Champion racing driver Tony Adamowicz, known to many as A2Z, has passed away at the age of 75 following a valiant battle with brain cancer.
Tony began racing in 1963 with a Volvo 544 sedan, and in 1965 won the SCCA’s Northeast Division B Sedan championship with the same car. His first major professional race victory came at Sebring in 1966 in the Trans-Am’s inaugural event where he and Bob Tullius won the over two-liter class with a Dodge Dart, the same car in which they would win overall at that August’s 12-hour Trans-Am contest at Maryland’s Marlboro Raceway.
In 1968 he piloted Marvin Davidson’s Milestone Racing Porsche 911T to six class wins from 11 races to claim the Trans-Am’s under-two-liter championship. The following year he moved into Formula 5000, still with Milestone, driving an Eagle Mark 5-Chevrolet under the direction of legendary crew chief Carroll Smith, and won that championship as well, making the most of two wins and a string of good finishes to edge David Hobbs for the crown.
Remarkably, in his later years he returned to that same car — upon its restoration by Bill Losee for Doug Magnon of the Riverside International Automotive Museum — and drove it as a vintage racecar to class and overall championships of the F5000 Drivers Association in both 2011 and 2012.
During his active professional career, Adamowicz raced competitively in Trans-Am, Formula 5000, the World Sports Car Championship (finishing 2nd at Daytona and 3rd at Le Mans), Can-Am, Indycars and IMSA GTU, GTO and GTP, finishing up driving Nissans for Don Devendorf and John Knepp’s Electramotive operation. He was also a proud founding executive of the Polish Racing Drivers Association. To his family and many friends in the sport, Vintage Racecar extends its most heartfelt condolences.
