photo: Dwight Brainerd CollectionIn the words of Ken Ulrich...
"The Camaro (in the photo above) is the first Todco road race car. Derek Johnson is driving. It was built in 1968 and was dark green and yellow. It was bought as a used car by John Todds already in those colors when acquired. I do not remember it being a Z car or being a repaint. The first race it was in was after many all nighters and before it even had a wheel alignment. I was not an employee of Todco when this all began but hung around there lunch hours and after hours from my normal job as a draftsman. My best friend Peter Darlington, and Lee Michelson were the mechanics at Todco which was a HP garage working on muscle cars and club race cars at that time. Dwight Brainerd was a customer and friend of John, as were Derek Johnson and Ken Hall.
JT wanted to beat Gagnon Spring in club races and I think things just started to fall into place when the Camaro became available. Derek needed a ride, John had some young guys like me hanging around helping for free just to be involved, and JT was talented and ambitious.
I started extending my lunch hours everyday at Todco to weld the roll cage in the Camaro and getting to my real job late every afternoon until they fired me. I went back to Todco to get advice on telling my parents about what happened and JT hired me.
Don Duncan purchased this car from JT and raced it in club races. It was rolled end over end in '69 or '70, repaired elsewhere, and sold."
