1982 Chevrolet Camaro Z/28 Sport Coupe V-8

At the 1982 24 Hours of LeMans, a pair of Chevrolet Camaros numbered 80 and 81, were entered by Stratagraph Inc., an oil field service company owned by NASCAR racer Billy Hagan of Louisiana. The number 81 car was co-driven by successful SCCA and IMSA racer Gene Felton. Hagan drove the car to 2nd in the GTO class and 17th overall. The number 80 car finished 19th overall.

The car number 81 was built by Tex Powell's Tex Racing Enterprises using a Dennis Frings chassis. It was raced by Hagan from 1982 to 1984. It won the inaugural Miami IMSA GTO Grand Prix in February of 1983, as well as the GTO Class. It finished 6th overall at the Daytona 24 Hours in February of 1984, driven by Billy Hagan, Gene Felton and Terry Labonte. In March 1984, drivers Hagan, Labonte and Felton took the car to a class win and placed 8th overall at the Sebring 12 Hours.

Ownership changed to sports car racer Chauncey (Jocko) Maggiacomo, Jr. in Poughkeepsie, New York, who then sold the car to Reynolds Aluminum engineer Hoyt Overbaugh. He raced is several times from the mid-1980s into the 1990s. Overbaugh later sold the car to its more recent caretaker, who treated the car to an exhaustive restoration. Every mechanical system was rebuilt or replaced, including the correct 4-disc clutch, magneto, rear end, hubs, spindles, transmission, new fuel cell, and more. The 358 CID racing engine was completely rebuilt by Petty Enterprises.

The car is finished in its Le Mans livery which was mostly hand-painted. It wears the sponsorship of both Stratagraph and Jean Charles Chevrolet, the Paris dealer that is still in business today. It has a full Stewart Warner instrumentation, a well-bolstered racing seat and a roll cage. It has been given a modern fuel cell and fire system to comply with modern safety requirements.

By Daniel Vaughan | Jun 2015