IMSA Camel GT Pocono 1984

[@andyharman3022]

It's extremely rare to see a professional race on the road course at Pocono. But one historical tidbit is that IMSA's first sanctioned race took place at Pocono. I have an emotional connection there because when I was getting into road course driving, Pocono was the second track I ever drove. This was in 1985, and Lime Rock was the first course I had driven (about a month before), but that didn't prepare me for the thrill of entering NASCAR Turn 1 after accelerating all the way down the Long Pond straight. I didn't have the guts to enter the turn wide open, so I breathed it a little bit, then got back to WFO once the car was set into the turn. Hearing that Joe Varde breathed it in his track tour in the video makes me feel like less of a wimp.

[@jamesapgar]

Love the fact this video is avail. My dad (Fred Apgar) starts the race in row 20 in car #96 in 36th place finishes in 21st. I wasn't even born yet so seeing this is one of the coolest things!!!

[@Mistertbones]

Your father drove a great race.

[@loganlewis1991]

That is really cool!

[@rolux4853]

This is amazing! Congratulations to your dad I hope he is all well these days (and I hope you are too!). Must be amazing to talk to him, about those days, I wish I could have a conversation with him! Those GTP cars are my favorite cars, they are super interesting to me and I wish I could talk to a driver and see such a car in person!

[@duanebusch72]

i was there. 12 years old. was present at many IMSA races from 1981 until about 1990. boy do i miss those days, lol

[@duanebusch72]

also. look at Bill Whittington’s hat when they interviewed him before the race:)

[@robertrishel3685]

Randy Lanier 👍👍👍 and Bill Whittington!!! Hell yeah! I know it was illegal, but I love what Randy Lanier accomplished; as a too-broke-to-race wannabe, it’s heartening to have seen his success in racing. Unfortunately, car racing is all about the money....

[@Mainsail76]

I miss being able to watch this kind of racing programming on TV. It's strange, back in the 80's you had maybe 25 to 30 cable channels, but there was always something interesting on. When it came to motorsport, there was always a variety of different types of racing to enjoy. You have to stream races now, and the coverage quality isn't always there.

[@CamelSmokes23]

Really wish I could have seen these races in person. Born a bit too late.

[@Beaconhilldrift]

I'm with you !

[@josephfnieto8481]

Steve Evens i miss his voice back in the70s he did the radio commercials and managed Orange County International Raceway the best Drag strip in the USA, here in So California. He invented the screaming Sunday!!, Sunday!!, commercials he contributed alot to the raceing community and to the fans he is missed.

[@pmbunmahafajarastanaprima5009]

10:02 classic battle, 350 cu.in V8 vs 180 cu.in turbo flat 6

[@stolte95]

Would've been interesting if the Dodge Daytona competed in the NASCAR Winston Cup Series. Richard Petty could've won over 250 races instead of 200 before he retired in 1992. 😉🏁

[@donwest5387]

whittington didn't get snookered; He was on the pole- he set the pace

[@christianponicki9581]

1:04:21 **cue the violins** Boo hoo, poor Don Whittington just couldn't beat those turbo cars. I suppose he thought turbos weren't fair but drug money was?

[@AmericasChoice]

Maybe Dale Whittington was tooled up on Peruvian Marching Powder when he slammed into the Jag of Doc Bundy?

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

The drug smugglers qualified 1st , too funny didn't know that back then.

[@marklangren3142]

Al as team leader should have called a 4 tire stop

[@AmericasChoice]

Yup, and he knew it...

[@marklangren3142]

International Marijuana Smuggling Association

[@AmericasChoice]

I think a movie about IMSA and Whittingtons would be great. Even their 1979 Le Mans win was dodgy, they bribed officials and put in a larger gas tank.... As it was, Klaus Ludwig did most of the driving, a super human effort on his part.

[@BigEightiesNewWave]

Look kids , you can be Floridian drug smugglers and finish top 3.

[@franbrinda]

The guy is smart. He built a race car from pot proceeds to take on corporate race teams and gave them a good run with less talent and engineering.

[@AllistarDreemurr]

It's such a shame the Blue Thunder Chevy was such a controversial car. Not so much the car itself, but the way the team paid for it and kept it on the track... such a waste of a lovely machine

[@christianponicki9581]

+Ruri Hoshino True, but there were plenty of March-chassised cars to take its place later; in fact, the RC Cola-liveried Buick March is one of my favorite GTP cars from any year. So the end of the Blue Thunder cars hardly marked the end of the chassis, thankfully, as the chassis (specifically the corresponding bodywork) is really what made those cars look so good.

