AVTOWEEK VOLUME 2 6 NUMBER All About - OHroad Page 10 Driving The Aston Martin ' 8 " Page 18 . ~ Atlanta S p o r t s m ~ n 300 Page 22 75 CENTS Old Dominion 50 0 Falls To Cale IMSA's Year By Al Pearce . . So Far, H ow I f I MARTINSVILLE, Va.-They fmally found away to stop Cale Yarborough. Not Be Next Year eat him, mind you-just stop him. Al l yo u do is order up a late-afternoon downpour, wave th e Old Dominion 500 to a half after 340 of it s 500 laps, and go home two hours early. That's th e wa y it wa s here at th e Martinsville Speedway where Yarbor ough wo n his eighth N ASCAR Grand National race of the year in th e No. 11 Junior Johnson Chevrolet. Rain forced n early stop in th e $100,000 event but it made little difference. "We were going to win it rain or shine," British GP To Lauda PARIS, France-Defending World Driving Champion Niki Lauda · wa s awarded victory in the British GP by the International Sports Commission (CSI) Sept. 24 here. The ruling, which vacates Lauda chal langer James Hunt's controversial win n th e British GP after a first-lap crash in th e July 18 race wa s called by Hunt, "a disaster. They've just written off th e World Championship." Th e ruling, which followed an appeal by SEF ACFerrari, the team for which Lauda drives, gave the Austrian champi on a 17-point lead over the British Hunt. Before the ruling the pair ha d been five points apart, with three points races, th e Grands Prix of Canada, h e United States and Japan, remaining. The controversy surrounding the Brit is h GP stemmed from a first-lap crash in that event, triggered by Lauda's Ferrari teammate Clay Regazzoni. Th e crash seriously damaged Hunt's McLaren M23 Formula On e racer an d it wa s unable to complete that first lap. According to the FIA rule book that meant Hunt should have been inelegible fo r the restart, but officials on th e scene ruled in Hunt's favor; he restarted in his spare ca r an d went on to win. It was th e decision that allowed Hunt to restart that wa s overtu ned. Yarborough said of th e 500-lap, 262-mile race. "I don't think anybody could have touched us th e wa y we were going. Sure, I'd like to wi n it by running 500 laps bu t a wi n is a win and we'll take 'em the wa y they come to us." Although it didn't look like it from where most of th e 30,000 sa t an d watched. Yarborough was having troubles with hi s Holly Farms Chevrolet. On lap eight of the race he an d pole-sitter Darrell Waltrip slapped sheet metal as they raced side by-side through the tight third and fourth turns. "When I got down on the curb the left front tie rod wa s bent about an inch and a half," Yarborough said later. "The front en d was all out of whack. It took a turn and a half of th e wheel to get it working like it was supposed to be. I wa s working hard ou t there." I f he was, hardly anyone noticed. After trailing Waltrip fo r the first few laps, Yarborough moved up an d tried to pass the GatoradeChevrolet. Waltrip, who wa s to lead the first 16 laps, held off Yarbor- Continued On Page 17 "Move over, son," Cale Yarborough says as he shoulders his r a c ~ r in ahead of that of leader Darrell Waltrip. After capturing the lead from Waltrip Yarborough never relinquished it and thus won a rain-shortened Old Dominion 500 in Martinsville, Virginia. Dick Conway Chrysler Hit With Giant Law Suit The United States Justice Department ha s filed a $91 million suit against Chrysler Corporation that involves th e us e of noncertified emission control devices on 9185 Plymouth an d Dodge cars. The suit, filed Sept, 27, charges Chrys le r with a violation of the Clean Air Act, which prohibits the sale of an y ne w vehicle unless it is covered by a certifi cate of conformity issued by the adminis trator of the Environmental Protection Agency signifying that design specifica tions of th e vehicle will meet federal emissions standards. Th e suit says Chrysler equipped its EP A test vehicles with a different emis sions device than those used by the cars actually delivered into commerce. Justice Dept. officials asked the court "to restrain and prevent future violations by the defendant and for civil penalties of $10,000 for each vehicle that did no t conform to the EP A certification. The problem specifically"is that Chrys le r engineers equipped those 9000-plus Dodges an d Plymouths, all with th e 225cid