AIR Cars Live a Full Life:
by: Dave Herlinger, David Reisner
and Brent Silverwood
Photo # 1
Dave Herlinger (Repeat from part one)
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
Early Race History
by: David Reisner
When all was said and done, these two L-88 powered
Corvettes (#44 and #45) raced only a single race under AIR, the 24 Hours of
Daytona in February of 1968. The two cars were driven by Dick Guldstrand, Ed
Leslie and Herb Caplan (#44) and Scooter Patrick and Dave Jordan (#45). Jordan
had been picked at the eleventh hour as a result of Bondurant’s injury at Watkins’s
Glen, which was still not healed.
Photo # 11
AIR cars filled the front row of the
grid
at Daytona, 1968.
Photo by: Don Heath
Provided Courtesy of: Dave Herlinger
Photo # 12
At Daytona, the cars suffered badly
from
overheating differentials. Lack of
cooling air flow
was the killer
Photo by: Don Heath
Provided Courtesy of: Dave Herlinger
The two cars out-qualified all other FIA competition
in their class, and as a result both team cars occupied the front row positions
at the start of the race. Only one car finished the race (#44 in 29th
position), driven by Guldstrand and Leslie.
Photo # 13
The rigors of a 24 hour race required
the whole crew
to put in long hours
Photo by: Don Heath
Provided Courtesy of: Dave Herlinger
Photo # 14
Dick Guldstrand drove hard but the
cars simply
weren’t going to finish
Photo by: Don Heath
Provided Courtesy of: Dave Herlinger
The cars returned to Culver City, and were rebuilt in
anticipation of Sebring. However, while at Daytona, Rabbitt had already been
forging plans to acquire Lolas for the following season. Although the Corvettes
were entered at Sebring, they never made it (Corvette News, Vol 11 No
5). The cars were never to see another race under AIR. Sebring was run with
Lola T70 Mk II coupes.
Later in 1968 (around June) a mobile home
manufacturer, John Crean, bought AIR and all three Corvettes were subsequently
advertised for sale in Competition Press classified ads. Private owners
were soon found. These were Gerry Gregory (#44), Gary Neuer (#45), and Bob
Wingate (promo car).
Photo # 15
#45 car at
Daytona, 1968.
Photo by: Don
Heath
Provided
Courtesy of:Dave Herlinger
Photo # 16
The L-88 hood was a proven commodity
within GM. It
would soon become apparent to others,
too
Photo by: Don Heath
Provided Courtesy of:Dave Herlinger
Photo # 17
By dawn, #45 was still running, but
it would not finish
Photo by: Don Heath
Provided Courtesy of:Dave Herlinger
Mike: font indicates that Dave Herlinger
resumes speaking
The #44 AIR car had been sold to
Gerry Gregory, an ex-fighter pilot recently turned racer. Gregory had started
racing in 1967 with a Porsche 911. When the Corvette came up, the year was
already well under way. Still, Gregory got a wild card entry to the ARRC
runoffs at Riverside Raceway at the end of the 1968 season. He qualified on
pole! Unfortunately, because there were no defaults in the regular entry field,
he did not get to take up his wild card entry. The following year, Gregory made
it to the run-offs on his own merits but DNF’d after running as high as second.
The car still featured the AIR emblem on the hood.
At the end of the 1969 season, the
car went to Gene Cormany, still in its Lemans Blue. Gene Cormany was the head
of Zollner Corporation, which was the world’s largest producer of pistons and,
himself, a log time SCCA racer in the Indiana district. Gene raced the car for
two years before it was acquired by his son, Dave Cormany had been racing a 63
small block roadster through those two years, but when he wrecked that car, he
bought into his father’s ride. In 1973 Jim Herlinger purchased the car.
Photo # 4 (repeat photo)
The #44 repainted in bright red
for Jim Herlinger’s first big block
race,
Laguna Seca, 1973
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Steve
Anderson
Jim Herlinger had started racing in
1965 in a Porsche speedster and then went to Formula Vee. When he acquired the
#44 AIR car he painted it red over the Le Mans Blue and added the “Enjoy Coca
Cola” logo in white letters. As purchased, the car still had the original L-88
motor. Jim entered the season running SCCA A/P west coast “national” events at Portland,
Seattle, Sears Point, Willow Springs and Laguna Seca. Jim took three wins and
also ran the Bob Bondurant Corvettes-only Challenge Race at Laguna Seca. In
1974, Jim ran one race in the newly formed IMSA series, together with the car’s
new owner Gregg Peterson.
Once we got the car, we were pretty
naive about what to do next. Well, obviously, we needed to find out a little
bit more about how the car had been delivered and set up for the AIR team, so I
started calling around GM. I didn’t know who to phone or anything. I just
started with a couple of numbers and talked to whomever I could get.
Finally, I get this lady. I don’t
even know who she was but she asked what I was trying to do. I told her I was
looking for Gib Hufstader because my brother used to know him. She told me that
she knew Gib and what a nice guy he was. When I asked her how she knew him, she
said she had been Duntov’s secretary for seventeen years and met him while she
worked there. I told her a bit more about the Garner cars and how we had one.
So she told me that I should talk to McLellan and she transferred me over.
I got McLellan’s message machine so
I left my message and the next morning there’s a message on my machine from Gib
Hufstader.
