Pacenotes

• Former BRM Grand Prix driver Howden Ganley is organizing the Gulf Oil F5000 Festival as part of the New Zealand Festival of Motor Racing set for next January. The event will take place over two weekends, January 16-18 and 23-25, 2015, and will feature F5000, Can-Am and historic Formula Libres, muscle cars, sports cars and sports sedans, as well as single-seaters. For further information please visit www.nzfmr.co.nz or contact Jim Barclay jim@nzfmr.co.nz

• The driving force behind American Motors Corporation’s Trans-Am program in the mid-’60s, Ronnie Kaplan, has passed away at the age of 87. In 1967 Kaplan headed the factory-backed Javelin effort in the SCCA’s new sedan series that debuted in 1968 with a pair of red, white and blue coupes for Peter Revson and George Follmer. After both drivers were lured away by Ford to race Mustangs, Kaplan hired Ron Grable, John Martin and, later, Jerry Grant for 1969, but by year’s end he’d lost the AMC deal to Roger Penske. Kaplan is survived by his wife of 52 years, Lynne, five children and six grandchildren, to whom Vintage Racecar extends its sincerest condolences.