-----Original Message-----
From: Randy Zimmer [mailto:rzimmer@adelphia.net]
Sent: 23 April 2001 12:50
To: Allen Brown
Subject: Re: single seat can-am

here's just the text part of the first message again just in case it got garbled. 
<Thanks for your e-mail. You were there - I wasn't - so I accept your robust defense of Can-Am's declining years. I am a fan of the Single-Seat Can-Am and I believe it deserves greater recognition than it gets. Any championship that saw the participation of Alan Jones, Keke Rosberg, Jackie Ickx, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Mario Andretti, Gilles Villeneuve, Patrick Tambay, Patrick Depailler, Teo Fabi, Al Holbert, Bob Wollek, Chris Amon, Elliot Forbes-Robinson and Paul Tracy, not to mention great F5000 drivers like Lou Sell, Brian Redman, Warwick Brown, Graham McRae and Peter Gethin and great teams like Newman, Haas, Shadow, Green, Galles, Hogan, Wolf and VDS, was a great championship, quite regardless of any decline in the level of glamour it may have seen in its later years. 
NO, please don't take it as a slight, I'm glad you have any interest at all and doing all this work proves it. 
<Roe's year must have been quite something. Plenty of budget and two of the four best cars produced for the championship (remember the pair of ex-Unser/Villeneuve Frissbees sat unused that season) was always going to give him an edge but his practice performances that season were quite something. You are right that Jacques Villeneuve (I spelt it Jaques by mistake) was the uncle but Al Unser Sr and Al Unser Jr were also uncle and nephew weren't they? 
I'm 49 now and I remember growing up that Competition Press had nothing good to say about the 2-seat can-am with small fields and pre-determined finishes, but now, those years were magic! 
I raced slot cars and all the best bodies were can-am so I had a soft spot for the class. When I raced Rabbit-Bilstein, I had no interest in watching the single seaters until my crew guy dragged me over to T2 at Mosport and watched Fabi flat-foot it through there - WOW! 
The Unsers are father and son. Al Sr. drove Can-Am at RA once too I think. 
<Calling '83 and '84 an irrelevance is unfair - I accept that and I'll change it - but I was taking from an international perspective and Can-Am had ceased to have any real international relevance after the top teams moved over to CART in 1982 and 1983. However, Tasman had little relevance internationally after 1969 but the championship is still seen as hugely important for its peak years of 1966-1968 and Single-Seat Can-Am deserves to be seen in just the same way for its peak year of 1979-1981. 
<I have been collating the full results of all of the 84 'official' races held (I am still struggling to get the results of the October 1986 CAT Team race and the final 1987 CAT race) and I'll be publishing these on my site shortly. I have 21 appearances on the database for you, 20 with the Rondel and 1 with a March 83C: 
I knew it was on the decline but Truman's 2-Liter bonus money was looking pretty available and so I found this old Rondel in Connecticut - #201 It was used by Ron Ignatowski for a Tuesday test day car with a VW motor and F3 trans/wheels. 
This I'm told was Tom Pryce's car bought by Opert and sold to Mike Rand. 
Ron really butchered it but it was cheap. 
Later, I bought chassis #206 which I think was a real factory car _ (Pryce was a renter?) 
I still have both and they are available... plus a bent tub too. 
1982 Pic #1 first lexan body 
I knew guys at Bill Scott's from their SV's and got a repairable SV head and cam. 
Built a body with aluminum and Lexan and painted it like a slotcar - underneath! 
<Mid-Ohio (27 Jun 1982) - Rondel - Did not start 
I overheated it at M-O in practice. 
Also found out Truman never paid the money out to anyone but himself. 
At Mosport, the same thing happened, my entry check bounced and SCCA's Ron Zimmerman said make it good or go home so I left - lucky me, I blew up but didn't waste an entry fee to do it. 
1983 curved front - white body
This year I modified the front of the Lexan body and put in a Mazda and an FT200.<Road America (18 Jul 1983) - Rondel - Mazda - 20th/retired 
RA was with a bridge-ported Mazda and had a waterpump hose fall off in the carousel where Goeff Brabham had crashed and went way up the hill/cliff. I harmlessly spun - still overheating. 