Gib was very interested in talking about
the car. You know he was a very quiet guy but he probably did more for the
racers than anyone will ever know. I’ve seen documentation where he and some of
the other people inside GM designed the cages and new ways for fixing the bump
steer that had been originally designed to help street drivers maintain
control. This information wasn’t always available to everyone so some of the
people who knew the GM performance group had a bit of an advantage. People like
Herb Caplan here on the west coast were the chosen pipeline.
Jim had sold the car on the
understanding that he would co-drive. Peterson had added a windshield to comply
with one of the few differences in IMSA rules. Initially, Peterson drove solo
at Willow Springs, placing second in A/P. Then at the first joint race of the
season, at Laguna Seca, Jim blew up the original Traco motor. The car spun and
this ended up being Jim’s last formal race.
Dave and Jim swapped a backup motor
for the blown-up Traco. Peterson went to run two more SCCA races at Sears point
and Ontario (minus the Coca Cola sponsorship) and finished the IMSA series in
second place in the West Coast division. Dave Herlinger stuck the blown Traco
motor (stamped TRACO 427-003) away in a corner of his garage and, seventeen
years later; it would re-surface for the restoration.
From here the car went to David
Magaw of Tucson who ran mostly regional SCCA events in 1975, even though he had
intended to go TRANS-AM. Then in 1976 Magaw ran several National SCCA A/P
events. Part way through the year, the car was sold to Mike Alles of Grand
Haven (MI). He also ran the 1977 SCCA season but this was the final year of
active racing. The car re-surfaced when Jim again tracked it down.
Photo # 18
The two AIR cars, as recovered, are
seen
here at Herlinger’s Corvette Repair,
in Mountain
View (CA)
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
The story on the #45 car, that Dave
Herlinger now owns, is slightly different:
Gary Neuer had purchased #45 and set
out to run SCCA (regional) club racing. The car was returned to Guldstrand for
prepping and the motor sent next door to Traco for freshening. Neuer ran in the
A/P category, also still in the Lemans Blue. Neuer only ran the car for one
year before selling it to Lynn Butler.
Butler painted the car black, but
left the AIR emblem on the hood. Butler only ran the car in 1972, but he did
win the Southern Pacific Division National A/P category. In 1977 Steve Andersen
bought the car and ran six events. This was enough to get him to the national
run-offs at Road Atlanta, where he also ran against Bob Ryan in what had been
the promotional car. The victory here was the most significant win for any of
the AIR cars, in their racing careers.
Anderson raced the car through 1978.
At the Portland event he blew the Traco motor and, ironically, Bob Ryan wrecked
the “promotional” car in the same race. After Portland, Ryan parked the
promotional car and purchased the #45 from Anderson. At the next race, in
Riverside, the car had an oil fire from a burst dry sump line. It spun and the
fuel cell ruptured. He actually won the race since the event was red flagged
and he had been leading at the time.
The car was rebuilt and painted blue
and black (#32) for the 1978 runoffs at Road Atlanta. He finished third behind
Elliot Forbes-Robinson, who was driving the ex-Herb Caplan L-88 for Phyllis
Stiles.
The #45 car was sold to Dwight
Bowden, an Alaska resident, after the 1978 season. It had been the last year of
big blocks for SCCA so the car would have otherwise had to be converted to a
new formula. Bowden, however, wanted the car to run in an annual race in the
streets of Anchorage, the Fur Rendezvous Grand Prix. In preparation for this
(somewhat) famous ice race, Bowden ran three Trans-Am events, as a novice, in
1979.
The car ran the Fur Rendezvous for
five years between 1981 and 85, placing first every year except 1983 when he
crashed. From here the car ultimately came back to Dave Herlinger.
Photo # 19
The #45 car as found after its last
Fur Rendezvous Grand Prix, 1989
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
The Promotional Car
Bob Wingate, out of San Dimas (CA),
conscripted the promotional car into road racing duty. Wingate was a “Legion of
Leaders” car salesman at Clippinger Chevrolet and had wanted to purchase all
three cars. By the time he got there, though, two had already been sold.
It is interesting to note that this
car was used as part of a promotional event at Clippinger Chevrolet less than
one month after he bought it. Clippinger had served as the parts conduit for
the Garner cars. Using the promotional event as the come-on, Wingate sold the
car to Bob Smithers who drove it on the street for three years. It too still
had the AIR logo on the hood.
Smithers did some slalom and street
racing with the car. Unfortunately, he also blew the engine on this car. In
1972 it was sold to Bob Ryan, who raced it in SCCA Solo 1 and some club racing.
Ryan won the Cal Club regionals in A/P in 1976 and was Southern Pacific
Division National Champion two years in a row... 1977 and 1978.
Ryan’s best year was 1977. He won
nearly all the National races that he finished in 1977 and 78. His first
head-to-head meeting with Steve Anderson was at the 1977 National at Riverside.
They would meet again at Road Atlanta in October where Anderson (#45) would
dominate. Ryan also ran a Trans-Am event in Canada at Westwood (BC). The final
race was also an SCCA Trans-Am race at Portland (OR) in 1978. Here he wrecked
the car.
Charlie Slover acquired the car with
the intention of racing it in IMSA GT-1. But this never happened.
Photo # 20
Every year Dave Herlinger gets a call
from Dave Cormaney asking when the
car will be ready to race again?
Photo Provided Courtesy of: Dave
Herlinger
For more information:
Dave Herlinger
Herlinger’s Corvette Repair,
1230 Pear Ave., Unit # 3
Mountain View, CA
USA (415)
969-5351 (T)
94042 (415) 969-0344 (F)