Memories of Zot

Road America 500, 1964.  The GTZ was a beautiful car, with an aluminum Zagato body over a tubular space frame.  Thus
Giulia Tubolare Zagato: GTZ.  In retrospect, it was the final flowering of the 1950's Gran Turismo racer concept, like its
big-bore Italian brother, the Ferrari 250 GT SWB and Porsche's offering, the 904 GTS.  Yet it raced highly modified
production cars like the Ford Lotus Cortina as a "GT," and against production sports cars like the Lotus Elan in the
SCCA.  By the mid 1960's, European-spec GT cars were obsolete and uncompetitive in SCCA sprint racing. 

In 1964, Chuck Stoddard was invited by Alfa Romeo to drive a factory GTZ entry at Sebring.  This was because of his winning record in Giuliettas in the SCCA's Central Division in G Production and D Production.  At Sebring he co-drove with Jim Kayser, another noted Giulietta driver of the time.  They won their class (beating, among others, Jim Clark in a Lotus Cortina).  The other three factory-entered GTZ's failed to finish.  The Kayser/Stoddard GTZ is now in the Revs Institute Museum in Naples, FL.  I knew Chuck personally, because he owned an imported car store in my town, where I worked in the summers of 1963 and 1964.  (Talk about a great first summer job!)

Chuck, doing his thing in the GTZ at Sebring.

After Sebring, Alfa made Chuck an offer he couldn't refuse: "We'll sell you a GTZ at a very friendly price if you will campaign it in the USRRC in 1964."  It turned out to be the only GTZ campaigned in the SCCA, in-period.  He ran in U2L in '64 and then in C Production in '65.  He then finished 4th in the Run Off's at Daytona (the first year of a truly National Championship run offs).  And then he retired from racing.

"Zot" was named by Chuck's regular crewman, John Huddleson.  Chuck himself had a penchant for gag names.  He had a mini-fridge in his office (which I cleaned) labeled "PHOOD."  But he didn't name his cars.  John read the "B.C." comic strip (we all did), and thought the idea of the GTZ ant-eater vacuuming up ants was funny.  As it turned out, John was prescient.  John's own contribution to The Saga Of Zot was significant.  In practice for the USRRC race at Mid-Ohio in '64, Chuck lost a gear in the tranny.  So he was ready to DNS.  John said, "Well... we could rebuild it..."  So they towed home from Mid-Ohio to Cleveland, rebuilt the tranny overnight, and John towed the TZ back to Mid-Ohio while Chuck slept in the back seat of the '58 Pontiac Bonneville tow car.  He finished 3rd the next day.

Watkins Glen: winner, U2L, USRRC.  Mike Gammino's Ferrari GTO was at
the Glen with race number 23.  The two cars made a beautiful pair when
Mike lapped Chuck.  But Mike was DNF.  Chuck finished 6th, behind the
three factory Cobras and two privately-entered Cobras.

I was privileged to clean the car and hold tools for Chuck in 1964 when he prepped the TZ on weekday evenings between races.  It was a remarkably reliable car, especially for a highly-tuned one.  He never had a DNF in Zot in two full seasons of racing.  So the checklist was mostly that: brake pad wear, etc.  I was also privileged to "crew" for Chuck twice.  He ran an SCCA National at  Mid-Ohio to shake down the TZ (finishing 2nd to a Porsche 904).  At Watkins Glen he won U2L, headed only by five Cobras (including the three factory entries).  Aside from Chuck's trouble free run, my main memory of Watkins Glen is how difficult the Cobras appeared to be to manage.  Even the 289 was a squirrely car to drive.

Chuck's car was "factory racer" in all respects.  In fact, it had been Consalvo Sanesi's test mule, reconditioned before sale to Stoddard.  (Alfa ran a factory team of TZ's in major European races.)  As such, it was very long-geared: set up for long, fast European circuits like LeMans and Monza.  This worked well at places like Watkins Glen and Road America and Meadowdale; less so at tighter circuits like Mid-Ohio.  The TZ had very wild valve timing, and thus a high-speed "brap-brap-brap" idle.  The Conrero tune got about 175 h.p. out of the Giulia's 1.6 liters.  The TZ weighed about 1400 lbs. dry, so it was about 1800 lbs. on the starting grid, ready to race.  Notwithstanding this set-up, Chuck was able to get the clutch in, in street driving, and sometimes tested the car on Route 20 where it ran past the dealership.  The only change he made to the car in two seasons of racing was to replace the factory Jaeger "watch movement" tach with a more accurate U.S.-made Sun electronic instrument.

The TZ in the Road America 500 (USRRC) in 1964.  Stoddard drove solo (!)
to another U2L class win in a typically crowded field of big bore and small
bore cars.

Stoddard's favorite circuit was Road America; he had back-to-back wins there in 1964 and 1965.   In '64 he won U2L in the USRRC and in '65 he won C-Production in the June Sprint Nationals.  Road America was of course well-suited to the TZ with its long straights at the exit of (mostly) fast corners.  Chuck had plenty of experience of Mid-Ohio (his "home track"), Watkins Glen, and Road America. But many of his earlier races in the 1950's were at airport circuits like Cumberland and Akron.  He ran once at Meadowdale and Greenwood (in Iowa), both of which had short lives as active road racing circuits.  This resume is typical of road racers from the Midwest who "came up" in the 1950's.

Stoddard's record in the TZ over two seasons was: four 1sts, three 2nds, two 3rds, and one 4th (at the Runoffs at the end of 1965.  After a successful 12-year career in the SCCA, most of it in Alfa Giuliettas, he sold the TZ and concentrated on building his imported car dealership, which became an "exclusive" Porsche-Audi store (as required by Porsche when it took over its own distribution in the U.S.) in 1968.

Above and below: Mid-Ohio, 1965.  Chuck is a big guy (6'-3"), and the TZ was a tight fit.  It was the only closed car that
he ever raced.  Victory lap with his then lead-mechanic, Bob Nikel.  Chuck generally took only one "helper" with him to
a race event.  His racing philosophy was "If the car isn't ready, don't put it on the trailer," so he really didn't need an
experienced pit crew--just an extra pair of hands, sometimes, and someone to keep the lap chart.  He started racing
in a Siata in 1953. He bought the TZ from Alfa Romeo for $6000, raced it for two full seasons, and sold it for the
same price when he retired from racing at the end of 1965.  In the 1970's and later he became one of the U.S.A.'s
"Mr. Porsches."  But in the late 1950's and early 1960's he was "Mr. Alfa Romeo."