A note from Rocky: A few months back I received an email through the website from a gentleman named Harry Quackenboss. He was hoping to connect with me and share some information on the ‘64 Tempest that Herb Adams successfully campaigned in SCCA and has been recently restored to race condition. I immediately recognized Harry’s name as a member of Adams’ “Adams Associates” racing team. Harry was the only non-Pontiac employee. For the SCCA’s 1972 Trans-Am season, Adams Associates campaigned a Firebird Trans Am and in 1973 campaigned a ‘73 Grand Am in the NASCAR Cup series. Harry headed suspension and brakes on both efforts. I was elated that Harry reached out and offered to post any blogs that he’s be willing to contribute. Here’s the first of hopefully many!
By Harry Quackenboss
In 1972, after having apprenticed on the Gray Ghost 1964 Tempest, driven by Bob Tullius and Rusty Jowett (one race at St. Jovite, Quebec), in 1972 I took over the suspension engineering responsibility for the team’s 1972 Firebird Trans Am. The car was driven by Tony DeLorenzo in its debut at Lime Rock, where it finished 3rd, after breaking a shift linkage retaining clip, which meant no 4th gear.
Adams Associates’ Firebird Trans Am during an SCCA Trans-Am series race at Watkins Glen in 1972.
In Milt’s Minter’s first race in the car at Bryar, New Hampshire, he finished 2nd.
At Mid-Ohio, we were still tweaking the handling. On the Saturday practice/qualifying day before the race, I had the front springs out 3 times between sessions tweaking the ride height. Milt qualified on the pole by a comfortable margin. Regular American Motors Javelin driver, George Follmer, wasn’t there, because he was in Canada driving Roy Woods F5000 car.
The Pontiac’s performance didn’t sit well with American Motors. They had organized a major gathering of executives and hundreds of dealers at the Mid-Ohio race, expecting to see a Javelin win on Sunday. Right after Milt qualified on the pole on Saturday, AMC ordered George to be at Mid-Ohio to run the race on Sunday to uphold the Javelin's honor.
Carroll Smith, famous for many race engineering books including Tune to Win and who later became head design judge for Formula SAE, was the crew chief on Woods' F5000 team. When informed that Follmer would not be in the car on Sunday, because AMC had ordered him to Ohio, the frustrated Carroll resigned on the spot.
Harry Quackenboss was responsible for suspension and brakes on the Firebird Trans Am that Team Associates campaigned in SCCA’s Trans-Am racing series during the 1972 season. This photo was taken an Mid-Ohio where driver Milt Minter went on to claim Pontiac’s only win in that circuit.
Milt dominated the race. He led every lap, even during our pit stops to change tires and refuel. Mid-race, we heard the announcer say that Milt had spun off the track, but with all of us in the pits, nobody on the team had seen it. Even so, Milt kept the lead and gave Pontiac its first win in SCCA’s Trans-Am series.
Having missed qualifying, George in his AMC had to start from the rear but put on a fierce effort to finish 2nd.
After the race, Milt drove his motor home to my home near Ann Arbor, Michigan, staying overnight. Milt's first words when he woke up the next morning were, "Hey Harry! I had a dream we won a race."
We went on to finish 2nd in the Trans-Am Series Championship, behind George Follmer’s Javelin. Milt also finished 2nd in the Can-Am Series in 1972, behind George Follmer, both driving Porsche 917s with 8-cylinder turbos.
Harry took this photograph of driver Milt Minter and his wife, Melissa in the garage area at Watkins Glen in 1972. Pontiac engineer and Adams Associates team member, Tom Nell can be seen on the right.
Out of the blue, last week, a friend who restores and maintains a bunch of vintage Trans-Am and IMSA GTO era race cars sent me a link to an eBay listing for a 35mm slide of the Firebird in a spectacular slide from the Mid-Ohio race. (Photo is above).
The Pontiac heritage runs strongly through racing. Herb Adams, who told me recently he had designed and built over seventy cars, that his son, Matt, is following in his footsteps. Also, Terry Satchell, a young engineer at Pontiac who helped out on the Gray Ghost, went on to become a race engineer for IMSA teams, Penske’s CART team (where he helped Al Unser, Jr. to an Indy 500 win and the CART season championship), and NASCAR, where he helped Harry Gant acquire the nickname “Mr. September” for his achievements in Winston Cup Oldsmobiles in the later part of his career, and before Terry retired, at Ford Motorsports working with NASCAR teams. Terry also wrote the suspension geometry chapter in the book Race Car Vehicle Dynamics, by Bill Milliken and his son, Doug, which is considered by many to be the most authoritative book on the topic.