George Follmer (born 27 January 1934) is an American former auto racing driver, and one of the most successful road racers of the 1970s. He was born in Phoenix, Arizona. Info from Wiki
Bio by Stephen Latham
During his career, George Follmer drove Trans-Am, Can-Am, NASCAR, ChampCar, Continental F5000, F1, the Indy 500, IMSA, IROC, FIA Makes, Bosch Super Vee, SCCA Escort Endurance Showroom Trucks. He competed at the endurance races at Sebring, Daytona and Le Mans and raced iconic cars of the era, including a Boss 302 Mustang, the 1967 Penske Camaro and the Porsche 917 ((the Porsche had around 1500hp). Between 1966 and 1971, driving cars such as a Mecom Lola, a Sunoco Lola, a Lola-Ford 67B, an AVS Shadow and a McLaren M8B, he set nine Can-Am records. He is the only driver to win the Can-Am and Trans-Am championships in the same year plus in 1969 also drove the only stock block powered car to win a race in USAC Indy Car history.
Although born in Phoenix, his father moved the family to Los Angeles and George would later serve in the Army following the Korean War and after finishing military service he gained a business degree from Pasadena City College.
He began his racing in a Volkswagen Beetle in gymkhana competition in parking lots in the San Gabriel Valley then in 1959 bought a two-year old Porsche Speedster and competed in Porsche Club events. In his first racing season in 1960, he was awarded the California Sports Car Club ‘Rookie of the Year’ award, which would be followed in 1965 by ‘Driver of the Year’ and the SCCA U.S. Road Racing Championship title.
During this time he became friends with Tom Nuckles, the owner of a Pasadena Porsche dealership and they fitted a Porsche 904 engine to a Lotus 23. Under the team name of Trans Ocean Motors, George went on to win six of nine USRRC races in the under two litre class, and become series champion and this was against such big-block performers as Jim Hall and Hap Sharpe in the Chaparral.
In 1966 he raced a Chevrolet engined Lola T-70 Mk II in Can-Am, taking several fifth place finishes, raced an AMC Javelin for Ronnie Kaplan in the SCCA Trans-Am series, plus a North American Racing Team Ferrari Dino at Le Mans, with Charlie Kolb.
During the 1967 season he competed in three USAC races for Rolla Vollstedt, though at New Jersey he crashed and suffered “the loss of my eyebrows and a good instant suntan.” During the year Roger Penske asked him to drive Mark Donohue’s Camaro in Trans-Am (while he was at Le Mans) and there were also races in an AMC Javelin for Jim Jeffords. At 1968’s Indy 500, he first had to pass the required rookie test and although he later qualified the Cheetah, he was eventually bumped out by another driver. His final race appearance in the Cheetah came at Mosport but George eventually purchased the team’s assets and in 1969 took victory in the Cheetah IndyCar in Phoenix, Arizona. At the finish he was three laps ahead of second-place Wally Dallenbach and was the only driver to win an IndyCar race with a stock block engine. At Indianapolis, he arrived with his bright yellow Cheetah but had to wait until his new, more powerful Ford engine arrived and could be fitted. With little practice time, he qualified 27th to start his first Indianapolis 500 but unfortunately had to retire after 27 laps after the wastegate on the turbocharging system failed and it lost all boost.
He and Parnelli Jones drove for Bud Moore’s team in Trans-Am and the Edelbrock Boss 302 Mustang was one of only five produced and George raced against drivers such as Peter Revson, Sam Posey and Dan Gurney. The hard-fought season brought out record crowds and he took a win at Bridgehampton, third places at Mid-Ohio and Sears Point and at Riverside, he had been leading the race for 38 laps but a broken wheel caused him to hit the pit wall. George also notched up two wins in F5000, plus started his second Indy 500, and drove the final two races of 1969 for Andy Granatelli’s STP Racing team. During this period USAC threatened to take his racing license if he drove in the California 500, as it was sanctioned by a competing organisation. However he threatened to invoke the California ‘Right To Work Law’ and the USAC backed down; this led to drivers now being allowed to interchange among major sanctioning bodies.