<Trois-Rivieres (04 Sep 1983) - Rondel - Mazda - 11th 
had water cooled brakes, crew lost track of laps, copied countdown from Horst Kroll and I drove like mad the last 4 laps using all the water and overheating the motor to keep a local behind, then found the countdown was for Horst's mid-race pitstop - DOH!
<Mosport (11 Sep 1983) - Rondel - Mazda - 13th 
Had to come into pits for oil leak but car ran OK so we had to go to Sears.
<Sears Point (09 Oct 1983) - Rondel - Mazda - 11th 
Passed Jack Vill. in last turn before the pits in Qualifying - got big attaboy! 
Towed coast to coast with VW Rabbit! 
1984 white body with wing
Fiberglass body with wing now. New double radiators. 
John Timanus says, "you want #14? That's Al Holbert's number" 
<Mosport (10 Jun 1984) - Rondel - Mazda - 13th 
Too many Mosports, can't keep 'em straight - probably blew up.
<Dallas (07 Jul 1984) - Rondel - Mazda - 16th 
Married sat - left for Dallas Tuesday. Qual bonus for top 10 - Qual. 11th, Richard Guider couldn't start so I got the money! Pushed off the track by Qui-Qui (Brazilian kid) needlessly. Saw Fangio Jr. the first time. All his family was there working on car and sweeping the area and stuff. Looked like a nice guy and family - not like that stupid qui-qui. 
<Brainerd (22 Jul 1984) - Rondel - Mazda - 10th 
Wife cut honeymoon short to give more time to fix car. Worked constantly and just made it to Brainard in time. 
Had the pan off many times and finally used RX4 tow car engine to run race. Took taxi back and forth to motel. 
Watched MadMax 1st time at motel. Was so far down, when 10th place broke down - Jerry Hansen? - I was afraid I wouldn't have time to pass him before the end and get the top 10 money. 
Crawford was set too low for turn 1 and wore the bottom off his car and would not start, I told him it was a mistake not to take the points. 
We stayed over and put the now worn out engine back in the towcar - it didn't have enough compression to start. 
Wally Dallenback towed us with his rig fast enough to get compression, we drove back home 19 hours without shutting it off or stalling - or else!
<Lime Rock (04 Aug 1984) - Rondel - Mazda - 13th 
Wore a water pipe off on the downhill and ran out of water, melted the motor badly. 
Would have won at Atlanta or been part of the pileup at the last turn - probably a good thing I didn't go because I couldn't get the motor done in time.
<Trois-Rivieres (02 Sep 1984) - Rondel - Mazda - 11th 
A syncro ring broke and punched a hole in the case. We put a rag in the hole and Timanus let us put gear lube back in with a jug labeled WATER (illegal to add oil during race) - Roe saw me going around stuck in 2nd gear and went back out with broken 1/2 shaft to get points - he won the championship, Crawford lost.
<Mosport (09 Sep 1984) - Rondel - Mazda - 20th 
Blew up. Did the tow car engine thing again. Blew it up. Had the Can-Jam guys from Toronto drive parts back to the track so my new wife and I could build another motor to get home. 
1985 
More improvements
<Mosport (02 Jun 1985) - Rondel - Mazda - 6th
<Lime Rock (06 Jul 1985) - Rondel - Mazda - 12th 
I spun in the backstraight river and Bruce McInnes won a rain shortened race.
<Lime Rock (02 Sep 1985) - Rondel - Mazda - 7th 
Beat Bill Vincent to the line by not shifting and overrevving at the line.
<Mosport (15 Sep 1985) - Rondel - Mazda - 6th 
Broke a header pipe and couldn't open the throttle, had hand cuts and even unlapped myself from Bill Adam beforehand. Could have won that thing! Was deaf for over a week afterward. Started on fire.
<St. Louis (13 Oct 1985) - Rondel - Mazda - 10th 
Can't remember much, it rained and we ran the Mazda tow car on the drag strip to dry it out.
<St. Petersburg (03 Nov 1985) - Rondel - Mazda - 22nd/retired 
Bent a wheel in warmups and didn't have time to change it. 
Wheel studs failed in fastest turn. Everybody had trouble. 
1986 yellow body
Best prepared yet - Yellow paint - Spare engine too! 
<Mosport (01 Jun 1986) - Rondel - Mazda - 9th/retired 
Blew up. Started on fire. 
