Saab cars have a long history of participating in rally competitions on all continents, from South America to Asia. Here’s an interesting Saab sports story from the North American continent, where several Saab cars participated in a famous American Trans-Am Series race.
You can see the good old 1966 Saab 96 Monte Carlo in the picture that was part of the 3 car team the Dick Catron took to Sebring in 1966 for the very first Trans AM race. The Trans-American Sedan Championship commenced on March 25, 1966 at Sebring International Raceway, beginning a 7 race season. The ‘Trans-Am series‘ is an automobile racing series that was created in 1966 by Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) President John Bishop.
This was a 4 hour and the Saab Monte Carlo finished first in class driven by Kermit Turley, who worked at SAAB Denver at that time. The picture is Steve (Steve Christiansen – who shared this picture and an interesting story with the Saab community) father running the car at CDR in May 1966, SCCA Regional shortly after he purchased it. Picture taken in turn 1.
Lots of Factory and SAAB USA support / effort was put into the three cars. Frank Moakley drove the #70 Special Second in class and Bill Randle had the #72 Standard Eight in class.
