Smokey Yunick

[Jon Mello]

Rick, that's some neat information. Thanks for sharing.

Joe, I agree about Smokey going over to Ford for '69 however Pete Hamilton drove a very fast '69 Camaro with Gene White (the East Coast Firestone tire distributor) sponsorship and Gene White was no car builder. The speculaton was that Smokey Yunick built the car. That hasn't been definitively proven either way, that I know of. Maybe somebody else knows? I think Tiny took over that car in '70. Tiny had been driving Cougars in Nascar GT the previous couple of years. It could be the Gene White car was built just prior to Smokey going to Ford.

[Charley]

A friend just bought a 69 Torino that Bunkie had Holman- Moody-Stroppe build for Bobby Unser to run Pikes Peak. Smokey built the Boss 429 that went in it. Head the record for I think 6 years.

[Jon Mello]

I was always impressed by the big Detroit Iron that guys would race up that hill with the tails hanging out over the edge of a steep cliff. My hat is off to all the racers that took on Pikes Peak no matter what they were driving.

[yenkomark]

       Warren Dernoshek and I had a discussion about the Gene White car last year. Warren talked to Smokey over the years and he confirmed thatcar was his. I have photos of this car in my files.

[Jon Mello]

That's good info, Mark. Thank you. I read Smokey's biography and he may have mentioned the Gene White car in there but it's been over 10 years since I read it and I have simply forgotten.

I have posted photos below that Ken Ulrich sent me last night. These are the pieces he got from Smokey which he talked about in reply #39.

"The duct is made of an off white beige plastic and held together with pop rivets not glued or heat bonded and has original piece of masking tape as received in shipment
from Smokey just after '69 Sebring race. Cross ram duct, made of fiberglass not plastic, is sort of rough around the edges and does not have provision for air cleaner. My
guess is it was made for dyno testing, was probably also from Smokey, (has trace of masking tape on top). The  '69 Trans Am chassis Todco received from Godsall or
Titus was only a rolling chassis so not likely to have an air cleaner, especially one not designed for use without air cleaner. If used for dyno testing not from Roy Woods.

The acid dipped bodies, I believe 3 of them not 4, were bare metal not painted. The black and gold one was "probably" a production car was NOT acid dipped, had
factory caulking, factory dash and factory glass. It had a roll bar but not a full cage. It did not have a back seat. I do not remember if it had headliner or carpet but I
think it had a cut out in trunk from a fuel cell. Whenever I see a photo of one of Smokey"s gold and black cars with # 13 it still send a chill up my spine."

[Jon Mello]

Ken,

I don't recognize the first item of yours at all. Some kind of an airbox for two-4bbls but for what car/application, I don't know. Maybe somebody else has an idea.

As for the duct with the "#13-302" label on it, it looks very similar in construction to the one used on the Z-28 prototype or press preview car shown below. This is slightly different than the duct looked like on the production line Z-28s in '67-'68 due to its riveted construction and other subtle differences.






Also, the light color of the duct under the black paint reminded me of the white duct on Craig Fisher's car seen at Daytona in February '67.

[OG69Z]

Ken,

I don't recognize the first item of yours at all. Some kind of an airbox for two-4bbls but for what car/application, I don't know. Maybe somebody else has an idea.

A center to center measurement of the carb studs will help determine the application.

[DustyMojave]

Beginning in April '68 (after the Daytona & Sebring endurance races), a 22-gallon fuel cell became mandatory in Trans-Am cars. Prior to that there was not the same sort of regulation on fuel tank size. Craig Fisher's Camaro ran a 40-gallon tank at Daytona in '67.

As a former SCCA Tech Inspector during the era discussed in this thread, I can say that as a production-based class, it would not have made sense to have forbidden stock gas tanks. The rules for 1967 required "stock" gas tanks.

FIA Group 1 rule excerpted from the Sedan Category rules in the 1967 SCCA General Competition Regulations (GCR):
"Art. 257 -- Mountings and modifications authorized:
b) fuel and oil tanks: must be those normally provided by the manufacturer for the model concerned, the capacities of which are mentioned on the recognition form. If, for the said model, tanks of different capacities are normally provided, only those mounted on the required number of cars necessary for recognition of the said model will be authorized."

