One of the most exciting stock car slugfests your vintage racing correspondent has ever witnessed was the International Race of Champions event at Watkins Glen in 1986 — the final race of that year’s IROC series. After engaging in a good-natured trash talking session over the track’s public address system, Cale Yarborough and Al Unser Sr., starting first and second respectively, proceeded to pound their equally matched IROC Camaros into equally matched heaps of sheetmetal and chassis tubing.
Lap after lap, the wily old veterans slipped and slithered nose to tail and fender to door around the storied 2.45-mile road course until Yarborough’s car was too crippled to compete and Unser was out of the race altogether — though he’d led the first 15 laps, driving on the ragged edge while keeping Yarborough in his mirrors.
A 23-year-old Al Unser Jr. went on to take the checkered, earning enough points to capture the IROC title and $164,100 in winnings for the year.
Back then, the IROC series was white hot, thanks in no small part to some heavy promotion gained by Chevrolet’s introduction of the IROC-Z Camaro in 1985. Some 22 years later, IROC is no more, a reality that was foreshadowed last year when liquor maker Crown Royal pulled out as the title sponsor and no races were run.
All of the organization’s assets are being liquidated at an auction on March 7 at the IROC shop in Tinton Falls, New Jersey. Tools, shop equipment, parts, 15 race cars and a smattering of IROC memorabilia will cross the block starting at 10 a.m. A pre-auction inspection is scheduled for 8 a.m.
Though it’s sad to see the series end this way, at least the sale will be a good opportunity for enthusiasts to bid on a piece of racing history. For some retrospective photos and information, check out www.irocracing.com, or for photos and lists of items to be auctioned, go to www.auctionlistservices.com.
- IROC comes to an official end, all assets to be liquidated
- IROC is apparently finished
- IROC still seeking sponsor
- IROC delays start of 2007 season, needs a sponsor
- Is this the end of the IROC Series?
That is very disappointing.
Disappointing that I don’t have a few grand laying around to buy one of those cars.
Let it be clear that IROC is not done, just on Hiatus. A friend of mine emailed them when he first heard about this asking if IROC will never race again and the response he got back was, “IROC will race again, we hope in the near future we will have more information to pass on to our fans. Thanks for the support and see you at the track”. Now that kinds sounds like standard PR stuff, but the powers that be at IROC have always been real honest with their fans, so as of now I trust them when they say IROC will be back.
I hope so too, but they need to go back to a road course and include Bristol, one super-speedway and a 1.5 mile track. THAT would make for an exciting series.
Also, make the cars half-way between a stock car and a trans-am car. That would ensure that stock car drivers don’t have a major advantage.
Put them on bias-ply tires so they slide a lot too…
I wanna see Panoz step up and offer one of the last true American Sports cars to be the model for the series. Like the Panoz GTS. Or maybe even race something like a Lemans Prototype, like one of the Radical Sports cars.
Good call Fisha. Bring the series back to it’s roots with a sports car. What about upgrading the old Women’s Global GT series cars?
Panoz Esperante with 650 bhp, wider slicks, decently upgraded suspension…
Make the cars look like this:
http://www.1aauto.com/blog/images/45.jpg
They could look like the ALMS cars (which look way cooler than the road car), but they wouldn’t need full under-trays and expensive suspension, so they’d be a lot cheaper.
Yeah, not to mention that with Panoz you won’t have many (if any) drivers that have manufacture conflicts that prevent them from participating. Now we just need to find a series title sponsor that isn’t likely to conflict with a lot of drivers… thats the hard part..
hmm… true.
I would love to see a series like that put into action.
IROC was never very “international”, and never well-watched. Rarely produced any good racing. Foolishly moved to relic cars. Was pure marketing BS from the get go. Failed because it sucked. People are emo about these things after they die, like Skynyrd. Don’t bring it back. Move forward.
I disagree. When it started with the Porsche 911’s, it was a great series. When they moved to stock cars, it just got boring. They need lighter, sportier cars, and it’d be a great series. The concept is there, but the execution wasn’t.
Ok well earlier We figured out that they should run a Panoz GT cars, now I have figured out a sponsor that would cause minimal conflicts.
Sunoco. The only drivers that I see that their main sponsors might ban them from racing in a Sunoco sponsored series are Kevin Harvic, JPM, Any of the BP Sponsored ALMS drivers, and maybe a few other drivers that are sponsored by Gas companies.
good work! haha. email your ideas to IROC now!
I already did. I sent it to their PR email addy, as well as their HQ email addy. I also included how Panoz owns IMSA and Mosport, so if they would work with Panoz maybe IROC can become truly International with a race in Canada.
woohoo! my home track. i
odd. it didn’t post my full message. must have thought the “less than three” that looks like a heart was html.
it was supposed to be “i (heart) mosport. also, nascar is there already, with the nascar canadian tire series.”
iroc will come back .