I totaled our first Eagle (Chassis No. 502) at Willow Springs Raceway while early testing in April; the car became airborne in Turn 6 and catapulted into the air 30 feet, plummeted downward, breaking away the right front suspension and front brake caliper assembly within a stone’s throw away from the pit straight. The Eagle’s monocoque was wrinkled from front to rear absorbing the energy of the crash. I suffered a cut above my right eye and badly brushed ribs. With less than two weeks before the first race, our new Eagle was not completed, and I lost any further opportunity to get acquainted with an open wheel Formula A 5000 car.

These cars produced 465 to 500 hp and were more than a handful to maintain on the track. Our first Eagle did not have any aero down force, it was sans any front or rear wings. I would never drive the new Eagle without any front or rear wings; this is a much-needed assist to keep these cars glued to the track. The Eagle was a narrow track car with a short wheelbase, making it very nervous appearing on the track. I would have to learn how to drive the car smoothly if I wanted to survive. I also made a decision to give up my open-faced helmet and be one of the first drivers to wear the full-face closed helmet made available by Bell Helmets. It would have protected me in the crash and certainly I find out protected my face, eyes from stones being thrown up from other cars with the wide rear tires.

The new chassis number 510 was finally completed at the AAR factory and we were able to install the Traco built engine and Hewland LG transaxle.

Our Milestone Racing crew was green as well, not from mechanical preparation experience, but with open wheel racers.  Master mechanic Roy Wade and Don Breslauer followed me from the Group 44 racing team that gave me a professional start in racing.  It was now time for me to fit the driving position, pedal assembly, steering wheel and that is when I found out that I could not get into the cockpit by myself.  With my bruised ribs, I had to be helped into the cockpit and soon found out in practice for the first time at Riverside, that the track surfaces were rough and transmitted every small impact to my bruised ribs.

One of the rudest awakenings was to have the feedback into the small steering wheel from the wide front tires; it wanted to whip the wheel out of your hands.  The brakes were not there at the end of the straightaway as result of front spindle flex knocking back the pads in the caliper.  One had to pump your brakes at the end of the straights to have a positive brake pedal; unbelievable that a real racing car had these characteristics.  Being new to open wheel racing, I made an assessment that more could be done to improve these issues for future races.  One of the first things we custom built and added to the Eagle’s steering rack was a Koni steering rack shock absorber from a Porsche 911 be installed.  This helped considerably absorbing any of the nasty feed back into the steering wheel.  The brake pedal issue was not resolved until we had AAR make up a Y pedal to allow me to utilize my left foot to pump up the brake pedal at the end of the straights.  I eventually realized I could benefit from learning left foot brake techniques.  This solidly provided me with a brake pedal at the end of the straights and allowed me to have a competitive edge, modulating the brake pedal into turns.  I was the only “left foot braker” in the series.  It was a relatively unknown technique in road racing. This would carry on into my many future racing car experiences.

The first time I entered into the Eagle at Virginia International Raceway for a Car & Driver magazine test, I knew I was over my head.  No fenders, four open wheels, a narrow track, short wheelbase – a “go cart on steroids.”  1500 lbs of pure excitement.  How do you master this machine capable of 190 plus mph and plenty of torque coming out of the turns to break loose at anytime? 

Jack Cowell, Car & Driver Racing 1969:

Before we crashed Sam Posey’s 427 cu. in. aluminum Chevrolet-powered Can-Am Lola T-160, we had planned to bring you some kind of comparison test between it and the Formula A Eagle-Chevy which Marvin Davidson bought for Tony Adamowicz to drive in the SCCA’s Continental Series.

We had decided that this would be about the surest way of bringing the open wheel formula to your attention and at the same time give you some sort of scale to measure the performance and magnitude of these cars. We wanted to be certain that you understood that this is a major formula and that these cars really fly and that they are going to put on some great racing.

