Andy Porterfield Camaro

[Jon Mello]

Andy Porterfield was a Corvette racer out of Southern California who decided to try his hand at racing a Camaro, He bought a '68 Z/28, which I believe he told me was originally Corvette Bronze, and had Bill Thomas do some of the work on the car. The only Trans-Am I think the car ran in was the '69 Riverside race where it was painted orange with white stripes. Does anybody have any knowledge of whatever became of Andy's Camaro?

[rat pack]

Jon, I had originally researched this car when a car popped up for sale on Ebay about 3 years ago. They ended up not being the same car as the one on Ebay was originally a Grotto Blue one. I spoke with Bill and he told me about Andy's car, but when I compared pictures he had to the one on Ebay they were not the same. I am thinking he told me that Andy's car started out as a copper color originally. The attached picture is the one from Ebay in August of 08........RatPack................

[Jon Mello]

Thanks, Troy. I remember when that car was for sale on ebay. I was intrigued by the Bill Thomas sticker on the windshield. I found out that the car was built in the early '70s by a guy from the Buellton, CA area named Sig Hansen and he competed with it in A/Sedan races. No Trans-Am activity. Speaking with Sig, he told me he had purchased some parts through Bill Thomas and they came with a decal which he put on the windshield. The car itself was not prepared by Bill Thomas Race Cars. This car was sold to Jay Parsons up in the San Luis Obispo area and later went to Tom McIntyre who raced it for a number of years before he purchased Mark Donohue's '68 Sunoco Camaro. Anyway, bottomline is this red #47 car is not Andy Porterfield's old car but I do appreciate you bringing it up as a possibility.

Below is a photo of Sig Hansen's Camaro as first road raced.

[VHX032]

Regarding my yellow Camaro #8. A fellow in Australia with some Australian Trans Am series history purchased my car and has restored it to original race configuration but with some nicer fabrication. He has sent me photos of the restoration project and completed car. It looks great.

To say the least I am astounded by this latest incarnation of my old race car. I am quite honored that he would go so far as to put my name back on the car too.

I like that the Australian T/A series makes an effort to keep costs reasonable for the competitors and they seem to be pretty much in club racing configuration with Hoosier tires as the standard and 8.5" rims.

Amazing to me that with all the well known cars that have gone missing, mine would still be around and now looking so good.

I will seek his permission to post photos of the car, or maybe he would prefer to do that on his own.

In the meantime here is a photo I took of the Washburn Camaro at Santa Barbara Airport road races.

[VHX032]

Washburn Chevrolet Camaro at Santa Barbara Road Races

[Jon Mello]

Sig, it's great to have you join us. I'm glad someone fixed your old Camaro up and is having some fun with it. I look forward to seeing some pics. Probably we should put them in a new post since it is not related to Andy Porterfield's Camaro.