Question Anyone recognize this GT-1 C3 race car from 1978

[Doug's79]

I was digitizing my old slides from swap meets and sports car races from the 70s and 80s and I found this shot of a 68 or 69 GT-1 race car from the fall Barrie Swap meet in 1978. Anybody know who the owner/driver was? Is it still competing? Driving me nuts that I didn't get the name when I took the shot.

 

[Jack Raccoon!]

Looks bad ass...

 

[Doug's79]

Looks bad ass...

Yes I always liked the look of C3 race cars with the L88 flares and those minilites.

 

[Jack Raccoon!]

Your car looks pretty good itself...

 

[Doug's79]

Your car looks pretty good itself...

Thanks, started building an L88 hood for it last year, hope to finish it this spring. I just noticed this race car has a later hood on it from 1973 to 1976.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Looks like the car that Al Mason owned. Originally sponsored by BF Goodrich, I believe the car still is racing in the US. Al's son Perry had ownership at one time as well. Al owned a couple of Sunoco stations in the west end and I think Highway 9 Auto Wreckers.

 

[Doug's79]

Looks like the car that Al Mason owned. Originally sponsored by BF Goodrich, I believe the car still is racing in the US. Al's son Perry had ownership at one time as well. Al owned a couple of Sunoco stations in the west end and I think Highway 9 Auto Wreckers.

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Wow that was fast thank you, I think you are correct I was just reading about that car on the Dobson Motorsport site, it was or is for sale asking $395,000 US. The listing still shows up but the car doesn't show up in their current inventory. Price went up since that last listing.

 

[Doug's79]

Looks like the car that Al Mason owned. Originally sponsored by BF Goodrich, I believe the car still is racing in the US. Al's son Perry had ownership at one time as well. Al owned a couple of Sunoco stations in the west end and I think Highway 9 Auto Wreckers.

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I finally found the list of sold cars on the Dobson website and the Mason car did sell. The asking price was $395,000.00 but they don't say if that is what they got or who bought it. I really hope it came back to Canada.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Have not seen Al Mason for a long time. He was a really nice guy, always had time to chat. We hung around his Sunoco Station in Etobicoke (west end Toronto) as kids, never knew what you would see there. Later I always took my cars to him for repairs. One of those places you just felt comfortable.

The head mechanic on Al's Corvette was Ray Gilles, think he was from the east coast of Canada, he worked at the Sunoco station as well. Ray also worked for "Daytona" Don Biederman, a man of legend, lore and sometimes gore in the short track stock car circles in Ontario. Those were the days!

That Corvette by the way was involved in a HUGE accident not long ago at a race in the US. One of the leaders in a Trans Am car brake checked at very high speed on the front straight and the mayhem behind was incredible to see. There is a U Tube video of it somewhere.

 

[Doug's79]

That Corvette by the way was involved in a HUGE accident not long ago at a race in the US. One of the leaders in a Trans Am car brake checked at very high speed on the front straight and the mayhem behind was incredible to see. There is a U Tube video of it somewhere.

Found it

The Mason car actually faired better than most since it was one of the last cars into the pile. The video was hard to watch for the damage to the cars plus I am amazed no one died. That orange C2 that drove under the white Camaro at the end barely slowed down. The in car video is amazing. I wonder if all those cars were restored.
I remember when vintage racing first became a thing if you even nicked another car you could suffer severe consequences it seems these days the drivers think they are going for the current drivers championship.

 

[Black 03 Z06]

Thanks Doug. I have seen the accident before but not from the drivers perspective. You are right, surprising no one got killed. Scary stuff. Amazing how well those cars are built, might be "vintage" but certainly not in the safety standards.

 

[Doug's79]

Thanks Doug. I have seen the accident before but not from the drivers perspective. You are right, surprising no one got killed. Scary stuff. Amazing how well those cars are built, might be "vintage" but certainly not in the safety standards.

No kidding if this happened back in the sixties when at the most all they had was a hoop roll bar I think there would have been deaths and probably fire. Apparently the worst injury was a broken arm.
I found another version of the video where they slow it down at the end, that orange C2 drives under what appears to be a white 69 Firebird Trans Am. I thought it was a Camaro when I saw it at speed. It seems the Cobra was restored and we we know Mason's Vette was restored I wonder how many others were. There was one orange C3 that looked like an accordion, so sad.
Here is the other video.