Chinook 1971 USAC and Indy cars

Picture needed here.

1968 Indy car

1969 Indy car

After the 1968 car was damaged, the Fejers bought a Lola T90 from George Bignotti as a stop gap until a new car could be built. The Fejers claim that their next car was built during 1969 but the design seems quite advanced for 1969. It was a monocoque, the brothers' first, had rocker arm front suspension as seen on the Lola T90 and wedge bodywork said to be inspired by the 1958 Lotus 56, and was fitted with a Ford quad-cam 255 ci Indy engine. Rudy Fejer told Chinook historian Richard Taylor that his brother George tested this car at Harewood Acres but was not happy with the car and the project was put to one side.

In 1970, again according to Rudy Fejer's account, the car was converted to Formula A specification with a small block Chevrolet V8 and was again tested at Harewood Acres but again found wanting and again put to one side. The earliest known photograph of the car is from February 1971 when George Eaton was shown sitting in the car flanked by the Fejer brothers. This may have been the car Eaton was said to have available for oval racing but it was the new 1971 car that would be his focus. So again the 1969 car remained unraced.

By mid-1972 the Chinook was owned by Denny Reed (Irving, NY) and he loaned it to Wayne "Bing" Sherer (Buffalo, NY) and Ralph Locurcio who entered it for a SCCA National at Mid Ohio for Sherer to drive. It was damaged in the race and a planned entry for the Lime Rock Continental Championship race on 4 Sep 1972 did not go ahead. The car was then sold to Tony Nawrocki (Sardinia, NY) and this is believed to be the "Lotus 70" that he raced at the 1974 Runoffs. He advertised it "GT40 Cobra power ... 2nd NE Div" on 12 Oct 1974 (and maybe again at the end of 1975). However, the SCCA NEDiv Formula A points table for 1974 lists him driving a Chinook.

1971 USAC Road Racing car

For the 1971 season, USAC decided to split their National Championship onto three separate championships, dividing it between the different type of tracks that had been used in 1970: paved ovals, road circuits and dirt ovals. The paved oval series, as it included the Indianapolis 500, became the senior championship and the dirt tracks became the USAC Silver Crown Series. The road series was intended to compete with the SCCA's newly-renamed Formula 5000 championship and was expected to combine existing road-racing USAC cars such as the 1968 Eagle with F5000 cars and new, purpose-built cars.

Chinook announced that they would be building a car for the road racing championship to be driven by George Eaton, the 25-year-old heir to the Eaton's department store fortune and an experienced Can-Am and Formula 1 driver. When first announced, the car was called the Mk 10 but by mid-season it was being called the Mk 12. Unlike the earlier space-frame Formula A cars, the USAC car had a full-length slab-sided monocoque reminiscent of the Lola T190/192 design, suspension based broadly on a Lotus 38 but symmetrical and was powered by a 289 ci Ford V8.

The early rounds of the new USAC championship were cancelled one by one and in July it was announced that Eaton would be racing the car in Formula 5000 instead, starting with the Mid-Ohio round in July. However, the car did not appear and Eaton and the Fejer's bought a second-hand Colt Indycar instead. The Chinook USAC car did not appear all season and after Eaton was refused a rookie test at the 1972 Indy 500, the Can-Am and F1 driver being sent away to get "more experience", Eaton turned his back on racing.

This is likely to be the "Chinook LD1" with which Robert E. Dugo (Bath, NY) non-started at Watkins Glen for the July 1976 Formula 5000 race.

Picture needed here.

The car then disappears for more than a decade until it was bought in 1986 from an unknown seller in Buffalo NY by Mike Knittel (Chittenango, NY). It was then fitted with a Ford Boss 302 engine. Knittel restored the car over the next two years but it is unclear when some of the car's features, notably the side radiators, were added. Knittel's first known race in the car was at HSR Mid-Ohio July 1994. The Chinook is a regular at Watkins Glen vintage racing, appearing in Knittel's hands at the Jul 2001, Sep 2002, Sep 2004, Oct 2004, Jun 2005, Sep 2005, Sep 2009 and Jun 2010 events. Knittel raced the car at Road America in July 2011.

All and any help would be gratefully received. Please email Allen if you can add anything.