The modern Trans-Am Series makes its annual Independence Weekend pilgrimage to Minnesota’s Brainerd International Raceway this weekend and what better way could there be to celebrate that than with this this classic 1987 Trans Am round. Some will recall that Trans-Am in the 1980’s was a shadow of its early glory, having abandoned growling V8s largely for turbocharged engines, but we think it’s a fair trade-off when the end result is fire-spitting beasts ripping down Brainerd’s incredibly fast first sector. Brainerd’s Donnybrooke layout included Turn 1, which was claimed to be the highest-speed corner in North America with most of the Trans-Am cars taking it flat in top gear after a long run down most of the drag strip.
So what’s so great about this round? The oft-forgotten Merkur XR4Ti dominated Trans-Am in 1987, winning all but one race, and while the race car bears little resemblance to the roadgoing bi-plane spoiler X-Rati, it was still a formidable beast in the hands of some young chap named Scott Pruett. However, Paul Newman squared off with the Merkurs in his rip-snorting Nissan 300ZX and sports car legend Elliott Forbes-Robinson along with Bruce Jenner took Jenner’s Porsche 944 Turbos to the battle with Newman and the Merkurs. Of course, this is not the gold medalist/Caitlyn Jenner but rather the racer of the same name from New Zealand who happened to race at the same time the gold medalist/Caitlyn Jenner namesake was running in the IMSA GTO series. Got all that?
It doesn’t really matter; sit back and watch these hearty turbo cars race each other fearlessly around Brainerd’s Donnybrooke course.
Great racing from a great era, these cars set the trend for big 4 cylinder turbo motors competing with v-8s. Can still hear the chirping of the waste gates at Del Mar and Long Beach