Daytona  24 Hours

      Feb 5, 1979

     The car raced with a large/wide black band painted diagonally across the entire hood.  It was a tribute to Otto Zipper, who passed away the night before the race in his motel room.


     Prep by Bruno at Zipper's Modena Sports Cars in Hollywood, helped us win the GTO class.  It was one glorious, thundering blast for the ten year-old design.

Vintage chassis S/N #16407, owned by Bill Nicholas and Jim McRoberts.  This time Morton/Adamowicz won first in GTO class and second overall against the best technology Porsche had to offer.

The winning car overall was the twin turbo 935 Porsche Interscope car of Danny Ongias and Ted Field.  It crossed the line on the starter after waiting for the end on the start/finish track apron.  Ours was certainly a "Rocky Balboa" finish, taking a vintage front engine car to the checkered flag.

     We technically won the race overall as the Interscope Porsche had not completed the last lap within the required percentage of their qualifying lap.  It was a rule specifically intended to prohibit such a finish.  Ferrari was the only one who could protest the finish as it was a FIA Manufacturers Championship race.  Since our car was of vintage design, not current to Ferrari's latest 512 BB, they declined to protest the finish results. 

Current appearance of SN 16407

A balding and playful Otto Zipper blinds Elliott Forbes Robinson

John Morton leaves the infield and heads for the banking

Tony Adamowicz, Gary Wheeler, Tony a2z, Tony Adamowics, a2zRacer, Gary Wheeler, Tony Adamowicz

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John Morton, Tony's co-driver