[DustyMojave]

January '68 Hot Rod magazine article on Smokey Yunick. (Jon Mello Collection)

Regarding the 67 Camaro that Smokey entered in the Trans Am series...
As I stated in my post above, I was an SCCA Tech Inspector at that time. I was a kid whose parents were Inspectors and the Chief of Tech for the Pro Series was John Timanus, who had been the Cal Club region Chief of Tech, so he knew me. At the Riverside race, Smokey and his crew showed up late with the car for Tech. I was by the Scales when they showed up and went and fetched John Timanus and my dad, Jack Parcells, who was the Cal Club Chief of Rules Enforcement (a sub-group of Tech, which was responsible for teardowns and such). John agreed to inspect the car even though it was after the specified time. The 3 of us were the inspectors for this car. John asked Smokey to have his crew unload the car from the trailer for inspection. As they untied the car, I already spotted a serious rule violation and pointed it out to John. The car had a non-removable full belly pan painted to match the upper surface.
"but if you think that 'un was slick, wait'll (sic) you see this Camaro. You can turn it upside down and cant tell the difference or which side's smoother. Ain't nobody said nothin' in the rules about..."
One thing in the rule book Smokey had read too quickly was the part where it said "Mountings and modifications authorized". It specifies thereafter ALL of the modifications which WERE ALLOWED. The SCCA rule book was not full of rules about what one COULD NOT do. That sort of rule book would go on to infinity. One started with a car precisely as specified in the FIA recognition form that the manufacturer had submitted for that model of car, and the rule book then told exactly which modifications WERE allowed from that. So anything "nobody said nothin' in the rules about" were things which were NOT allowed. He just didn't get that. The body shell of that car was acid dipped 'til it was nearly transparent. A fingertip could make a huge dent in the roof or any other panel. As we inspected the car finding one violation after another, John finally said..."There's no point in continuing this. The car is so far outside of the rules it can't be brought within them this week or ever. Pack it up and take it home and don't ever show up with it again!" Smokey tried to argue, but John just gave him a stern look and turned and walked away.

I never encountered a race car of any sort with body work so thin and weak. I would expect that car to wrinkle the roof and sides from the airflow as it went down the track. It was absolutely gorgeous and I'm quite sure it would have been very fast too. But it wasn't going to be fast or race at all in Trans Am. Note in the pics of the Trans Am car above, little details such as the VERY tight door and hood lines, the lack of holes for bumper mounting bolts, etc.

[Jon Mello]

Welcome aboard! Thanks for signing up and giving us your recollections from Smokey's Riverside escapade. My folks were tech inspectors for SCCA also but we were in Illinois back then. I got my tech license in '73. If you took any pics from the '67-'72 Trans-Am era, we'd love to see them.

[DustyMojave]

Hi Jon.

So you know, My name is Richard Parcells. In '73 I was transitioning over to working Offroad races. The last time I worked an SCCA race was the 1975 Long Beach Grand Prix. I have a few pics I took in the late 60s-early 70s on film, but almost nothing of those uploaded to the computer.

I recently worked with John Ryals on restoring the Fred Sutherland 67 Shelby Mustang Trans Am car for Fred. John Morton drove it at the Monterey Historics this past summer. I have some pics of that car and some of the other Trans Am cars I've worked on...a 1971 Penske - Roy Woods Javelin and a 1969 Mustang Boss 302.

I'll share those soon, maybe in another thread. Thanks for putting this whole board together!

[Jon Mello]

Thanks, Richard. I had a nice phone conversation with John Ryals last week and I'm glad he pointed you to this forum. I think both of you will be assets to this forum as questions come up, especially with regard to cars or racers from the Southern California area. I did see Fred Sutherland's Mustang at Monterey last summer and thought it was very nicely done. The paint job looked just like the original too.

Get back to the Smokey car parked out behind the Todco shop, Ken Ulrich had described the car as having a roll bar and not a full roll cage, plus it was not an acid-dipped car. To me that sounds a bit strange for a Smokey car since I would assume he would always build a cage because of how he built cars for Nascar. I did take an opportunity to blow up the pics of the cars Smokey was using at Bonneville and, granted it is hard to tell for sure, but it seems like there may not have been a full cage in one of the cars used there. Does anybody else out there have more pics of the Camaros Smokey ran at Bonneville in late '67?

[maroman]

Ken,

I don't recognize the first item of yours at all. Some kind of an airbox for two-4bbls but for what car/application, I don't know. Maybe somebody else has an idea.

A center to center measurement of the carb studs will help determine the application.

I believe this airbox is too small for a crossram. Is that what you were infering? This was the period in racing history most of us followed closely. I'm glad to see new members and information.

[kgu]

The Smokey Camaro parked behind Todco was not an RS. When we received the Camaro bodies from Smokey, The acid dipped bodies went into storrage and I never saw them again. John Todds told me at the time (1969) that the#13 black and gold rolling chassis I spoke of earlier was a Bonneville car. The front fenders were slightly stretched wider at wheel openings and this front clip is the one you see in the photos of my street car posted under Todco. Drivers door is reflecting light but fender is not due to angle caused by stretch.
             Ken

[kgu]

I will measure the center to center later this week, thanks Maroman.
                                                                                          Ken