But only moments after Adamowicz and his crew arrived at Virginia International Raceway-ending an all-night tow from Connecticut – Posey’s Lola shot off into the woods at 100 mph and self-destructed, leaving the Eagle, which was still sitting on the trailer, some new kind of comparison test winner.

Adamowicz was keen to run the Eagle anyway, so we watched while the fast-rising young sports car driver, who has impressed the racing fraternity with his handling of Lotus-Cortinas and 911 Porsches in SCCA Trans-Am sedan racing, took his first ever ride in a formula car.

Mechanics Roy Wade and Don Breslauer rolled the car off the trailer, cleaned, adjusted and primed it and at the appropriate moment Adamowicz appeared from behind the pickup in his Nomex White Knight suit and brushing off his shoes slid carefully around the black leather wheel into his contour-padded cockpit.

Adamowicz has been racing a year or two now and in a straight sort of way is very cool. But he was obviously excited as hell about getting out there in his new Eagle. This was to be exclusively his super-toy for the next few months. Adamowicz lay back there in comfort and for a while just switched his senses to ‘input’, the 302-inch Weber-carburetted Chevy splitting the air behind his head. The all-enclosed feeling, the naked front wheels standing tall ahead of him, the rear wheels just out of his peripheral vision. Finally, he snicked the car into first and rolled out of the pits onto this very challenging 3.1-mile road course. He had a little problem getting the non-synchro Hewland gears meshing smoothly at first, and after five slow laps pulled in.

“It’s like flying an aircraft,” he said smiling. “The cockpit is very comfortable, you feel as though the whole car is a part of you.” The front wheels didn’t bother him. “I thought they would at first,” he said, “but you don’t really spend any time looking at them. You know, you feel very safe. The brakes are perhaps as fantastic as anything about the car. They really haul you down to the extent of lifting you out of the seat against your harness.”

Adamowicz went back out and for the rest of the afternoon ran intermittently, not hurrying, although he spun cresting the right hander before the hairpin, but lapping at 2:20-odd – a full 12 seconds off the lap record. The afternoon turned into a routine race car testing session. Adamowicz had taken a step forward in his racing career.

My first race ever in an open wheel machine, 460 HP TRACO Chevy and all.  This was entering turn 7 at Riverside.  I was leading Lothar Motchenbacher in a McLaren Chevy.  I relinquished the lead in turn nine.  I was hurting so badly from bruised ribs after a test crash at Willow Springs less than one week earlier, that I had to be helped in and out of the vehicle.  I thought third was better than nothing the first race.  John Cannon won the race.

Adamowicz collection – Competition Press and Autoweek                                     

Adamowicz collection – Competition Press and Autoweek

Adamowicz collection – Competition Press and Autoweek

Adamowicz collection – Competition Press and Autoweek

The 1969 Eagle Formula A of Dan Gurney`s All American Racers company was probably the very best constructed chassis for the time.  As the Championship series continued, more competitive chassis started to appear towards the end. McLaren, Surtees, Lola. The weight , brakes and suspension geometry improved tremendously. With regards to handling, the chassis had limited suspension travel and was not as competitive as the McLaren or Surtees with updated Formula One improvements. It liked the smoother tracks. The brakes were never really good with the standard spindle upright provided. The spindle flexed, kicked back the pads and consistently had inadequate brake application. I was the only driver in the series using left foot braking with a special pedal setup, to make sure I always had a brake pedal going into the turns.

My Initiation to open wheel formula 5000 racing, the 1969 Continental Championship

By Tony “a2z” Adamowicz

Straight from winning the 1968 Under 2 liter Trans Am Championship for Porsche, where we dominated this pro series, my car owner of Milestone Racing, Marvin Davidson asked me what I wanted to race the following year. With out hesitation I indicated to him, the Formula A/5000 series with a Gurney Eagle Mk. 5. 

