From January 2009:

Our 1969 Continental Championship winning F 5000 Gurney Eagle, chassis No. 510 has been undergoing additional retrofit improvements on the chassis. A new and improved rear wing (to match our improved front wing) was designed by the former AAR aero dynamist engineer Gary Wheeler. Installation is now being completed. The front and rear wings have been fabricated by former AAR fabricator Dave McLerren. Bill Losee, chief mechanic on the Eagle, along with RIAM’s in-house fabricator Morris Jephcott, have fabricated new stronger rear vertical wing struts to better support the additional downforce of the new rear wing. Production of our new rear Eagle wheels, fabricated by Ray Franklin at Vintage Engineering, is being finished to replace the 40-year-old mag wheels for safety.

Our Hewland gearbox woes of last season should also be put to rest. We had 3 separate, individually different failures that created havoc during the season. Joe Tobin, former Nissan GTP transmission guru has gone over our gearboxes with a fine tooth comb. This should put an end to the gremlins we face last year. Finally new advanced Koni shocks have been installed. The original Koni shocks have been retired as solid spares for the car.

Our thanks to the expertise of famed Ti 22 Titanium and Shadow Can Am designer Peter Bryant for working with Bill Losee to correct a braking issue we had stemming all the way back to 1969. Peter was able to determine our braking problem and helped us correct it. Now we are assured of new and improved braking with our car. Peter Bryant will be on hand to autograph his new celebrated book, Can Am Challenger. His race career is quite interesting, supplying the reader with numerous comedy scenes, joys and disappointments in his career. Those who have never met a real Can Am racecar designer will be impressed to do so at the Legends of Riverside.

Preparation and restoration of a vintage racecar would never be complete without proper testing. We plan to have at least two testing sessions at Willow Springs Raceway and possibly another local vintage event at California Speedway in Fontana. Seb Coppola, driver and administrator of the F5000 registry has put forth a rigorous schedule for return of the F 5000 cars in selected vintage venues in 2009.

Our first race will be in May 16-17 at Thunder Hill Raceway in Willows, Calif. Well known as an SCCA test track, it is more famous for the 25 hours of Thunder Hill. I had the honor of successfully competing in that event in a BMW M3 in 2006. This circuit will be quite challenging and very new to our powerful F5000 machines.

June 19th, 2009:

The Formula 5000 Drivers Association announced that a field of about a dozen historic Formula 5000 cars will be competing in the Mid-Ohio Vintage Grand Prix presented by the Sportcar Vintage Racing Association (SVRA) on June 25-28, 2009.

Another spin around the track – Eagle’s still got it, decades after win

by Dave Kallmann of The Journal Sentinel, July 19, 2009

It might seem strange for a grown man to feel sentimental about aluminum and steel and rubber and gasoline, but that’s what car guys do. So forgive Tony Adamowicz. He has always been a car guy. And he’ll always have a special place in his heart for a slick, white No. 7 Eagle sculpted more than four decades ago in Dan Gurney’s All-American Racers shop. Adamowicz raced it to the 1969 Formula 5000 championship, he won with it that July at Road America and he drove it again Sunday in the Kohler International Challenge vintage races on a circuit that has changed little in the 40 years since.

“Back in the day we probably were a little bit closer racing and took a lot more chances and we were a lot younger,” the 68-year-old Californian said after finishing second in his class. “There’s a value in what we do today, to be able to bring these cars out of yesteryear and showcase them at a beautiful track like Road America. “We try to do some racing within the safety confines of the car. We know that they’re all historic, and we really don’t want to bring them back rumpled up. We want to bring them back in a whole piece and continue on showing these cars.” Nearly 400 high-priced, high-powered toys went on high-speed display during the International Challenge. Only a handful will need another round of restoration before being seen again.

Adamowicz’s particular piece of history spent more than 35 years tucked away in storage, unused, unshown and all but forgotten by nearly everyone but its driver. Finally, as preparations were being made for a 40th anniversary of the Formula 5000 class, Adamowicz worked a deal for its purchase by Doug Magnon, president of the Riverside International Automotive Museum in California. They went together to pick it up. “I hadn’t seen it since December of 1969, the last race at Sebring,” said Adamowicz, who remains the only person to have raced the car. “It was a time warp, going back to see that and to see all the patina that had built up from that race was still there. It was just an amazing time.” Although the car was in great shape, overall, time did take a toll.

Adamowicz, Magnon and others spent about a year getting it ready to run again last summer. Suspension components were rebuilt with stronger steel. The wings and engine are new. Sagging springs were replaced, along with a tachometer that no longer worked and the windscreen, which was pitted from a 13-race season. “All these pieces were made in the spirit of the way the car was originally, but they’re new, fresh pieces to go racing,” said Adamowicz, who oversaw the restoration. “We’re actually geared for about 190 mph here, so it’s a significant speed for a 40-year-old car, let alone a 40-year-older driver.”

