Bob Clucas

Here's a cool shot from the 2015 Monterey Reunion..... not vintage shots, but vintage cars... David Martin in the Frieselle Z, John Morton in Joel Andersons Z, me in the Natural Light Z and Dave Stone in the Bondurant Z. Morton dove under the Joest 935 in a "holly s&&t" moment at the top of the corkscrew.... Bob

I just saw this post - been away from this site for a while. I have the '75 FAR car and spoke briefly to your dad about the FAR days. I am going to take the car to Sonoma May 28th - 31st, is he still in the area, would he like to come out and see the car / tell some stories (it's now restored to the Anhueser Busch Natural Light livery, not the FAR livery....)? Talking to guys from "back in the day" makes vintage racing what fun it is!!!! Bob Clucas

Did anyone happen to see the Rolex Motorsports Reunion on Fox this weekend? A great interview and photo's of Joel Anderson and Rob Fuller with Joel's IMSA car. Also a great segment on Dave Stone's beautiful Bob Sharp 1970 240Z that was the editors pick of cars to take home. They had lots of coverage of Dave driving the car in the race! Finally some good coverage of Z's at arguably the premier vintage race event!!! I couldn't find when the show will be replayed, but worth recording and watching if you like classic cars and Z's.... Bob

Great photo's of the FAR cars - do you have any more? I'm specifically looking for photo's from 1975 of the second Maas car. I believe the photo of Maas "in the office" is the early car that won the '74 CP and IMSA GTU championships before being crashed in early 1975 at Laguna Seca??? Do you know when the photo was taken? thanks! Bob Clucas

Hi Rob, Where did you find the grid shot, i'd sure like to get a copy! Thanks! Bob

Cool shot Rob. I believe that was the IMSA FAR Performance car that Walt Maas drove to the 1974 IMSA GTU Championship! I hadn't seen that picture before! I was told that that car got totaled at Phoenix in 1975 or 76 or so.... Bob

Be careful, cold tires and a lot of boost can be real exciting!!!! I won't be going this year :disappoin, so have fun and be safe!! bob

yup, and looks like a McLaren in the foreground - Nice company for the Friselle Z!

As a side note to the above race info, Casey Mollett also was at the Laguna Seca IMSA GTU race in May 1978. Casey had engine problems with his car that weekend, so he rented a spare motor from Mueller. He had to start last because he couldn’t qualify, but he managed to move up to 4th at the end of the race. Since it was a rented motor and he didn't know what it was, he figured they would only spec the top 3 finishers and he would be ok.... unfortunately, they decided to spec the top 5 finishers, and the motor Mueller gave Casey was a 2.8L and he was given a DQ…. Bob - as told to me by Casey

Hi Rob, That's the warm-up lap for the 1978 IMSA GTU Race at Laguna Seca. The "half" car is Lee Mueller in the Victors / Quality Inn #71 240Z and on the pole is Dennis Aase in the #64 911. They crashed each other out on lap 13 and Frank Leary #48 ended up winning the race. Sam Posey #33 finished 2nd and Devendorf #83 finished 5th.... Bob

Here's a good photo of Walt Maas I found on the SCCA site. Description reads: The Bay Area Datsun Dealers' 240-Z will once again take to the Laguna Seca track during the October 15-17 Monterey-Castrol Grand Prix. This will be the final tune-up race of the season for the team before they head for Road Atlanta and the American Road Race of Champions in November. Driver and Team Manager Walt Maas has announced that the upcoming race on Sunday immediately preceding the Can-Am race, should provide the fans with some of the best racing of the afternoon but adds that "Datsun owners will not be disappointed with the finish!" Hank Pierotti, President of the Bay Area Datsun Dealers, recently confided that the dealers are extremely pleased with the performance of the car and the team in their first year of competition, especially so since it appears that they will be representing Northern California at the National Championships in November.

Carl's right, David Martin now owns the car but I think Caneppa still maintains it. I'll send David an email and see what he'd like to do..... Bob

Hey, that's a cool thread, thanks for bringing it up and thanks for the kind words Carl!. Those shots were taken at Coronado Speed Festival last month.... While sitting there, Don Prudholme came by and started looking at the car. I asked him if he remembered driving it at Brainerd in 1978, and he looked puzzled for a second, and then i said i heard you blew the motor in practice and he said "oh yes, i remember that, but i didn't blow the motor, i just missed a shift and bent the valves!" Also, i was pitted across from John Morton, and he came over and was looking at the car and said he remembers driving it in 1974 in an SCCA enduro at Laguna Seca with Rob McFarland (the owner of FAR Performance).... Seems like they let just about "anybody" drive this car back in the day!!!!

David Martin recently purchased #47. We had a great Z turnout - 5 of us got accepted this year!!!! Dave Stone in his original #33 Bob Sharp car leading all of us, David Martin in the #47 Friselle car, Adam Carolla in the #38 Leitzinger 280ZX and Gary Cook in a #49 BRE Z and me with a broken tranny in the Walt Maas / Natural Light Z bringing up the rear....

Cool picture from this years Monterey Reunion at Laguna Seca.... http://www.flickr.com/photos/bradfordspeers/7813671916/in/photostream/ Bob