What I didn’t know was how things were to work out, and actually I was to bite off more than I could chew. You see I had never driven an open wheel car, let alone a 1400 lb, 5 liter Chevy stock block with then 480 available hp.  My intro to my desires would unravel quickly as I was asked to drive the car at VIR (Virginia International Raceway) for Car & Driver magazine. Leon Mandel had arranged to have Sam Posey’s Can Am car there and it was to be a comparison between the cars. When I arrived at VIR, the Can Am car had already been destroyed. I was faced with the daunting task of fulfilling my job to drive Eagle for the test.

 My First time in the car was with sub zero weather with running ice water across various parts of the track; my eyes became as big as saucers. I was able to make through this test unscathed and immediately related to my car owner, that we needed to get some real seat time in sunny California. He agreed and my former Group 44 Mechanic Roy Wade and helper Don Bresslauer and I proceed to drive to Ca. arriving at our destination, Willow Springs Raceway, located in the desert of Rosamand, Ca. We unloaded the Eagle and proceeded to get some valuable seat time at this unknown raceway.

Little did I know that the winds came up around 3 o’clock in the afternoon and provided some interesting consequences for me?  Our Eagle had no wing down force at the time, as I was entering turn 6 , a fast right-hand , blind , reverse camber turn a gust of wind helped my Eagle to become airborne and promptly take flight, level off and ultimately plummeting into the desert floor outside the track. It continued to become airborne again and repeated the second stage of my previous uncharted fight plan. My open faced “Jim Clark inspired” helmet with goggles did little to protect me from a serious cut above my eyebrow, more over I had some serious pain in my ribs. A quick jaunt to the local hospital revealed I was very lucky not to have any broken bones, small consequence to our totaled Eagle.

Fortunately we had a brand new Gurney Eagle being completed at the All American Racers factory in Santa Ana, Ca. It was not yet completed and it was less than 2 weeks before the first race at Riverside International Raceway. The crew proceeded to strip down the wrecked Eagle to save any useful parts for spares. John Cannon had been testing our new wings and larger rear wheels at Riverside Raceway and was doing quite well with the new pieces. Finally our new car was completed by AAR and we arrived at RIR ready for practice. My bruised dribs did not allow me to enter or get out of the cockpit by myself; I had to be helped in and lifted out the car each time. The bumps encountered over the track, provided me with excruciating pain to endure. Practice with these new FA/5000 cars provide more excitement as various cars started to crash and have their new high mounted suspension wings come apart. Sam Posey totally destroyed his new Eagle, providing a spectacular shunt and becoming airborne, complete with flames. Fortunately he was alright, however his car was destroyed, I immediately determined that these Eagles were not meant to fly…..do you think?

As the very first FA/5000 race drew underway, I was fortunate to get a good start and was running 2^nd behind John Cannon in his sorted and very fast Eagle. During the course of the race I was challenged by Lothar Motchenbacher in his new McLaren and rather than risk going off track, I motioned for Lothar to pass me going into the famed turn 9 oval. The bruised ribs provided enough pain to allow this to take place. We finished the 40 minute race in 3rd place, hmmm not bad for a rookie.

The following races provided more entertainment as we encountered several failures with chassis components. It was becoming acutely aware that we were way in over our head in chassis preparation my lack of Formula 5000 driving experience. It was then that my car owner had made a deal with Carroll Shelby to hire his team manager and engineer, Carroll Smith. Carroll had been with Shelby as team manager when their Ford Mk 4 won the 24 hours of Le Mans. We welcomed Carroll as pivot able team manager addition to our group, providing expert knowledge and application to our Eagle. Being a former formula driver in Europe himself, this allowed him to mentor me in my education of Formula 5000 racing.

We struggled through the 13 race season with two wins, one at Road America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin and Seattle International Raceway in Kent Washington.  We racked up consistent top points by our well place finishes through out the season and we had enough points to be leading in the Championship for the final race at Sebring.  We had the opportunity to drive among some great professional international drivers and teams. Thanks to our team and particularly Carroll Smith for the excellent driver mentoring and preparation of our Eagle.  Without Carroll’s engineering expertise, we would have never won the Championship.

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