Vehicle Description
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1981 Chevrolet Camaro Trans-Am
VIN: RBP-8124
Driven by Can-Am and Trans-Am champion George Follmer, IMSA GT
Champion Brian Redman
Winner of the 1981 Trans-Am Laguna Seca race with George Follmer
driving
Purchased from IROC and campaigned in Trans-Am by Cooke-Woods
Racing with Ralph Kent-Cooke
Eligible for special inaugural 2025 Rolex Monterey Motorsports
Reunion IROC class with past racing champions
Race-prepped by Ray Evernham, in restored condition, eligible for
multiple historic racing events
355 C.I.D Chevrolet V8 engine with 550hp
G-Force 4-speed manual transmission, double AP cast iron front disc
brakes
Complete with thorough and original IROC documentation
IROC series founded by Roger Penske, Les Richter, and Mike
Phelps
IROC's Resurgence
Through a partnership of Ray Evernham and Rob Kauffman, the IROC
trademark was revived to bring one of the most exciting series back
to the forefront. With many of the former IROC race cars
race-prepped by Ray Evernham Enterprises, these cars spanning from
1973 to 2006 are ready to be back on a track and used in the way
they were designed to be. The 2025 Rolex Monterey Motorsports
Reunion inaugural IROC racing class represents a rare opportunity
to race alongside racing legends and those who raced the same cars
in the original IROC series. These include Jeff Gordon, Danny
Sullivan, Mark Martin, Bill Elliott, Ken Schrader, Bobby Labonte,
Scott Pruett, Zak Brown, Bruce Canepa, and others.
The Quail, A Motorsports Gathering, will be hosting the IROC race
cars as the Featured Racing Class on Friday August 15th, 2025 at
the Quail Lodge, complete with a police escort from Laguna Seca
through the mountains of Carmel Valley. With Rolex Monterey
Motorsports Reunion signing on for 3 years of IROC racing classes
just to start, the IROC racing series is seeing a resurgence unlike
anything else, with a driver's opportunity to racing among other
racing legends and celebrities.
1981 Chevrolet Camaro Trans-Am
The International Race of Champions (IROC), an American racing
series promoted as the equivalent of an all-star game, was a unique
and prestigious motorsport competition that ran for several
decades, from 1974 to 2006. The goal was to bring together the best
drivers from various driving series to compete in
identically-prepared cars at some of the world's most legendary
tracks. With names racing such as Can-Am and Trans-Am champion Mark
Donohue, F1 champion James Hunt, NASCAR legend and champion Dale
Earnhardt, Indycar champion A.J.Foyt, Trans-Am, Can-Am champion
George Follmer, and more legendary drivers were invited to join the
racing championship to prove who was the best of the best.
The IROC series was founded in 1973 by Roger Penske, Les Richter,
and Mike Phelps, wanting to create a championship that featured top
drivers from a variety of racing categories and disciplines, such
as Formula 1, IndyCar, NASCAR, and sports car racing. The goal? To
create a series to determine the "champion of champions" by placing
competitors in identically-prepared cars to level the field across
the board. No secret additions, no extra power, no trick tuning,
just pure raw driving ability. Still remembered as a unique and
prestigious series that brought together some of the greatest
drivers in motorsport, IROC created the concept of identifying the
"champion of champions" and cemented it as a memorable era of
racing history.
While the IROC concept seemed simple enough in theory, the
implementation was slightly more difficult, especially when
bringing together 12 top drivers and preparing 12 identical cars
(with 3 additional spare cars) with equal performance in all
aspects. Debuting in 1973 with Roger Penske, the series organizer,
and the late Mark Donohue, the project supervisor and development
driver, found their first cars with the help of their German
counterparts. Porsche Carrera RSRs were the first cars used in the
series and the first season was met with popular reception.
However, there was a snag: the Porsches proved to be too expensive
to build and maintain, and a suitable replacement was needed.
Penske, with his ties to Chevrolet, found the next logical choice
in the form of the 1974 Chevrolet Camaro. Fast and inexpensive to
acquire and modify, the Camaro would end up being the platform of
choice for the next 15 years.
After three successful seasons with the Gen 1 uni-body Camaros,
NASCAR drivers who raced in IROC encouraged series-owners Roger
Penske and Les Richter to transition to a tube-frame chassis for
added safety at tracks like Daytona and Michigan. Following this
direction, IROC presented the new Camaro chassis and body design
for the 1977 and 1978 season. The 2nd generation of IROC Camaros
started as "bodies in white" at General Motors' Norwood assembly
plant in Ohio. Over the course of two weeks, Penske Racing employee
Tom Ubelhour transported the unpainted bodies from Ohio to the shop
of world-renowned builder Banjo Matthews. Tasked with building the
first 15 tube frame chassis, and using 1977-era technology, Banjoy
and his small team in Arden, NC were able to complete one Gen 2
Camaro every 7 days! A total of 19 of these cars were built,
propelled by the new stream of drivers who heard from word-of-mouth
how well built and prepared they were, along with new advertising
via ABC's live race telecasting made these recognizable
worldwide.
This car began life like all of the other Gen 2 Camaros, as a body
in white and built into an IROC race car in 6 days, painted in the
unique Ford paint code, "Fleet Pink."
Emerson Fittipaldi, a two-time Formula One World Champion and Indy
500 winner, was the first to drive this "fleet pink" Camaro on
October 15, 1978, finishing 5th. The only other driver to race the
car was Don Whittington.
Following the conclusion of IROC VII in March 1980, series
co-owners Roger Penske, Les Richter, and Mike Phelps decided to
place the series on hiatus. Over a dozen IROC Camaros were
subsequently sold, with most eventually making their way into SCCA
Trans-Am competition by late 1980 and early 1981.
Cooke-Woods Racing (CWR) purchased three IROC Camaros on October
20, 1980, repainting them in the team's signature "Cooke-Woods
yellow" for the 1981 Trans-Am season. One of those cars, Camaro
#02, was assigned to team co-owner Ralph Kent-Cooke and would carry
the number 02 throughout the rest of its competitive life into the
mid-1980s.
During the 1981 season, three drivers piloted #02 for CWR.
Kent-Cooke himself drove in five races, achieving a best finish of
7th at Trois-Rivieres. Brian Redman made a single but memorable
appearance over the Fourth of July weekend at Lime Rock Park. After
securing pole position with a dominant performance, Redman's race
ended early due to fluid on the track. The chassis was quickly
repaired, receiving a new Banjo Matthews stamping: RBP 8124, a
detail later verified by former Banjo Matthews employees Kerry
Bodenhamer and Stacy Morgan.
The car's most successful day came at Laguna Seca Raceway on
October 11, 1981. George Follmer had originally been slated to
drive for another Trans-Am team, but when Kent-Cooke was
unavailable for the weekend, co-owner Roy Woods arranged-at the
last possible moment-for Follmer to take the wheel of #02.
As crew chief Pat McFall recalled: "George buckled into the car
without any hot laps, right between qualifying sessions, and in
eight laps won the pole. He led wire to wire, all 52 laps, set the
fastest lap of the race, and easily won."...for more information
please contact the seller.
