1968 Chevrolet Camaro Series 24 V8 Coupe

Roger Penske's Chevrolet Camaros crushed the competition in the 1968 Trans-Am Championship winning ten of thirteen races. The Penske Trans Am racing Team was made up of two 1967, two 1968, and two 1969 Camaros. This Camaro is the first 1968 body-in-white produced by Penske racing.

During the 1968 racing season the car placed 2nd in class at Daytona driven by Mark Donohue, 4th overall at Sebring driven by Craig Fisher and Bob Johnson and 1st at Watkins Glen driven by Sam Posey. The balance of the season the Camaro was driven by Sam Posey and he had many podium finishes. The Penske team was very successful and in 1968 the team won the Trans Am series championship. After the 1968 racing season the Camaro was purchased by a British racing team and was sent to Europe. It was raced throughout Europe and won 18 of 20 races.

In 1987, the car was found and purchased by an American car collector and was brought back to the United States. It was restored and vintage raced for many years.

Racing inspires innovation and creativity. For the 1967 Trans-Am season, the Roger Penske team were able to shed close to 250 pounds from the Camaro, a rule-defying modification that prompted pre-race inspections the following season. For the 1968 season, the Penske team employed a different series of alterations. Starting with an all-new 1968 body shell, Penske engineer Ron Fournier integrated spherical suspension rod-ends, stronger motor mounts, and aircraft-grade fasteners into the chassis. The body was once again acid-dipped and re-added weight in areas of the car to improve its overall balance. The 302 cubic-inch Traco-tuned Chevy engine was given a dual four-barrel Cross Ram intake manifold.

At Daytona, the team finished 2nd in Class, prompting the team to consider more ways to improve efficiency. One area was the brake-pad changes, which was required roughly every other fuel stop. Chevrolet's Bill Howell devised a vacuum-based system that retracted the brake calipers, allowing Penske's pit mechanics to change the pads far more quickly. With a little fine-tuning and further dialing-in, the Penske Camaros were nearly unbeatable. Mark Donohue would win 10 of the 1968 season's 13 races, a record that would not be beaten until 1997.

This particular Sunoco Camaro was the third of the six car built and the first one prepared specially for Penske's 1968 season. It was delivered to the team's Philadelphia garage in November 1967 and completed in January 1968. It was given the trademark Sunoco blue livery and piloted by Mark Donohue, Craig Fisher, and Bob Johnson at Daytona as #6, where they finished 12th overall and 2nd in class.

For the next few races, Donohue drove a 1967 Camaro lightweight car. This 1968 car was given the brake upgrades. It returned to racing at Sebring, where it wore the number 16 and was driven by Fisher, Johnson, and Joe Welch, finishing 4th overall.

A second 1968 Camaro was then built and driven by Donohue, while this example was mostly piloted by Sam Posey for the remainder of the season, including three 3rd place finishes (at the Bridgehampton 300, the Meadowdale 250, and the St. Jovite 3 Hours). In August of 1968, Posey was leading at Watkins Glen, before a spin-out on loose gravel dropped him into 2nd place.

Penske began work on a new crop of Camaros for the 1969 season, but this car was retained and cosmetically made over to match, notably including the addition of a black vinyl roof. By mid-1969, it was sold through Penske mechanic Peter Reinhardt to Francis McNamara, a European team owner who commissioned Reinhardt to drive the car in Group 2 events at circuits like Hockenheim and Salzburgring (the car finished 1st at both races).

At the end of the 1969 season, the car was sold to Malcolm Gartland, who campaigned the car in British Group 2, where it was driven to four victories and five 2nd place finishes by Brian Muir (including a win at the Tourist Trophy at Silverstone in June 1970). It continued to race during the 1971 season, winning the large-displacement championships in 1970 and 1971.

In 1972, it was sold to Terry Sanger for racing by the Research Consultants team in Britain, earning several 3rd and 4th place finishes over the 1972 season. In 1973, it finished 11th at the 24 Hours of Span.

Club racer Doug Emms acquired the car in 1974, and he raced it over the next four years in several British Special and Super Saloon events in Northern England, wearing a new color scheme of maroon and silver, though retaining the black vinyl roof. By mid-1976, Emms repainted the car in a yellow finish with black side-stripes, and he replaced the rear end with an alloy tail that featured a large spoiler.

Brian Morris purchased the car in 1979, and campaigned the car through 1981 in the ASCAR and ATAC V8 Series. After the 1981 season, it was sold to Henry 'Fred' Henderson, who hand-painted the car in white and raced it until early 1987.

The car was re-imported to the United States in the late 1980s, and it was given a five-year restoration to original specifications completed in 1994, including a return to the Sunoco livery. Ownership passed through Don Lee in 201 and Bill Bryan in 2013 before coming into the care of its current owner.

The car has been raced in numerous racing, including eight appearances at the Monterey Historic Races between 1999 and 2008

By Daniel Vaughan | May 2016