Sprint car kid showed up with indy car and car disintegrated on backstraight and flew over fence into woods.
<Summit Point (05 Jul 1986) - Rondel - Mazda - 7th 
2 heats - finished 2nd or third in first heat even after brake line to rears failed, took lead in 1st turn of second heat. 
Held off Tempero's 6cyl v-8 until an oil line burst and I started on fire. 
Buddy Lazier started in TART March 83-c. 
In practice, Sprint car kid ran into Jeremy Hill and crossover bridge. 
Jeremy was upside down and unseen by cornerworkers until spectators notified them a second car had crashed! 
Jeremy had a stiff neck after holding car up with it so long.
<St. Louis (03 Aug 1986) - Rondel - Mazda - 15th 
Engine grinder tried a new finish on the housings. Wore out all the engine seals in minutes. Rebuilt motors in the pits and started on fire a couple times. 
Sprintcar kid had ANOTHER car. never returns again. (Caperelli or something like that)
<Mosport (14 Sep 1986) - March 83C - Chevrolet - 15th 
Took over Texas American Racing Teams (TART) 83-C from Buddy Lazier. I'm on my way as a real driver! Had a crew with a semi. Paid transportation and hotels! WOW! Started taking notes for my book. 
Worked like a dog to engineer 83-c to Chevy without breaking in half. Worked non-stop until exhausted, had car moved from Ft. Worth to Buffalo while I slept on plane and started collecting parts and helpers waiting for truck arrival. 
Built 7 real nice header pipes, last one was a "little" crude but scaled the car and had it ready to go. 
This 83-c was Bobby Rahal's first indy car and was used by Stan Fox too. 
Front was rebuilt (after crash?) by Watson. 
The front uprights would rotate when braking at a walking pace. 
It had a Weisman 4sp transverse and a sliding pullrod rear that bound up pretty bad. 
The oil tank was too flat/low and rectangular (orig was in bellhousing) and always blew up the motor when it sloshed and foamed at half distance. 
I took off to Toronto without sleep again for a radio interview that was memorable for its forgetfulness. 
Got in the car and warmed it up and on the first lap a rear wheel nut passed me. The wheel fell of when I stopped in the pit. - lucky. found 82 wheels different than 83s (and 85 and 86) so March could sell more. 
Some SCCA official was bitching about wheel falling off. 
Pics mosport 83c pics (3)
Ran the race and actually finished - crossed the S/F line on fire and pulled into pit exit near the fuel pumps (lotza fire extinguishers there). 
We had a big meeting in the Oshawa Holiday Inn and formed Can-Am Teams. 
A Ferrari dealer had a lot to say but never showed up again. 
We all became share holders with a franchise fee and I was both a driver and Team-Owner with the Rondel and Jim DelRusso driving. 
The SCCA wrote to all the tracks and threatened them with loss of all SCCA events if they held a CAT race. 
I voted for Tempero to be the CAT head because he had an 800 number - what a mistake! 
1987 
next year - had Johnny Rutherford's little brother as a team mate. 
TART guys used Johnny as a hook to get press to the races all season but he never showed up. 
Willow Springs - car wasn't ready, talked my way into a celebrity race Toyota. 
Tested at Hallet - drove Johnny's 85 updated to 86 and went faster than Wayne right away. Not allowed near car after that. 
Raced at Hallett and had wheels stick on during pitstop. overheated - blew up - started on fire. 
Milwaukee - q'fd 2nd or 3rd - followed Buddy watching him abuse rear tires. Tangled with a backmarker. Bent rear suspension but caught back up to leaders then I pushed a little too hard and the toeout caught me. OOOPs, into the wall for good. Larry Nuber there working race. 
Pueblo - no oil pressure - new engine builder left out cam galley plugs. Promised it was a gauge problem. 
Knew it had no pressure so did one flier and hit the only wall there was right after timing line - Q'fd 2nd or 3rd with that 1 lap. 
Crew took out engine and put bearings and missing plugs in. Found piece of air cleaner in a jet from when it started on fire last time. Held up race to wait for my car. Blew up at half distance running 4th or so. Got in fight with Wayne for passing him on outside. John Macaluso was off in boonies wandering around when corner workers shouted "Rattlesnakes!" John takes headfirst dive back into car. 
