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playing field.
MAY 30, 1969
“Barred from the Indianapolis 500-mile race because of his youth, Sam Posey won the Trans-Am sedan race at Lime Rock on Memorial Day.” (Lakeville Journal)
The second running of the Formula Vee Grand Prix and the annual Trans-Am Championship race formed an important event at Lime Rock, under the control of the SCCA Northern New Jersey Region.
Surprisingly only eighteen cars lined up for the start of the Formula Vee Grand Prix, which had a total purse of $1,500. The star of the show was Bill Scott driving his McNamara, who led every lap but for the first in the forty-lap event, completing the distance in 44:01.4 to take an easy victory over Tom Davey in his Zeitler to gain $500. Third behind the front-running duo was Charles Hevenor, driving a King, while Eric Traphagen finished fourth in his Autodynamics. Tom Davey was the only driver who really challenged Scott in the early stages of the race, having taken pole position and took the lead for one lap. Having lost the lead he then trailed Scott by three seconds in the first twenty laps, but the gap extended to six seconds in the latter stages of the race. Traphagen was with them initially, but spun and had to let the other cars through before he could safely regain the track. He worked his way back through the pack to gain fourth place and $100 prize money.
Once again the clash with the Memorial Day Indy 500 was a potential problem for top drivers entered in the four-hour Trans-Am race at Lime Rock. For the Ford team, three of their drivers opted to be at Indianapolis, with its lure of earning big money, Jones. Follmer and Revson taking leave of absence for a potentially better pay day. In their places, Ford hired Swede Savage to pilot Jones’ number Fifteen Bud Moore-prepared Mustang, John Cannon in Follmer’s number Sixteen car, and Sam Posey in Revson’s number One Shelby-Boss Mustang.
SCCA rules interpretations continued to cause confusion among the various teams, with one inspector requested to verify accusations that one particular car was smaller than originally produced. He took
interior and exterior measurements of the car in question and promptly visited the local dealership to make sure they checked out. They did. Bud Moore, who came from NASCAR, where “stretching the rules” was common, commented “You know, we done everything we could get away with, but it was pretty hard to get to do anything on the bodies. The SCCA was pretty smart.”
Sam Posey was on pole, despite having his practice times protested, and then ratified, and next to him Horst Kwech, followed by Jerry Titus in a Pontiac Firebird and Bob Johnson in the Penske-Sunoco Camaro. When the flag dropped on the rolling start, there was a wall of noise as Kwech pulled out an immediate lead, with Posey close behind him. It stayed
CHAPTER FOURTEEN • 1969: TRANS-AM, THE SAVIOR
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TOP: Timing and data icon Judy Stropus, making ready for the race start. (DN)
ABOVE: Sam Posey straps himself into the Shelby Mustang which Peter Revson was originally due to drive in the Trans-Am race, May 30. (GR)
LIME ROCK PARK • THE EARLY YEARS 1955-1975
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