1984, John Morton Racing

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IMSA GT/World Sports Car Championship

Conte Racing Lola T600

February 4, 1984

11th overall, 9th in GTP class

photo courtesy of Mark Windecker

John drove with Bob Lobenberg and Tony Garcia.

Grand Prix of Miami (Bicentennial Park)

IMSA GT/World Sports Car Championship

Conte Racing Lola T600

February 26, 1984

3rd

John drove with Bob Lobenberg to a 3rd place finish.

Results:

12 Hours of Sebring

Conte Racing Lola T600

April 24, 1984

7th

John, Tony Adamowicz and Tony Garcia were co-drivers for this race.

Long Beach Grand Prix

CART Indy Car

Center Line Racing Eagle 83/Chevrolet

March 30, 1984

9th

Morton collection

Results:

Times/Nissan Grand Prix

Riverside International Raceway

Conte Racing Lola T600

April 29, 1984

4th

John drove with Tony Adamowicz to a 4th place finish.

Morton collection

Laguna Seca Raceway

IMSA GTP

Conte Lola T600 HU11

May 6, 1984

5th

Morton collection

Results:

Charlotte Motor Speedway

IMSA GT

Conte March 84G 6/Chevrolet

May 20, 1984

4th

Morton collection

Results:

Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course

Lumbermens 500 km Camel GT

Conte Lola T600 HU11

June 10, 1984

4th

John drove with Richard Spenard to a 4th place finish.

Results:

24 Hours of Le Mans

Lola T616 HU2/Mazda

June 17, 1984

1st in class

John teamed up with John O’Steen and Yoshimi Katayama in this 4th 24 Hours of Le Mans. This was John’s fourth time driving at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

“My favorite connection driving with Mazda was at Le Mans in 1984. I hadn’t been on the BF Goodrich Busby team, but Rick Knoop was one of the drivers and Busby was looking to fill the roster for a two-car team at Le Mans. In the car I drove, one of the other drivers was a Mazda factory driver named Yoshimi Katayama and the third was John O’Steen.”

“We flew over on the Concorde, because they didn’t want us to be tired. The car was a Lola 616 prototype with a 13B two-rotor engine. It was a Mazda factory effort along with BF Goodrich. They had two classes for prototypes back then, called C1 and C2. The only thing that really differentiated the classes was the fuel allotment, and if you used it all up, you were done. We were in C2, so we ran smaller cars and we had to drive relatively conservatively because our cars were not very fuel efficient.”

“At the time, the Mulsanne straight was three and a half miles long. We had a fuel flow meter in the car, and we’d get up to about 175 miles an hour, and then we’d back off a bit to conserve fuel. As the race wore on, we did well. We were front-runners, but not winning all the time. There was another car with an Italian engine called a Giannini, and we’d be leading and then they’d be leading. We were close. They were a little faster because they didn’t have the fuel conservation problem, but they broke shortly before the end and we won our class.”

Morton collection

In his first Le Mans win in 1984 in a Lola / Mazda, in typical Morton fashion: “John O’Steen and I saw our co-driver, Yoshimi Katayama, who ran the last stint, way up high on the victory stand with the wreath around his neck, waving at the crowd and spraying champagne. We never did figure out how to find our way up there to join him.”

Morton collection

Portland International Raceway

Conte Racing March 84G 6/Chevrolet

July 28, 1984

DNF

John teamed up with John Paul Jr. for this race.

Pocono International Raceway

CART Indy Car

March 83C/Cosworth

August 19, 1984

DNF (engine)

“The Jet Engineering March had a homemade Chevy racing engine built by the team so it lacked horsepower that was much needed on the 2.5 mile tri-oval at Pocono. But I loved racing on the big oval anyway.”