Chevrolet Monza - Motorsports

Motorsports

Chevrolet Monzas participated in the IMSA GT Series powered by Chevrolet Corvette engines. Chevrolet Monzas were the challengers in the new AAGT class. The class was designed to allow such cars to compete with the best GT cars in the world. The 1975 season was launched with the new cars that would compete with the dominating Porsche Carreras. A very liberal set of rules allowed some body panels to be retained - the windshield, the rear window and the roof. Everything else was built from scratch.

Al Holbert saw the Monza's potential. By the end of the 1975 season, he had ordered a brand new car, prepared by Dekon Engineering and built by Lee Dykstra and Trans-Am driver Horst Kwech. Chassis #1008 would be used starting for the 1976 season. In 1976 and 1977, he was the IMSA Camel GT Champion, beating Hans Stuck to Brian Redman to Peter Gregg. In Al Holbert successful 1977 campaign he captured another Camel GT crown. Unfortunately, it would be the last title for an American car. The Porsche 935s were becoming unbeatable right from the beginning of the 1978 season. However, the Dekon built Chevrolet Monza left its footprint on the IMSA Camel GT. They were quite unbeatable in 1976-1977. Chevrolet Monzas were to be seen in IMSA until 1986.

The Monza also saw success in Australia in the late 1970s and through the 1980s in the Australian Sports Sedan Championship (ASSC) (renamed the Australian GT Championship in 1982). Allan Moffat imported a DeKon Monza to Australia and won the inaugural ASCC in 1976 (also driving a 'Cologne' Ford Capri RS3100). In 1978, driver and prominent businessman Bob Jane imported a DeKon Monza, which was rebuilt and engineered by his chief mechanic Pat Purcell and driver/engineer Ron Harrop. Jane had some success with the car but it was at times plagued by poor reliability, and when he retired at the end of 1981 he recruited touring car star driver Peter Brock to drive the car. Brock drove the 6.0L Monza in the 1982 and 1983 GT championships for Jane.

In the 1982 championship, Brock came up against Australia's 1980 Formula One World Champion Alan Jones in a well sorted, and more powerful Porsche 935. Brock and the Monza consistently matched the speed of Jones and the two put on some of the best racing ever seen in Australia, but reliability was still a problem with the car and results weren't forthcoming. Brock was involved in a spectacular crash at Round 3 of the 1983 championship and the Monza wasn't seen again until 1984. After being rebuilt again by Purcell, Jane sold the car to former race driver Alan Browne, who put his 1982 Bathurst 1000 pole winning co-driver Allan Grice in it for the 1984 GT championship. Grice and the Monza easily won the championship, winning all bar one round. It was then prepared for the 1984 Sandown 1000 (the final round of the 1984 World Sportscar Championship. Driving with Ron Harrop and fellow touring car ace Dick Johnson, Grice qualified the Monza a credible 18th, but they were eventually disqualified for using more fuel in the race than the rules allowed.

The Monza was then sold to fellow GT racer Bryan Thompson who used it (along with his usual Chevrolet powered Mercedes-Benz 450 SLC) to win the 1985 Australian GT Championship. THomson competed in the car over the next few years before selling the car to Des Wall who replaced the Monza body shell with that of a Toyota Supra. Wall was also successful with the car and still owns it and as of 2012 plans to return it to its Monza roots.