Interview with Robert Barg, Trans-Am racer

[Jon Mello]

More Robert Barg pics from the 1971 Mid-Ohio Trans-Am. Notice the camera
platform from the '69 Riverside Trans-Am is still on the roof of the car.

[oldtransamdriver]

Friends at Mid-Ohio - it was lunch break I think, and we are gathered at Alfie's old converted bus which he carried his 69 camaro race car in. I am leaning against the bus and you can see my hand sticking out.  Mo is standing with his hat on, and to his right is "Stevie" (Stephanie), Alfie's wife.  She was also a racer in a mini and a camaro, but not T/A.  Sadly, she passed away in the early eighiies from cancer.  Alfie is sitting down and his young mechanic helper guy Barry Coombs, has his head turned around looking at something.  I had some contact with him a few years ago.  Alfie is also gone, killed in a road crash several years ago.  He was a neat guy. Before joining the T/A series, he raced a Chinook Can-Am car and a Chinook F 5000 car.

Tire grunt work at MO - mechanic Roy Bean and I are checking out our race tires, hoping that they would last the distance of the race, as they were probably used. Roy would later club race the first Dick Hoffman 70 camaro which eventually passed thru my hands. Last talked to Roy a few years ago - he built a race truck and maintained it for his employer.  He also, in the late seventies, worked for Brad Franciis, who built Mo's tube frame IMSA camaro.  Brad is a tech director for a Nascar team, last I heard.

Robert Barg





.

[Jon Mello]

Robert Barg's Camaro at the very wet 1971 Lime Rock Trans-Am. Looks like the car is still using the paint job
from the previous season. This was just a month prior to the Mid-Ohio race seen immediately above.

Robert Barg Collection

[oldtransamdriver]

Mid-Ohio paddock - in those days, there was very little paved paddock area, so our status ensured we were out in the grass area. I remember this 71 race weekend as being very hot and I had to be helped out of the car at the finish - suffering from heat exhaustion - had to go to the medic area for help.

Lime Rock - this looks like just the time that Donohue came up behind me and tapped me twice in the back, just to let me know he was there and not to make a dumb move (he knew I couldn't see anything out the back window).  At first I thought I was going to get punted off.  He gave me a wave as he went buy on the right.  Later in the pits I looked at the front of the Javelin - not a mark on it.

I went down the front escape road 3 times taking evasive action and from just plain overdriving.  We did have rain tires and managed a 9th.

Robert Barg

[Jon Mello]

July 22, 1972 ad in Competition Press & Autoweek. This is the car that Robert Barg
and Rick Stevens bought together to try their hand at IMSA racing in 1973.

[oldtransamdriver]

This car was purchased shortly after that ad appeared and Rick and I had time to run 3 IMSA races with it later that year - Mid-Ohio, Wakins Glen, and Daytona.  They were long races and we managed 3 3rds in the TO class.

In 73 the 302 engine expired at the Lime Rock T/A race (I drove this race) and later after a quick rebuild we both drove in the Glen T/A race - the one red flagged for fog rolling in and the turn workers couldn't see from one station to the next.  The race was won by Mo Carter who was leading at the time with his 427 engined ex Chapparal camaro.  I had come in for fuel when it started to rain and we put rain tires on and passed several cars before the race was flagged.  Of course, when the red flag came out the official positions reverted back to the previous lap and we lost the positions we had gained!

Some results show us as a DNF but we were in the pits refueling and changing tires when the race was
was reverted back to that lap.

Robert Barg

[group/7]

hello, mike in ontario canada,been lurking here for some time ! finally decided to join. is there a spot where I can introduce myself ? will try to post a photo for the old trans am driver. my photo, paddock mosport september '67 of the carter camaro. which became your ride.

[Jon Mello]

Hello, Mike.  There is not a dedicated introduction spot but the "Intent of the 1st-Gen Trans-Am Camaro Forum" thread located at the top of page 1 works as good as anything. Please feel free to post a little bit about yourself there. Thanks for joining us.

[oldtransamdriver]

Hey Mike, welcome aboard!  Any photos of those CTC races at Harewood and Mosport from 68 to 70? Were you involved with any race teams, or just taking photos?

Robert Barg

[Jon Mello]

Here are the two photos that Mike (group/7) wanted to share with us. These are of Mo Carter's red '67 Z-28, taken at Mosport in September 1967.
Thanks for sharing, Mike!


Photo by Mike Scott


Photo by Mike Scott

[oldtransamdriver]

Thanks for those photos, Mike.  Note that when I purchased the car from Mo, there were no stripes or the 2 gas filler caps.

Robert Barg

[Jon Mello]

Those are some strange wheels on the back of Mo's car. Can't quite tell what they are but they look wider than 8" and have a lot of outward offset to them. Robert, do you recall if CASC allowed wider rims than SCCA at that time?

[oldtransamdriver]

In those days I think that CASC was doing their own thing - possiblly related to what the Brits were doing.  We also had "Improved" classes for more modified cars. Not sure when we aligned with the SCCA.

Robert Barg

[Jon Mello]

Mike Scott pointed out the Shell 4000 Rally webpage to me which features some nice photos from that Trans-Canadian event. Mo Carter (and co-pilot Art Dempsey) raced his red '67 Z-28 in this event before converting it into a road racer, which Robert Barg bought from him in the winter of '67-'68.

[Jon Mello]

Mike also found this nice color photo on-line, but has forgotten where. If anyone know whose photo it is, I would like to give credit to that indiviidual or website.