Through the years, some of the details of Adamowicz’s Road America triumph also have faded, and others have been lost in the jumble of hundreds of races in series at tracks all over the world. He remembers the event involved three 100-mile heats. He remembers seeing Jerry Hansen’s car, upside down and dripping gasoline, after a first-lap accident. And he remembers the more significant accomplishment of that day, the first lunar landing. “It certainly overshadows my win at Road America,” Adamowicz said, “but we like to say we’re partners in honoring them, Buzz Aldrin and the NASA guys, with their Eagle win on the moon.” It’s an interesting tidbit.

So was the notion that 40 years later, Adamowicz would return to the site of an important victory and race in the very same car. “I’m just honored to be here to show it to people,” Adamowicz said. “Some of them even remember the car from ’69, so that’s even more special for them.”  And for him.

Gurney Eagle F5000 Car Returns to The Glen

By Ron Levanduski rlevandu@gannett.com  Staff Writer Star-Gazette • September 12, 2009

WATKINS GLEN — Tony Adamowicz never dreamed he’d be racing the same Gurney Eagle today that he won the Continental Formula 5000 Championship with in 1969.

The only American to win a Formula 5000 title in an American-made car did that last year at Watkins Glen International to help celebrate the 40th anniversary of the class.

The car had been in storage for 37 years until Doug Magnon purchased it and began restoring it in 2006 at his Riverside (Calif.) International Automotive Museum.

“I never thought in a million years that I would one day be back in this car,” Adamowicz said. “We are very pleased to be able to take this project over and bring it back and show people a little bit about the car. It’s a championship car and it deserves to be out there.”

The historic car, from the top open-wheel road race series of its time, is one of nearly 400 vintage cars taking part in the U.S. Vintage Grand Prix at the Glen.

Drivers took part in qualifying and six-lap qualifying races on the Glen’s 3.4-mile Grand Prix configuration on Saturday.

The Sportscar Vintage Racing Association-sanctioned event closes out the 2009 season here with 15 vintage races today starting at 8:30 a.m. Among them are four featured races, including a Formula 5000 race at 3 p.m.

Adamowicz, who also won three IMSA GT titles and a Trans-Am championship, retired from professional racing 20 years ago. At 68, the Port Henry, N.Y., native, who now lives in Costa Mesa, Calif., is happy to be back competing in vintage racing. He won his FA-class qualifying race at the Glen.

“It’s an honor to be back in the Eagle and it feels good to win again,” Adamowicz said. “Forty years later, this is a handful to drive. I don’t really remember it that way back then but I was much younger then and a lot braver.”…………

Tony Adamowicz – A Champion’s-Champion! And…A new benchmark in Motorsport has been set!

By Klaus Kindor  occarenthusiast.com  September 18th, 2009

Just a few months ago we wrote a story about our good friend Tony Adamowicz being re-united with his 1969 championship winning Gurney Eagle Formula 5000 car. We were also fortunate enough to have been invited to Tony’s return to the car’s office in a test session at Willow Springs Raceway just last year. The very same track that A2Z tested his very first F5000 car…with rather -well, interesting results….you’ll have to look up the archived article here or read about it on Tony’s web site.

The guys at the Riverside International Automotive Museum brought ‘ole number 7 back to life after nearly 40 years. Doug Magnon, Bill and the crew (with guidance from Tony) rebuilt the car to its original specifications. We understand that even the late, great Peter Bryant had his hand in the set-up of the car on occasion – with expected results, a faster car.  The car is fantastic. It is NOT a tribute car, or kind of like what Tony drove in 1969, it is indeed Tony’s old car…..the real McCoy.

Here is where this story becomes even more interesting. A phone call from Tony just a couple of days ago confirmed a great weekend at Watkins Glen for himself and his car. Tony said the car ran great and with the points earned at the Glen last weekend it has been confirmed that A2Z is again Formula 5000 class champion, driving the very car that he won his championship in 40….yes….. F O R T Y years ago!!!!!

We have been racking our brain trying to recall if anything like this has EVER happened in the history of Motor Sport……….the answer appears to be a resounding NO.  Tony has always been an American racing icon- now, to his long list of accomplishments he can add a new remarkable benchmark; one that no other racing car driver has ever achieved- anywhere, anytime or in the history of the sport…. 

At no time in the history of automobile racing has a single driver and a single car been reunited to win a championship racing series 40 years after it happened – the first time! Until now……. Listen carefully Tony and you will hear the applause. Fantastic!

There have been a number of great racing champions in the last 100 or so years. What Tony and the guys at RIAM have accomplished; however, is truly monumental and an absolute milestone, one that may never be repeated; by anyone. 

Klaus Kindor

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