1968 Pontiac Firebird Hardtop Coupe

Jerry Titus was a race car driver, an accomplished trumpet player, a mechanic, and a journalist. As the 1960s were coming to a close, Jerry Titus was at the pinnacle of his racing career, having helped capture SCCA Trans AM titles for Carroll Shelby's Mustang effort in 1966. The following year, he won four rounds of fiercely fought contests. In 1968, reliability issues kept him from scoring a single victory. Near the end of the season, he would leave Shelby's team to partner in a new Pontiac race effort with Canadian Terry Godsall. In response, Shelby fired Titus, but not before he DNF'ed at September's Riverside round in his final drive in a Ford.

The Trans Am series had become a proving ground and promotional tool to promote products. Pontiac wanted to highlight their Firebird's performance, and with their TG Racing team would compete against its showroom foes the Mustang and Camaro in Class 2 for cars with engine displacement sizes between 2.0- and 5.0 liters.

Since Pontiac did not yet have a properly sized engine, and Titus had not procured a Firebird from Pontiac, he was left without a ride for the final race of the year.

Titus and Godsall came up with a plan to side-step some of the racing regulations. Certain Pontiacs sold in Canada were offered with Chevrolet engines, so in the strict sense of the SCCA rules, it was possible for a Chevrolet-powered Pontiac to compete in Trans AM racing. Titus was able to secure a Camaro from privateer Jon Ward.

Titus and Ward worked through this loophole, and by that season's final race a month later at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington, the Ward Camaro lined up as the TG Racing Pontiac Firebird. The car wore the Firebird's body panels, custom door hinges, and various other modifications. The original motor had been replaced with an Al Bartz-built 302.

During the race at Washington, Titus's car set a lap record and was in the lead when engine failure sidelined him.

During the off-season, Titus and the TG Racing team worked on building up a six-car team with the new Firebirds. They still had Chevrolet power, as Pontiac engineers had yet to solve problems with its 303 cubic-inch V8. The Titus/Ward car served as a test and development mule. Notable updates included a new steering system that was one of the first applications of so-called 'zero-bump-steer' technology.

Jerry Titus arrived at the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona in early February with their fully prepared Pontiac/Chevy Firebird Trans Am racecar. It was entered in one of the nine classes and was part of 63 cars that arrived to contest the 24 hour battle. At the end of the race, Titus and co-driver Jon Ward earned a top spot in class but third overall behind a pair of Lola T70s.

The team had qualified sixteenth and was outclassed by a slew of Porsche 908L and 911s, Lolas, and Ford GT40s. As the race continued on, hour after hour, mechanical issues and accidents plagued many of the leaders. By Sunday morning, many of the top contenders had fallen off the pace or dropped out. The Titus/Ward car continued on solidly until a rear-end failure threatened to end their race in the middle of the night. Without a spare on hand the team had to improvise, borrowing a rear end from a Camaro in the Daytona parking lot.

At the end of the grueling race, the Titus/Ward car was just six laps behind the second-place Lola and 35 laps behind the winning Penske Sunoco Lola of Donohue/Parsons/Bucknum.

After the Daytona race, the car never again raced in an American series. Daytona was also the last time Jerry Titus won a race. He raced Firebirds during the 1969 and 1970 season, until he lost his life in practice at Road America in August.

This particular car is the Jerry Titus Pontiac Firebird Trans Am that had begun its life as a Camaro Z/28. It had been built by Ward at his shop to SCCA Trans Am rules, and it began its competition career as a Camaro Trans Am racecar.

This car's first outing was on January 9th of 1968, in an SCCA regional race in Santa Barbara, where Ward won his class. At Riverside, the car finished in fourth-place. From there, the car would undergo the transformation to become the Firebird Trans AM.

After Daytona, Ward continued to race the Firebird south of the border, where it is believed to have accrued a number of victories in Mexican road racing. After its true retirement, it was sold. It languished in storage in Mexico before coming to the attention of Rick Titus, who bought the car and returned it back to the States.

A subsequent owner had the car thoroughly restored to race condition by Bill Elliott's race shop. It emerged wearing the #26 livery it had worn at Daytona.

Over the years the car has been owned by several owners who have added performance enhancements along the way. It currently rides on 8.0 x 15-inch American racing wheels, and Goodyear Blue Streak racing slicks (size 6.0 x 15 in front and 7.0 x 15 in back). The brakes are original J56 steel calipers front and rear with cast iron rotors and two-piece aluminum hats. A 22-gallon ATL fuel cell to FIA specs feeds the engine through a Holley 4150 two-barrel carburetor and Edelbrock intake manifold. Overall weight is 3000 pounds.

By Daniel Vaughan | May 2017