(Photos by the Petersen Museum) – During the height of the era featuring multi-talented race car drivers, George Follmer may have been America’s brightest star. The man competed in NASCAR, Can-Am, Formula One, Formula 5000, Trans-AM, and other series becoming a two time Trans Am champ and one time Can-Am champ. In 1972, those two lines crossed and he became the only man who ever won both of those series and he did it during the same season. Through he career Follmer drove some of the most iconic cars of the era, including the Boss 302 Mustang, the 1967 Penske Camaro (Donohue was at LeMans), and perhaps most importantly the Porsche 917. We mention the Porsche most prominently because it was the car he drove to the Can Am Championship and it is still considered the most powerful road racing car ever put into competition.
The turbocharged Porsche 917 made more than 1500hp and could run from a standing start to 200mph in less than 11-seconds…and this was a road racing car! Follmer threw a leash on that monster and drove it like a man possessed in 1972 as a fill in driver after Mark Donohue was hurt. Roger Penske always called on Follmer when he needed a wheel man and the ’72 season served as validation of his faith in Follmer’s abilities. The 917 was so dominant, the SCCA basically legislated it out of competition. Interestingly, the 917 was the only non-Chevrolet powered car to ever win the Can Am championship.
One of the more remarkable parts of Follmer’s ascent into the highest echelon of racing in the 1970s is the speed in which it happened. By his own admission, Follmer didn’t start competing in cars until he was 25 years old and autocrossing his 1958 VW Beetle in 1959. He began winning consistently with the VW and moved into more powerful and capable cars. Eventually, like Carroll Shelby and others of his day, he found a benefactor that helped him get into some truly professional level equipment and that put him on the radar of people and entities like Ford. Ten years after those humble autocross beginning, he was Parnelli Jones’s team mate in Trans-Am and was an integral part of both Jones’s and Ford’s championships in the series that year.
We could literally go on for days about what Follmer did, what he drove, and how he was able to stand toe to toe with the greatest in the world and beat them. This gallery is unique and awesome because it features many of the cars that Follmer drove. Not recreations, the actual cars. This becomes more amazing when you realize that these are all in different private collections and stuff like the 917 will probably never see daylight again.
It is truly cool to see a guy like Follmer gets his due when he’s around to hear it. So many times these great competitors do not get the recognition they earned until it is too late. The photos of Follmer and Parnelli Jones together at the event are all time in our book.
HIT THE LINK BELOW TO SEE A GALLERY FROM THE PETERSEN MUSEUM’S GEORGE FOLLMER TRIBUTE NIGHT!
EVENT GALLERY: 
