American International Racing (AIR) was an
effort started by Bob Bondurant,
Don Rabbitt and Sandy Sandin in mid 1967. James Garner and
Dick Guldstrand joined as equal
partners shortly after. Headquarters were in Culver City, CA. Garner
played a significant role in obtaining sponsorship money from Goodyear
and later American Motors (when campaigning Lolas, but that’s a
different story). Bondurant and Guldstrand had raced the 1967 DX L88 at
LeMans and showed the tremendous potential of the L88 racing package.
Cars
Three COPO (Central Office Production Order) L88
hardtop roadsters in LeMans Blue were ordered through Gledhill Chevrolet
and delivered to AIR in November of 1967. The cars were then race
prepped, with the engines being worked by Traco. One of the cars, VIN
#194678S405186, was destined to be used as a promotional car and was
also transported to Daytona to be used as a parts car (the car was never
touched during the race). This car was titled in California. The other
two cars raced at Daytona as #44, VIN 194678S405175 driven by Guldstrand/Leslie
and #45 VIN 194678S405120 driven by Patrick/Jordan. Bondurant was to be
a driver, but due to injuries that had not yet healed he was replaced by
Dave Jordan.
The #44 car was classified 29th,
though it was retired with differential problems on lap 373, and the #45
car DNF'd with a blown head gasket on lap 262. The three Sunray DX cars
placed better than both AIR cars.
After the Daytona race, the three cars were
returned to the AIR garage in Culver City and were prepped to run at
Sebring. The L88s were entered to run at the ’68 Sebring race, but this
was never to be as AIR made arrangements to purchase Lola T70 MkII
coupes, and they were run instead.
