1968 Pontiac Firebird Trans-Am

OVERVIEW

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5L Chevrolet V8*
475HP
Borg Warner T-10 4 speed transmission
8x15in American Racing Wheels
J56 Steel Calipers Disc Brakes
Holley 41 50 carburetors with Edelbrock intake manifold
Class Winner, 24 Hours of Daytona, 1969
Third Overall, 24 Hours of Daytona, 1969
Carried Jerry Titus to his last victory


If luck plays any role in the outcome of an automobile race, that good fortune also tends to grace those best prepared to exploit its bounty. Jerry Titus, a seasoned and successful racer, knew this dynamic well, and arrived at the 1969 24 Hours of Daytona with a fully prepared Trans Am racecar — once a Camaro but now wearing the panels from Pontiac's Firebird — ready to enjoy whatever luck might accompany his entry in Touring 5000, one of nine classes and 63 cars that would form the grid for the run around the clock.

By the end of those 24 hours, Titus and co-driver Jon Ward would demonstrate the power of preparation and perseverance — and benefit from a whole lot of luck — to earn not only top spot in class but third overall behind a pair of Lola T70s. That their roaring chunk of American iron outlasted three score of faster, lighter and more exotic machinery to reach the podium seems unlikely enough, but the story of how this car even came to be makes it unique among retired winners of the Florida classic.

Jerry Titus was at the apex of his racing career at the end of the Sixties, having helped capture SCCA Trans Am titles for Carroll Shelby's Mustang effort in 1966 and, more notably, in 1967, when he won four rounds of the fiercely fought contests. The following season, however, was not kind to Titus, as reliability issues limited him to a single victory, and there was growing tension between him and Shelby.

Titus was known as a tough competitor who could extract more from a car than it had to give, but he was not simply a quick and courageous shoe. His background as a student at Julliard (his trumpet was good enough to jam with Jack Teagarden's orchestra) and then as a mechanic and a journalist had broadened his ambitions, and late in the 1968 season he announced he would be leaving Shelby at year's end to partner in a new Pontiac race effort with Canadian Terry Godsall. Shelby responded by firing Titus, but not before he recorded a DNF at September's Riverside round in his last drive in a Ford — and that is where this tale begins to take shape.

Pontiac needed to promote its Firebird, and there was no better place than in the hugely popular Trans Am series, where the new TG Racing team would compete against its showroom foes the Camaro and the Mustang in Class 2 for cars with engines between 2.0- and 5.0 liters. The chief problem was Pontiac didn't yet have a properly sized powerplant, and Titus had yet to procure a Firebird from Pontiac's slowly developing effort, so he was left without a ride for the final race of the year.

Godsall and Titus came up with a quick solution. The plan to fill the gap was hatched at Riverside, where Titus had watched privateer and friend Jon Ward take his self-built Camaro to an astonishing fourth place in a field boasting such names as Donohue, Revson, Follmer, Bucknum, and Adamowicz. Also in the mix was a Firebird entered by Godsall and driven by Craig Fisher — and under the hood was a 304-cubic-inch Chevrolet V-8 massaged by Al Bartz and fitted with the Z-28 engine's cross-ram manifold. Known to few at the time, certain Pontiacs sold in Canada were offered with Chevrolet engines, so it was, in the strict sense of the SCCA rules, possible for a Chevrolet-powered Pontiac to run in the Trans Am.

An astute mechanic and studious reader of the rules, Titus saw an opportunity and struck a deal with Ward to buy the Camaro. The two would continue together in the car's American racing career — which was astonishingly short — but only after Ward's Chevrolet received an entirely new Pontiac Firebird body.

Titus and Ward charged through this loophole, and by that season's final race a month later at Pacific Raceways in Kent, Washington, the Ward Camaro gridded as the TG Racing Pontiac Firebird. It was a wild time around the TG shop during that month as Titus and crew struggled to fit the Firebird's panels. Jerry's son, Rick (who later also would become a driver/journalist), helped out and recalls how difficult it was convert the car's exterior, which even included the crafting of custom door hinges.

