Sunoco Camaro: Owner Pat Ryan

1967 Sunoco Camaro  “The Lightweight”

In 1967, Roger Penske had recently retired as a driver and was just beginning his long and remarkable career as a businessman and racing team owner.  One of his first business ventures was Roger Penske Chevrolet near Philadelphia.  Roger teamed with driver Mark Donohue and in 1967 they began a dual assault on two SCCA Professional Series, the US Road Racing Championship and the TransAm using Chevy powered Lolas and 1967 Camaros.  Mark’s background as an engineer gave him a unique perspective and during this period he changed forever the way racing cars are developed.  Roger meanwhile brought the art of sponsorship to a new level.

When they began to prepare the first  ’67 Camaro Mark had no experience in developing a racecar from a production sedan.  He had successfully raced a Shelby GT-350 but the development work had already been done for him.  Mark’s first efforts yielded a highly unstable car and no wins.  Finally with lots of back-door help from Chevrolet, this first car won a TransAM at Bryar, half way through the 1967 series.  The secret was a special set of body panels that Chevrolet had produced by stopping the Camaro production stamping presses and making one set with very thin steel.  Another secret was the “NASCAR style” roll cage for stiffness, a first for a TransAM car.

This was a very expensive process but very effective.  Unfortunately in practice for the next race, he crashed heavily and destroyed all the light bodywork.  Mark immediately set out to build another 1967 car with an acid dipped body.  Roger contracted with an aircraft manufacturer to dip a “body-in-white” and the resulting car made its debut on the west coast with just 4 races left in the 1967 season.  This car, forever known as “The Lightweight”, now with sponsorship from Sunoco and engines by Traco Engineering, won two of those last four TransAms (Las Vegas and Seattle).  It lapped the field in the final race of the year.  Tipped off to the unfair advantage, organizers weighed the car post-race only to find it 250 lbs. shy of the 2800 lb. minimum weight.  Only Roger’s not-so-veiled threat that Chevy might leave the series convinced the organizers to let the win stand.  SCCA stewards told Roger that the car would never be allowed to race again and in 1968 all cars would be weighed during pre-race technical inspection.

For 1968 Roger and Mark had another body-in-white acid dipped and prepared an all new 1968 car, adding the weight back in choice areas to balance the car and make the now 3000 lb. minimum weight.  In its debut at Daytona it suffered two cracked cylinder heads and lost to a Mustang.  Chevy strongly suggested that Penske enter two cars at Sebring, the second TransAm of the year, which would be a 12-hour event within an event.  Not having time to prepare a second car, Mark retrieved “The Lightweight” from its new owner, Canadian Terry Godsall, for a one-race partnership.  Roger and Mark fooled the tech inspectors by putting 1968 grille and taillights on the 1967 car and painting both cars identically.  Then they sent the legal 1968 car to tech twice, once with Number 15 and once with Number 16, this worked so well that they repeated the process in qualifying and “The Lightweight” actually qualified them both.

“The Lightweight” went on to win the TransAm and finish 3^rd overall in the Sebring 12 Hour against a strong international prototype field, losing only to a pair of factory Porsche 907’s.  The team went on to win 10 of 13 events in 1968 and claimed the TransAm championship for Chevrolet, repeating the feat in 1969. The team built two Camaro racers each of those years for a total of six. 

Today the car has been restored to its 1968 Sebring appearance by Sam White, David Posey and Rick Parent who along with owner-driver Pat Ryan comprise “Unfair Advantage Racing”, a name taken from the title of Mark’s book.  The team also campaigns a Triumph Spitfire for Sean Ryan, Pat’s son, and has begun the restoration of one of the 1967 Lola T-70 roadsters that were campaigned by Penske Racing in the USRRC.

The car remains remarkably close to it’s 1968 specifications with the 302 V-8 still built by Traco Engineering and sporting a prototype cross-ram manifold first used at Sebring in 1968.  SVRA rules require all TransAm cars to have original period engine blocks, intake manifolds, cylinder heads, brakes, and transmissions.   They are limited to the original engine displacement and must weigh no less than 3000 lbs.