US SPORTS CAR RACING in the 60s & 70sSCCA racing rules for 1971 – Sports Racing Classes – racecars designed strictly for racing. They had to have a passenger seat and run on pump fuel. The cars competed in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup and there were several regulations that had to be adhered to. For instance, high suspension-mounted wings were not permitted. There were four different classes. ASR was for cars over 2000cc. BSR was for cars from 1300cc to 2000cc. CSR was for cars from 850cc to 1300cc. DSR was for cars under 850cc.
A quick look at what sort of driver participated in C and D and surprise, surprise. These guys were a breed apart with almost no young men on the make with competitors in racing for its own sake. Many built their own specials, clean, well turned out racing cars from off the shelf parts, British front ends, Porsche or Formula Ford rear ends and so on. There was nothing like this in Britain or the Continent. This was a cottage industry of ingenious manufacturers using Ford and Alfa Romeo power plants, tuned to race, with tubs constructed out of aluminum, clad in very attractive fiberglass bodies – mimicking the bigger brethren Can-Am V8 racers. Which of course explains why C and DSRs have such a variety of names – from Gardner Alfa-Romeo to Arachnid to the better known Bobsy, Beach, Elva, Quasar, Merlyn and Zink, all with one singular objective - to beat the stuffing out of the Lotus 23. |
