1969 AAR Eagle Mark 5 Monoposto

The early years were good ones for Dan Gurney's All American Racers Eagles. In 1967 Dan himself became the first American to win a World Championship Grand Prix in an American car when his V-12 Eagle won the Grand Prix of Belgium. One year later Bobby Unser won the Indy 500 in an Offenhauser-powered Eagle. That same year Dr. Lou Sell won the SCCA Grand Prix Championship with a Chevy-powered F5000 Eagle.

In this car Tony 'A-To-Z' Adamowicz backed that up by claiming the SCCA's 1969 L&M Continental Championship with his stock-block five-liter Chevy-powered Mk 5 Eagle, a close relation to the Indy and Belgian Grand Prix winner. It was a close run championship with Adamowicz edging David Hobbs by a single point to claim the SCCA's pro open-wheel title with this car winning at Kent, Washington, and Road America in Wisconsin.

This car is the 1969 Gurney Eagle Championship car driven by Formula 5000 Champion Tony Adamowicz. It raced during the 1969 and 1970 seasons by Milestone Racing before going into long-term storage. It was sold in 1995 in unrestored, original condition. It would remain in that continue until mid-2007 when it was treated to a restoration. It is currently raced in vintage competition by its original driver, Tony Adamowicz.

The Formula A series began to grow in popularity in 1968 when they began offering a 5-liter engine class. The Chevrolet V-8 fitted to the Camaro Z28, with tuning by Traco, offered more than 400 brake horsepower. All American Racers designer Tony Southwick was tasked by Dan Gurney to modify the 1968 Eagle Indy chassis for the new series.

All American Racers sold their chassis to privateers for $11,500. Five Eagle MK 5s were sold in 1969 and a few more in 1970 and 1971, for a total of 14 altogether.

In 1969, Formula A was renamed the Continental Championship, and the list of races expanded to 13. The Eagles won six races, with Tony Adamowicz beating Surtees-mounted David Hobbs to the championship.

This Formula A Eagle chassis was sold to privateer Carroll Smith of Milestone Racing in 1969 and would become Tony Adamowicz's championship-winning ride. After the Gurney Eagles won the championship for the second straight year, this car was fitted with a Ford engine for its final race of the 1969 season. It was then advertised for sale on April 4th of 1970, just two weeks before the start of the new season.

George Boscoff bought it for John Morton to drive, but after the deal fell through, it was placed in a closed trailer at Milestone Racing for the next 25 years.

In 1995, Boscroff sold the car to Joe Cavaglieri of San Fernando. Cavaglieri left it unrestored, in the livery it last ran in 1969. It was later sold to Doug Magnon, and it was transferred to the Riverside International Automotive Museum.

In 2007, the car was restored by Bill Losee and fitted with a Chevrolet engine.

In 2009, Tony Adamowicz was reunited with the car when it took to the track for the Historic Formula 5000 Championship. The AAR Eagle and Adamowicz won the first race of the season at Fontana after starting in last place and would secure the entire championship, 40 years after he won the same championship in the same car in 1969.

The car would continue to be campaigned by the museum for another two vintage championships and it raced in a variety of events through the next several years.

By Daniel Vaughan | Nov 2016