Читать книгу Lost Muscle Car Dealerships - Duncan Scott Brown - Страница 38

In November 1966, Paul Dombroski, president of Dana Chevrolet, announced the dealership would sponsor Chuck Parson’s McLaren-Chevy for remaining races in Canadian-American Fall Series. The announcement also indicated the company’s participation in future racing programs under direction of partner and vice president Peyton Cramer.

The Dana racing jacket in orange matches the color of the Dana Camaro 396 drag racing promotional car. Note that Dana had retained brand consistency with its distinctive logo, which was used on the license frames and in ads. With his background at Shelby American, it’s no surprise that Peyton Cramer was keenly enthusiastic about road racing. He chose a road racer for the logo on the patch sewn on the jacket’s heart. These racing jackets were worn by the Dana Chevrolet Racing Team during the Lola and USRRC Maclaren racing campaign. (Photos Courtesy Dave Fillion Collection)

Dick Guldstrand prepped two 1967 Camaro SS 350 cars for Trans Am racing by switching them out to Z28 configuration. He gave the white car to Tom Lynch to campaign; Dick drove the blue car himself.

Dana also cosponsored a 1967 Corvette L88 427 race car for the 24 Hours of Le Mans in France. Sunray Oil, which also sponsored Don Yenko, was the main sponsor for this car. Dick Guldstrand and Bob Bondurant shared the driving. Unfortunately, the Corvette didn’t finish the race. Dick was miffed because Chevrolet refused to allow him to prep the car at all. It had to be bone stock except for race safety items and lettering. The failed wrist pin in the engine that shut them down was an item that would have been rectified during Dick’s routine engine prep.

Bob Bondurant returned to pilot a McLaren for the Dana team along with Peter Revson in the 1967 Can Am races. Bob was replaced by Lothar Motschenbacher when he had a major crash in June 1967 at Watkins Glen.

A Dana 1968 Chevrolet Camaro was drag raced to raise the profile of the dealership. Dale Armstrong performed driving duties. When Dale came to work at the Dana Chevrolet Hi-Performance Center, the dealership’s involvement in the racing scene began to lose traction.