In 1970’s Indy 500 he started 21st in a Brawner Hawk but was out after 18 laps after the water from the cooling system was lost. Returning there in 1971 with Grant King’s Spirit of Indianapolis team, after 147 laps he was running in fourth place but a piston failed and he was placed fifteenth. He continued in Trans-Am when Roger Penske asked him to replace Mark Donohue (who was injured) in the Porsche 917/10. George won at Road Atlanta, a circuit that he had never seen before, then fifth at Watkins Glen and at Mid-Ohio he kept going while others pitted for rain tires and won the race. Team sponsor L&M had a promotional button made, ’Let George Do It!’ and the media nicknamed him ‘George Am.’
Porsche had been uncertain about him, and considering other drivers, but though Mark Donohue returned later in the season George won the 1972 Can-Am Championship. He drove for the Rinzler team in 1973, then a Shadow DN4 in 1974, and he collected six wins and thirteen podiums in a three-year spell and is the only driver to win the Can-Am and Trans-Am championship (in Roy Wood’s AMC Javelin) in the same year. In 1972 he held Mid-Ohio’s qualifying records for Can-Am, Trans-Am, and Continental F5000 and the American Auto Racing Writers & Broadcasters Association honoured him as ‘Driver of the Year.’
1973 saw him in F1 with Don Nichols’ UOP Shadow team and in the first race, in South Africa, he finished sixth and in a points-scoring position in his very first Grand Prix. In his second race, the Spanish GP, he finished third (behind Emerson Fittipaldi and Francois Cevert).
As he was also defending his Can-Am title in Bobby Rinzler’s Porsche 917-10, his schedule was so busy that he flew either cross-country or across the ocean nearly every week during the racing season.
Following this he raced in the inaugural IROC series, winning one of the races, and competed in the World Endurance Championship with Porsche.
NASCAR racing saw him take eleven top-ten finishes in Bud Moore’s RC Cola Ford Torino, and he appeared in Can-Am and Trans-Am plus helped to develop the IROC Camaros and raced in the second season. George returned to Indianapolis in 1975 with Richard Beith’s American Kids Racing team but the engine blew up in practice and it was unable to make a qualifying run. George was allowed to try an MVS/ Adams/Hawthorne 1972 Eagle but didn’t make a qualifying attempt in what proved to be his final Indianapolis appearance.
He also won the Trans-Am title again in 1976, driving Vasek Polak’s Porsche 934 Turbo and then, when Can Am was revived in 1977 George returned to it, finishing sixth in 1977 and fifth in 1978. Driving a Porsche in selected IMSA events through 1977, he finished second in the Watkins Glen 6-Hour race, with Jackie Ickx, and second at Mid-Ohio with Al Holbert.
Competing again in IMSA in 1978, he took first place at Laguna Seca in a Porsche 935, and third at Riverside (with Derek Bell). In Can-Am, he won at San Jovite but at Laguna Seca his throttle stuck open and the car flew several hundred feet and crashed into a hillside. The car was destroyed and George broke an ankle and two vertebrae but he was back in 1979, less than a year after the crash.
He again pursued the Can-Am title, in Herb Caplan’s U S. Racing Chevy-powered Prophet then raced in selected IMSA and Can-Am events, taking a Trans-Am win at Charlotte and Laguna Seca.
At the age of 52, George came back to racing for 1986’s 24 Hours of Le Mans and he and John Morton drove the Spirit of America’ Porsche 962 to a third-place finish in the gruelling race.
After retiring, he lived in Idaho and occasionally competed in vintage racing, often behind the wheel of his own car. He also owned a Porsche-Audi-Subaru dealership in Pomona, California, which later relocated to Montclair, California, from 1977 to 1990. He features on The Walk of Fame at Watkins Glen and in 1999 was inducted in the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America, in the sports car category.
In 2012, the Petersen Museum in Los Angeles held a George Follmer tribute (featuring his cars) and in 2014 Ford produced a George Folder Saleen Mustang in his honour.
Gallery Other F Atlantic Can Am/Interseries F1 and F5000