six-cylinder engine and standard transmission, with one of two exhaust ga s recirculation amplifiers. The differ ence between th e proper part an d th e improper part, according to Chrysler spokesmen, is that th e improper part ha s a slight delay feature called a delay dump built and the proper part does Said a spokesman for the Chrysler Corp., "The justice Dept.'s action is incredible. It seeks to punish Chrysler for a simple, unintentional human error made in reports to the Environmental Protection agency. This mistake had zero effect on ai r quality. In fact Chrysler tests show that th e cars involved beat govern ment standards by a good margin. "Nevertheless, when Chrysler dis covered the error it notified the EPA, straightened out the problem in produc tion, recalled the cars an d corrected them to conform made to EPA. The problem simply is that the part used wa s not the part described in a report to the EPA. The two parts ar e virtually identical. It's beyond all reason for th e Justice Dept., knowing all the facts, to ac t so unjustly." "We decided to us e part A instead of part B," said th e Chrysler spokesman, "and nobody got around to correcting the pap erwork." Chris Rice, a spokesman for the EPA, said, "it's no t the same part. They did no t us e th e part they said they would an d therein lies the problem. The problem is th e integrity of the certification system." The cars involved were sold during the period between Aug. 26, 1975 an d Dec. 2, 1975. The EPA referred the case to the Justice Dept. on Au g . 3 of this year. LATE NEWS • Jochen Mass took the Porsche 936 to its sixth victory in seven races September 19 by winning the Salzburgring edition of th e World Sportscar Championship. Following Mass in second place wa s Reinhold J oest in his Porsche 908, with Dieter Quester third in a n Oscella/BMW two liter. Vittorio Brambilla led briefly in th e Alfa 33TS12 but dropped out early with a broken oil scavenge pump drive. Continued On Page 3 By Bruce Czaja The dominant force in Camel GT racing so far in 1976 ha s been the Chevy Monza Al l American GT. After laying dormant for almost a year, various teams took the AAGT rules to heart, applied sound principles of ca r preparation and deve loped a ca r which uiltil now, had only been good on paper. In the hands of Al Holbert and Michael Keyser, with devel opment by DeKon Engineering, the Mon za has become the ca r to have to wi n the series. Others have had their share of th e spot light, however. Both Porsche and BMW have been around to keep th e AAGT's honest and in being there have provided one of the better seasons in the history of GT racing. Th e key to the Monza's upswing came at Road Atlanta, when both Al Holbert an d Michael Keyser, long Porsche propo nents, unveiled their new American cars fo r the first time. They had read the handwriting on the wall, the fact that the rules gave the AAGT cars an advantage for the 1976 1M SA season, an d reacted accordingly. Holbert won the first Road Atlanta round, with Keyser a strong second. Just before that, the two ha d bade a nn e farewell to Porsche, with a victory in the Sebring 12 Hours as they shared the ride in Holbert's car. With the new car's first victory under it s belt, the IMSA contingent headed west fo r the first time. Holbert showed that the Road Atlanta victory wasn't a fluke by scoring his third victory in a . ro w at Laguna Seca, with Gregg in th e BMW an d Keyser's Monza trailing, after their well publicized bumping routine. The Monzas came up empty th e next two times out, but go t back on th e right track at Mid-Ohio where they were again one-two, with Keyser edging Holbert by a couple of feet, following another bumping Continued On Page 8 BRITISH LEYLAND DRIVERS WIN ELEVEN RACES IN SEASON'S FINAL EVENTS Bridgehampton, Sept.l9: GP 1st Dave Belden FP 1st Dave Weinroth DP 1st Ken Slagle CS 1st Gary Nagy IRP, Sept. 19 GP 1st Bob Booher FP 1st John Kelly EP 1st Brian fuerstenau DP 1st John McComb Savannah, Sept. 19 HP 1st Vivian Creighton GP 1st Dave McNeil FP 1st Rick Capono Spitfire Spitfire TR7 Mini Spitfire MG Midget MGB TR7 Spitfire Spitfire FLASH! Canadian National Champions declared Sept. 26th : OF, DP John Schuberg EP Graham Vickers FP Tom Tuttle GP Neil Young CONGRATULATIONS! TR7 MGB MG Midget MG Midget BRITISH LEYlAND COMPETITION DEPARTMENT