Though crucial to acceptance by the stewards, the new panels didn't make the car any faster, so Titus swapped out the original motor for an Al Bartz-built 302. One of the lesser known giants of engine tuning, Bartz began his professional life with Hilborn Injection and then Traco Engineering before opening his own shop in 1966. It was once said that Bartz-powered cars all vied for first; everyone else competed to be second — and that's how the race in Washington was playing out. Titus had set a lap record with the "new" car and was in the lead when engine failure sidelined him.

Titus now had to direct his energies toward building up a six-car TG Racing team with new Firebirds (still with Chevy power; Pontiac engineers had yet to solve problems with its 303 cubic inch V-8), and during the off-season the Titus/Ward car became a sort of test and development mule. Most notable of the car's updates was a new steering system that was one of the first applications of so-called "zero-bump-steer" technology.

The Titus/Ward friendship, however, led to one more outing in the unique hybrid, which had been resold to Ward — the Daytona 24 hours race in early February, 1969. Titus agreed to share driving duties with Ward, so, supported by a skeleton crew and presumably few spare parts, the duo took on some of the world's most accomplished cars, including a Porsche team that had swept the Daytona podium in 1968.

Qualifying sixteenth, the team could only watch as the five Porsche works 908Ls traded leads, followed by the Lolas, a couple of aging Ford GT-40s, and a slew of 911s. By late Saturday night, mechanical ills and accidents had plagued the leaders, and suddenly the Fords headed the field. Sunday morning saw more of the top contenders fall off the pace or drop out. Meanwhile, the Titus/Ward car had soldiered on solidly until a rear-end failure threatened to end their race in the middle of the night. Without a spare on hand the team had to improvise, and according to Jon Ward's son, someone cruised through the Daytona parking lot to find a Camaro so they might "borrow" the rear end out of the car. A note reportedly was left on the donor's windshield to the effect that the team would be around later to settle the deal.

Given the race's high rate of attrition, and troubles for the contending Lolas, it was entirely possible the Pontiac would have taken an overall victory were it not for the delay to find and swap in a replacement rear end. As it was, the Titus/Ward car finished just six laps behind the second-place Lola and 35 laps in arrears of the winning Penske Sunoco Lola of Donohue/Parsons/Bucknum. It was undoubtedly a relieved group of sanctioning officials when the cobbled-together American Pony Car failed to earn the top step.

After Daytona the car would never run again in an American series. Daytona also would be the last time Jerry Titus won a race. Though he enjoyed a good 1969 Trans Am season in the new Firebirds, the 1970 season did not start out well, and it ended in tragedy for Titus when he lost his life in practice at Road America in August.

This car provides a thrilling return to the thunderous days of Trans Am racing at its best, but it also reminds us of the short but spectacular career of Jerry Titus, driver and gentleman.

THE MOTORCAR OFFERED

The Jerry Titus Pontiac Firebird Trans Am began life as a Camaro Z/28 and was purchased by Jon Ward, a sprint car driver/builder in Saugus, California. Built by Ward at his shop to SCCA Trans Am rules, its competition career began as a Camaro Trans Am racecar. Its first race was January, 9, 1968, in an SCCA regional in Santa Barbara, where Ward won his class and Jerry Titus reportedly first became aware of his talent. They became friends, and several months later were competing against each other at the Riverside round of the Trans Am series, Titus in his last Mustang drive for Carroll Shelby and Ward in his first truly serious outing. Few would have bet on a DNF from Titus and the incredible fourth-place finish from Ward, but the unlikely result led to the development of the car that became the first TG Racing Pontiac Firebird.

Article courtesy of Speedville

The car is currently in restored condition and eligible at the Rolex Monterey Historics and other Historic Trans Am Events.