Page 30 - Ferrari in America

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A M E R I C A
I N F E R R A R I 1969–1970:
NEW PROTOTYPES
24 David Bull Publishing
1969
In 1969 and 1970, two drivers had their first NART rides and became mainstays in the
team for the two years that could be considered NART’s second golden age. They were
Tony Adamowicz and Sam Posey.
While Adamowicz was in the army, he was a communications staffer in the White
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House through three administrations, from Eisenhower through John Kennedy and Lyndon
Johnson. While still there, he began racing. In 1968, he and his team bought a Porsche
912 from the New York City Police Impound Yard, put a 911 engine in it, and did as many
tweaks as they could without being caught by the SCCA tech inspectors. Tony used that
car to win the under-2.0-liter section of the Trans-Am sedan series that year. The following
year he won the Formula 5000 title in an Eagle Mk 5. These single-seaters with Chevrolet
V8s were quite fast. Tony amazingly won a vintage championship in the same car 40 years
later. The two championships brought him to the attention of Luigi Chinetti, and he had
his first NART ride in 1970 at Daytona. He closed out his career with two International
Motor Sports Association (IMSA) GTU (Grand Touring Under) titles in 1981–1982 and a
GTO Championship in 1983, all in Datsuns. Tony died in October 2016.
Posey spent his early life between homes in Manhattan and Connecticut, where he
enjoyed the luxury of private schools. His father had been killed in World War II, and his
mother, Mary, doted on him, fully supporting his car-craziness. At 14, he was given a used
Mercedes-Benz 300SL, purchased from racer John Fitch for $2,500. He still has the car. He
later got a Formula Vee for practice days at Lime Rock. Posey started racing in 1966 and
©2024 David Bull Pubdrove in two of the country’s most competitive series, Trans-Am and Can-Am, and F5000
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