September 28, 2020
I always thought that the first race I photographed at Road America was in 1973. After doing some digging in the files for something from 1972, I found some black and white negatives of the 1972 Can-Am race at Road America on August 27, 1972! That was three days before my eighteenth birthday!
It's interesting to look at what Road America looked like in 1972!! It was quite different but the pavement is in the same place. Road America is a beautiful race course with a rich history.
About a month ago, I was with George Follmer at Road America for the Shadow Racing car 50th reunion. Wish I had known that I had these photos to show to George! I will be sending him a few copies this week of this race he won for Penske Racing in a Porsche 917/10 TC.
The George Follmer car is the #6 car. The #22 car of Francois Cevert finished second. The #59 car of Peter Gregg finished third.
David Hobbs raced the #1 car but did not finish. Others that didn't finish were Peter Revson in the #4, Denny Hulme in the #5, Carlos Pace in the #101 Shadow and Jackie Oliver in the #102 Shadow.
The McLaren cars had been dominating the Can-Am series but Porsche and Audi were starting to make a nice move in winning with their beautiful cars.
Enjoy a look at Road America and the men in 1972!
Thanks,
Rich Zimmermann
