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History Repeats Itself: Trans-Am Returning to VIR in 2009 |
VIRginia International Raceway, site of the fourth Trans-Am race in the series’ long history, will be the home of Round Two in the renewal of this series for racing sports coupes, competing the weekend of April 17-19.
Based on the SCCA’s GT1 category for high-performance sports coupes and
sedans, the reborn Muscle Milk® Trans-Am® will return one of America’s
favorite professional road racing series with an eight-race schedule.
The Sports Car Club of America’s Pro Racing schedule places the race on
the same weekend as the North Carolina Region SCCA “Oak Tree Nationals”
– a three-day weekend featuring a double slate of races for amateur
sports car drivers in over 24 classes of cars. SCCA President & CEO
Jim Julow commented: “there is a dedicated group of Trans-Am loyalists
who have been working to make this happen since our last licensing
agreement to operate the series expired in 2005. The re-birth of
Trans-Am begins in 2009 with a grassroots-based series that has the
potential to grow in the coming years into a full professional racing
series.”
Connie Nyholm, managing partner of VIR, exclaimed “that’s wonderful!”
on hearing of the return of the series. The first VIR round of Trans-Am
racing went to Tom Yeager and Bob Johnson in a Mustang, then Boris Said
captured the 2002 VIR Trans-Am race in another Mustang, giving Ford the
marque’s hundredth Trans-Am victory. Trans-Am race winners include Mark
Donohue, Parnelli Jones, Peter Gregg, Pete Halsmer, Dorsey Schroeder,
Tommy Kendall, Scott Pruett, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Paul Newman.
Greg Pickett, founder of Cytomax, 1978 series champion and Trans-Am
race winner in four decades of competition, commented: “We’re excited
about the return of Trans-Am and are pleased to be able to give
something back to the series that has provided so much excitement for
race fans throughout the years.”
That first VIR Trans-Am race featured a brace of NASCAR drivers,
including Richard Petty, David Pearson, Wendell Scott and Curtis Turner
in various cars. Turner was the only NASCAR driver whose car finished
the race, in spite of a patched-up engine. The rest failed to finish.
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It's a fantastic place,I was impressed when I first drove in. I enjoy the track. It's very fast, it's very unique; a driver's track, I must say.
-Michael Galati - multi-time SPEED World Challenge Series champion
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