It is very sad to say, this morning Tony Adamowicz lost his battle with brain cancer and is now at peace, he was 75 years old. He was an amazing professional driver who loved Porsches.
Tony was born May 2nd, 1941 in Port Henry, NY.
His first car was new 60 VW, his second car was a 1958 Porsche 356 Cabriolet which is where he learned how to work on cars.
He was an Army veteran who served for 5 years as a White House communications aide to Ike Eisenhower, John F. Kennedy, and LBJ.
He began his racing career in September 1964 in a Volvo PV 544 in which he won a regional SCCA championship. After this he went pro when he was hired by Group 44 as a driver, mechanic, and driver of the big transporter. In the mid 1960s he drove a Lotus Cortina in B sedan against drivers such as the future F1 Champion Jackie Stuart.
Tony rose to fame in the 1968 Trans Am series in a 1968 Porsche 911, later called U27, where he won 1st place out of 10 races and 2nd place in 2 races which earned him the driver of the year award over Mark Donohue.
In 1969 Tony went on to race Formula 5000 and win the championship there in a Gurney Eagle. Dan Gurney dubbed Tony "The winningest Eagle driver ever".
Then things got serious for Tony when he received a call from Mr. Luigi Chinetti, father of NART, to drive one of the Ferrari 312 P's entered in the 24 hour race at Daytona Speedway for the February 1970 race.
Porsche 917 chassis No. 917-010 was the first Porsche 917 to be sold to a private party. David Piper purchased it new in Aug. 1969, and selected Tony to co-drive at the 1970 Monza. Tony is the only American to have ever piloted a 917 in international competition.
1971 Le Mans 24hr race - Tony Adamowicz' and Sam Posey won Third Place in their NART Ferrari 512M. The car broke the lap record in the early stages of the race and later set several top speed records at Bonneville.
The same year Tony drove the Cannon Ball Run in a Chevy van and his career continued from there.
I can go on and on about Tonys career but it can best be read in detail on his own website: http://www.a2zracer.com/index.html
I met Tony a few years ago when a buddy of mine purchased the U27 re-creation that Tony and a crew had resurrected to amazing detail. Tony spoke with me for 2 hours about the 1968 Trans Am series and how they were complete underdogs in their "Junkyard Dog" race car. His memory of every detail was perfect and since he drove the car but also worked on the car himself he knew about all the parts used and what they did with them to win. Tony and his crew did amazing things with the production car that even Porsche had not thought of at the time. Porsche had not realized the potential for the production 911s in road racing until Tony showed what the car could do in the 68 Trans Am series. Porsche's team manager, Baron Von Hanstein, made a special trip across town, searching team Milestone out at their motel to complement them. Up to that point Porsche only considered the 911 to be a Rally car and possible Hill Club car in Europe. Tony says "If they only knew the extensive suspension mods we used at the time, they would have been blown away."
Tony had a stroke approximately one and half years ago, while he survived with no major issues, unfortunately the doctors found a stage 4 brain tumor which was deep inside his brain and could not be removed. His condition had only worsened since that time. The last time he was out in public was the Dana Point 356 Concours in 2015. He has been in hospice for many months and finally succumbed this morning. We will all miss you Tony.
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