Bruce Mallery sent in these photos of a racing
Pantera that he co-drive in the early eighties with Vic Manuelli, in the
IMSA West Coast Endurance Races. Thanks for sharing these with us Bruce!
This is perhaps the fastest and most historied Pantera in
North America. Vic Manuelli is still around (in northern California)
and Bruce keeps in touch with him.
The car re-surfaced on Ebay recently as a bit of a burned out mess back
in Georgia (the guy Vic sold it to in 1985 was pretty
"interesting"). Hopefully its been sold to someone who will restore it.
It is the only Pantera in the US with
significant race history (Daytona 24 Hours and 12 Hours of Sebring in Hugh
Kleinpeter's (original builder) hands and we ran the LA Times Grand Prix 3
times, Monterey Grand Prix twice (Laguna Seca) , Grand Prix of Sonoma twice
(Sears Point) and the GI Joe's Grand Prix in Portland, Ore. I made
the front page of the Orange County Register (in color) when John Paul Jr.
crashed into me in turn 5 at Riverside (picture right before the crash was
on the front page of the sports section of the LA Times). Also
mentioned in Autoweek and IMSA annual reviews. The car eventually
was a full tube frame car with removable fiberglass body panels that
weighed about 2,400 lbs with an injected 500 hp motor. When we ran a
club event at Riverside we were a good 10 seconds a lap faster than other
"club racer" Panteras. Car was built right hand drive, as
Hugh Kleinpeter thought that improved the vision on the banking at
Daytona, where the car was clocked at 210 mph.
This is an amazing picture of the moment of
impact when Bruce was T-boned in turn 5 at Riverside. Ouch!