[@AllistarDreemurr]

+Christian Ponicki this is very true. I always loved seeing the March 84G chassis mated to the race spec N/A Chevy V8 was sooo awesome hearing that amongst the Turbo 6's and the V12 Jaguar as you got a flavor for all engine's then My fave Chassis though came from Lola as they were the manufacturer's of the chassis for my fave GTP car the Corvette GTP, it was awesome as a twin turbo V6, but i liked i think around 1988, they ran a two car team. the normal Twin Turbo V6 and the second car with a Naturally Aspirated Chevy V8. ♥

[@christianponicki9581]

Ruri Hoshino N/A V8s, particularly Chevy's, are definitely special; they were competitive from the mid-'60s in Can-Am all the way through the '80s in GTP, even when turbos were replacing most other engines. Also, regarding March, I totally forgot that my all-time favorite sportscar, the BMW GTP, actually used a March 86G chassis coupled with a turbo 4 cylinder engine; they modified it a good deal, but you can recognize the basic design if you know what to look for. And regarding Lola, they definitely had a good chassis; not only did they supply the Corvette team, but they supplied the dominant Nissan team with a slightly updated version, as well. If you watch races from '85, before Nissan's aero development really took off (pun intended), you can definitely tell that both the Corvette and Nissan are equipped with the same basic chassis.

[@AllistarDreemurr]

+Christian Ponicki at least BMW got some success out of that tiiiiny little 4-Cylinder... sigh... it's a shame cannot be said for the original Ford Mustang GTP, it had so much potential... and was just plagued with problems like the Buick HAWK, and the also unfortunate Ford Probe GTP, alot of cars had the potential... but as soon as Nissan became a threat, the whole series was doomed... even the mighty Porsche 962C's couldn't stand up to the Japanese Invasion, even the revamped Jaguar's couldn't match them

[@christianponicki9581]

Ruri Hoshino BMW could've and would've stood up to the Nissan team had they just stayed for a couple of seasons longer; as Sarel van der Merwe (driver for the Corvette team) put it at the end of '86, "if you guys (BMW) stay next year, we've had it". Its puny engine was actually capable of putting out over _950HP_ in race trim, and 1150 in qualifying! That coupled with an excellent chassis made for a front-runner and definite rival for Nissan come '87-'88. As far as Ford goes, one of the head engineers of the Mustang project actually claimed that it was the most disastrous engineering project he had ever witnessed. XD It's unfortunate that their Probe project also failed, as it would've been cool to see them go through with their plan of making it a highly-modular customer car. I guess production was just too expensive for that when compared to the benefits. And regarding Nissan, I'd hardly treat them as the downfall of GTP; rather, their dominance was due in part to shoddy engine balancing on IMSA's part (they forced Jaguar to downsize their engine from 7 to 6l before '88 - oops!), the state of affairs worldwide in Group C (where Porsche were forced out, also by regulations), and in part due to brilliant engineering - engineering which was later mimicked by teams like the Holbert Racing Porsche team, who emulated the Nissan's rear diffuser and other parts with success. All in all, no team is responsible for the death of GTP, and most of the unfortunate occurrences can be attributed to bad politics.

[@donwest5387]

why is the video so poor?

[@yorgle11]

Multi-class races are so frustrating to watch. Personally I'm interested in the GTO and GTU cars, not the spaceships, but the media is fixated on whatever group is the fastest. Having them zooming around is a huge distraction and all the different groups are always messing up each others' races. Even somebody who *wants* to watch the more realistic cars, can't, so it's hard to imagine why they bothered to keep showing up or how they raised any sponsorship money for cars that will never be seen. I would have loved to actually watch Gene Felton's race, instead of just finding out about it afterward, but this is how it always goes with mixed races. That IMSA president said in the interview that they wanted to split the cars into separate races so they could actually be watched and enjoyed, and I would offer a standing applause to that but I have no idea if it actually happened in that timeframe. There was a stock racing series in the mid-90s, not sure if it was IMSA or SCCA, which had Mustangs, Firebirds, RX7s, and Supras in it. That was probably my favorite race series I ever watched on TV on the rare occasions when I actually caught it being broadcast. Since then I've also seen even better races on youtube from the early 80s which were similar with the above Gene Felton being one of the dominant drivers. Apparently that type of racing had disappeared into the multi-class abyss here in 1984 though.