Twelve days after Chevy general manager Pete Estes unveiled the new Camaro to the press at a GM Proving Ground press conference on September 12, 1966, the public got their first sight of Chevy’s entry into the pony car segment at the Canadian Grand Prix for the Pepsi-Cola Trophy.
This race was the third event of a total of six for the inaugural Sports Car Club of America’s Canadian-American Challenge Cup (Can-Am) which featured fire breathing V-8 sports racing cars confirming to FIA Group 7 rules. It was held at the ten turn road course known as Mosport Park in Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada on Saturday, September 24, 1966. Mark Donohue won the race in his Sunoco sponsored Chevy powered Penske Lola T70. The interesting thing is that this race occurred five days before the Camaro could be seen for the first time at Chevy dealer showrooms on Thursday, September 29, 1966. As a result, the people who attended the race in Canada might have been the first people, not in the press, to actually see the new Camaro in person!
Twenty-five Camaros were provided by General Motors to help promote the new car line to the automotive and motor racing enthusiasts attending the race. Fifteen of these Camaros were convertibles used during a driver introduction lap of the track prior to the start of the event. Another was a Granada Gold 1967 RS/SS 350 coupe that was the first Camaro ever to be used as a pace car for a major auto race! According to Tom McGinnity of the Camaro Pace Car site, this Camaro might have been a pilot car. In the thread on this car that no longer exists, Tom wrote that, “those tires are NOT production! It looks to me that the stripe is pre-production and goes deep past the bumper! I see no engine side emblem on the side of the front fender under the Camaro emblem.” I certainly am not an expert, so maybe those that are can give their opinions on this subject.
I was fortunate enough to have been given the holy grail of documentation for this particular race by Mike Scott, a life-long resident of Ontario, Canada. Back in 2013 he sent me scans of a little known periodical he has had in his possession since 1966! Mike is a frequent contributor to the Trans Am section of CRG.
As a back story, Mike told me that in September 1966 he was fifteen years old and he and his father attended the Can Am race at Mosport. Back then his father was an hourly employee in the Oshawa plant working in Quality Control. As an employee of General Motors in Canada he received an “official monthly publication of the Communication Section, Public Relations Department, General Motors of Canada, Limited” called GM Topics. The November 1966 edition of GM Topics (vol. 17, Number 9) features a four page article entitled, “Meet the Camaro,” along with fantastic pictures on the cover. The article chronicles the FIRST public viewing of the Camaro at Mosport Park during the weekend festivities centered on the Can Am event. Mike and his father were two of the spectators at this race who were fortunate to see the new Camaro in person before the rest of the world! The Camaro hobby is fortunate that he kept his issue of GM Topics all these years and that he was kind enough to scan and have it shared with those who are interested in this little known but important part of Camaro history.
The first attachment shows the cover of the periodical and the following description of it appears on the following page in small print:
“On the cover: Bedecked with flags and strutting its stuff the Camaro SS350 rally sport pace car gets set to lead the racing machines off on the second pace lap of the day at the Grand Prix held at Mosport Park. The gold pace car with its ‘bumble-bee’ paint striping attracted a lot of attention, not only at the display area and as the pace car but also in the Parade of Champions held prior to the race. The drivers were taken around the track in 15 Camaro convertibles, two of which are shown in our cover shot.”
So, fifteen new Camaro (non RS and non SS) convertibles were used to chauffeur the drivers around the track prior to the race. Since there were 30 drivers entered in the race, there must have been two drivers per Camaro in the parade. In the picture you can see there are two name decals on each car, one on the door and one on the rear quarter panel. Mike even recalled his Dad “telling me about the cars for the race arriving at the plant in Oshawa.”
