[Keith Seymore]

The Beginning of the End (and the End)

For 1966, Dad was given an OHC 6 cylinder Sprint to race. With some modifications he was able to get this car to run in the 12's. After spending all season developing the car and getting it to run properly, it was returned to Royal and sold as a factory demonstrator.

He didn't prefer the new '66 GTOs to his existing '65 and elected to keep his car (it probably didn't hurt that he kept the car at home now, and did not bring it down when looking at the '66s. Having a clear title in his possession was helpful, too).

For the 1967 season he elected to run our car, but in the B/Modified Production class. This class was a little less restrictive than the stock classes, and allowed him to run the newer tripower, better heads and a larger slick. It was in this configuration that the car ran it's best ever ET of 12.23 at 118 mph.*



For 1968, we had a new GTO with a few unique features: it was a 400 2 bbl (Ram Air), auto trans column shift, Rally ones with redlines. The most interesting feature, though, was the car was silver with black up around the back window. It was a test car for an appearance package, and they were trying to determine if the scheme should be done with stickers (on the line or at the dealer) or with paint.



By now the "bloom was off the rose" with Royal. Either it was the drain of being told where to race, when to race, how to race (and, in some cases, who would win) or it was the dynamics of trying to work with a team, but Dad was pretty much done. He left in late 1968/early 1969, running our car independently until it was unceremoniously parked in 1974.



Royal would be sold a few years later and the "Glory Days", for us, were done. Just like the Pony Express, which captures the imagination of Americans even though it existed for 10 short years, Royal Pontiac would stir the minds of young men both then and for years to come.



* It was also in this configuration that the car was parked and sat untouched until the mid 1990s. Other than replacing the 1.65 rocker arms with 1.50 arms, and reshimming the valve spring shims, the car is currently, today, sporting these same modifications and is fully functional.