Look at the cans at 0:50. Extra feature.

[@JInfinity7]

Nobody was fat back then

[@ungurdani8346]

Salut my friend super car super video subscribe subscribe .

[@sabinareefing5119]

Is this your footage? Do you know where I can get it? My family just purchased AL JR. Car and I’d love to post this footage on my dads channel too for his birthday.

[@brianelfring4459]

Happy birthday 🎂 Digitized off of a vhs tape my old man had recorded. Might have been from TBS or the channel that had a sports show called the "cavalcade of sports" that had taped delayed races on Saturday afternoons. Please post it for your father's channel.

[@vincenttjelmeland704]

@@brianelfring4459 Any chance I can get this copy from you? I'm trying to get it done before sunday. maybe I venmo and you can send the file in google drive to me? or something? My little intro video i made for the car kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZ_Gd4elYrhngMk shows the car.

[@brianelfring4459]

@@vincenttjelmeland704 I was able to locate the original file. File size 235mb in size. Please let me know if Google drive or Dropbox will work. Thanks for the video post brings back memories of summers spent at road america. Personal favorite was Gilles Villeneuve the one year he drove in can-am. Makes me wonder where the box of race programs went after I moved.

[@sabinareefing5119]

Brian Elfring google drive would be best you can use my account [e-mail]. I really appreciate it. Thank you 🙏

[@brianelfring4459]

@@sabinareefing5119 good morning, I will try to post it later today. If I'm incapable to get G drive to post I will use Dropbox. I would need to know you email either way, I think???

[@jeramiebradford1]

Holbert got screwed

[@beeemm2578]

4:00 Middle school Al jr...lmao. christ he looks like he should be getting ready for a little league baseball game, not driving one of these monsters.

[@sueneilson896]

Geoff Brabham would have won this race if not for that puncture. A very talented and professional, but humble driver. Also , not American, so pretty much ignored, as is usual.

[@guitarsword1]

This fender f5000 destroyed Can Am. F5000 was great. Should have kept it and limited turbos in traditional Can Am. Say 500 cub-inch NA and 5 liter no variable boost turbo.

[@christianponicki9581]

That's kinda what IMSA GTP did later. IIRC, turbos were capped at 3.5l, and NA engines were allowed up to 6.0l.

[@mercoid]

Dave Despicable