Sanair - Set fast time in practice in near total darkness. Car was hooked!. 
Never went as fast again, lost power lap by lap and front tire wore out while pacing Tempero and Jack V. (special appearance) wore out second tire about when engine quit. At shop, crew found tie rod never tightened and front toe-in was "excessive". 
(can't remember a fire on my car that weekend but the Rondel, driven by Jim DelRusso, started on fire when it stalled in the pits and his wife, Mary was pushing it to restart it and suck in the flames, pretty gutsy and it worked!) 
Phoenix - Rain - NASCAR was coming and Bill Elliot was there to do laps and get press. The schedule was compressed and our practice cut drastically. Our car still had a carburetor and didn't run right (from all the fires?) It would also run out of gas (alcohol) or oil before the end of any heat. Found out it had no compression (to make it last). Alcohol+compression=fuel mileage. Rich+low compression=not enough fuel to finish. 
We did one lap qualifying and the new hire had repacked the wheel bearings with CV joint grease, as much as he could "pack" in. The brakes were outboard all around and all were coated in CV grease. I had no brakes so I ran the track flat footed and q'fd 2nd. The guys said I would have been 12th in that year's CART grid and were working on getting the car allowed for a CART race. We tried to lean it out during last practice and ran out of time, I tried to get one more lap by getting to the pit out and saying, just let me go around 1 time, the way back is flooded! They wouldn't let me and I went wrong way up the pit lane. WELLLL, this was a USAC race and the old geezers were still up in arms over the firetruck thing at the speedway and came after me en'masse. Oh, the burnouts through the pits didn't help eighter. My crew guy said the throttle was sticking but I had blipped a 180 into my paddock space perfectly in front of all of them so that 
killed that excuse. Dennis Wood threw me out and Steve Chassey, who's CART ride I always had coveted, got MINE! 
I tried to help him but I think he distrusted rear engine cars and wouldn't go fast enough for the suction to work. 
That car was handling as good as at Sanair and was on rails. It also blew up for Chassey. 
We had a conference call in March and decided none of us had enough money to do the series again. Tempero went on his own with his INDYCAR series and TART lost its funding. 
Jim DelRusso attended Lime Rock school in the Rondel under strict orders to go no faster than :56s and did that.
Then Jim ran quite a few of the CAT races and the car ran the most reliably it ever had.
Jim and the Rondel won the under 2-liter championship that year.
The Rondel ran four more times,
a North Shore SCC can-am reunion at Road America (1989?) which went real well, the car was fast and reliable except for the return of the brake line failure.
an SVRA can-am reunion at watkins glen (1990 pics) where I was snubbed and ignored and set fast time of the weekend.
an SCCA National weekend in 1994 at Mosport when I needed to get points in a class by running the Rondel when the other, new car was not yet done and then again at Watkins Glen - it worked, enough points were gained at those two races to qualify and introduce the new car at the National Championships at Road Atlanta.
<This excludes the CAT races of course. Could you tell me a bit more about the Rondel? I always assumed it was one of the cars built by Rondel Racing in 1973 and raced in F2 as "Motul M1". I understand there were eight M1s, numbered M1-201 to M1-208 and about five of them survived the season. All were then sold to the US for FB racing and I guess they then reverted to the Rondel name. Was your car one of those? Did it have its Mazda engine in 1982 (the reports don't mention the engine)? If it was a Motul-Rondel, do you know the chassis number? Also, could you give me any details on the March you used in 1986? 
The number plate says,
"Rondel Racing Ltd.
FELTHAM MIDDX.
Motul F2 -1973
Chassis RMJ 201"
Later, I bought chassis #206 which I think was a real factory car _ (Pryce was a renter?) 
I still have both and they are available... plus a bent tub too. 
I hope I didn't get too carried away but this reply got a little out of hand...
Again, thanks for your interest!
Randy Zimmer
221 Westminster Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14215-1732
716-835-5064
randyzimmer@compuserve.com <mailto:randyzimmer@compuserve.com>
terest!
Randy Zimmer
221 Westminster Ave.
Buffalo, NY 14215-1732
716-835-5064
randyzimmer@compuserve.com <mailto:randyzimmer@compuserve.com>