Issue link: http://digital.nexsitepublishing.com/i/118656
ColleCtibles - 1972 Can-am Posters Article by Prescott Kelly, connecticut VAlley region First a quick recap of history: Under competition chief Ferdinand Piech, son of Professor Porsche's sister Louisa and Ferry Porsche's first cousin, Porsche had rapidly progressed from the four-cam, twoliter 904 of 1964-1965, designed by Butzi Porsche to a series of tube frame, fiberglass sports racers. First came the Type 906, followed by the "910", which was not really a design type but an important series of modifications to the 906, named after the first chassis to have those mods, 906.010 and thus called "910", and then the 907. All were powered by two-liter sixes or 2.2/2.3- liter flat eights, the Type 771. They won hillclimb championships, road racing class championships, and occasional overall wins like Daytona 1968. Piech wanted to move up and contest the world championship with the new, and ultimately successful, 3.0-liter eight-cylinder Type 908 of 1969. That was Porsche's first world championship. With a formula change for 1970, the 12-cylinder 917 was born and Porsche's first overall at Le Mans followed. So did World Championships in 1970 and 1971. When the World Championship formula changed for 1972, Porsche changed horses and went west to the United States. Their 917-10 and 917-30 of 1972 and 1973 won the Can Am Championships in the U.S. and the European Interserie Championships. All-in-all, that was as good a four year run as any manufacturer has ever had. In mid-1971 Porsche invited Roger Penske to join them in competing in the Canadian-American Challenge Cup. An astute businssman and former Porsche racer, Roger Penske and his key men, driver Mark Donohue and engineer Don Cox, met and worked with Porsche in Weissach. Their efforts led to the Can-Am campaign with the twin supercharged flat 12-cylinder 917-10. Penske's team featured L&M cigarette and Porsche-Audi of America, the U.S. distributor for those marques and a division of Volkswagen of America, sponsorship with minor support from Sears and Sunoco. The Penske team from Newton Square, Pennsylvania was basically a factory entry, but the Penske people contributed a lot of engineering to the joint effort. The season was a great success, but with some drama, as Mark Donohue crashed in the second race at Road Atlanta, destroying the rarest 917-10, the special lighter-weight serial number 011 with a magnesium frame. Penske called in the 39-year old Californian and Trans-Am stalwart, George Follmer, to drive while Donohue recovered. Follmer went on to win five races and the driver's championship. Penske and Porsche, with an additional late season win from the somewhat recovered Mark Donohue, won the team and manufacturer's "titles." There are six 1972 Can-Am factory-issued victory posters. The first is for Road Atlanta (July 9th) with Follmer's first victory, fol- 28 February 2011 lowed by the Mid-Ohio Follmer win on August 6th. On August 27th, Follmer won again at Road America. On October 1st, Donohue won Edmonton and then on the 15th Follmer and Donohue finished one-two at Laguna Seca when, very late in the race, Penske ordered Donohue to slow and let Follmer by. Follmer was winning the season championship and the runner-up, Milt Minter in Vasek Polak's 917-10, was having a good race. Two weeks later in the season finale at Riverside Follmer and Donohue finished one-three. For the record, Dennis Hulme won the season opener at Mosport in his McLaren M20 and then the third race at Watkins Glen. At the Glen, Ferry Porsche, his son Hans Peter and the factory competition chief Huschke von Hanstein were all in attendance, unfortunately to watch the marque's worst performance of the year. "A watched pot doesn't boil" commented Road and Track's Joe Rusz. The season's sixth race at Donnybrooke was won by Francois Cevert's McLaren when Follmer ran out of gas on the last lap. The Porsche factory's Final Standings poster recaps the driver's championship standings with Porsche in first (Follmer), second (Minter), and fourth (Donohue). Denny Hulme's McLaren finished third. It was McLaren's first non-championship Can-Am season. Today, these posters are still readily available, although they are no longer selling for the $5 that they brought in the mid-1970's. The favorite posters are those for Mid-Ohio, which has a good depiction of the car, and the two California tracks, Laguna Seca and Riverside - because so much of the collectibles hobby is accounted for by West Coast collectors. These three posters usually trade in the $200 - $250 price range, while the other three race posters - Road Atlanta, Road America and Edmonton - and the Final Standings are typically about $150. The Final Standings poster is the only one that shows the championship car in full four color and it is therefore quite popular, but there was a large print run for that poster so the supply runs pretty deep. Edmonton, on the other hand, was little saved and is rare today, although not in great demand.