Bruce Jenner

c. 1967 · Dunedin

The "Zephyr Corvette"

Bruce – "Jelly" to his friends – was a Dunedin man. A couple of years earlier he had bought a brand-new Chevrolet V8 and built a 1932 Ford V8 coupe hot rod, which was written off in a road crash. He salvaged the engine and built the "Zephyr Corvette": half a write-off Zephyr and half a write-off Consul welded together, with the V8 mounted inside the cab so the car was mid-engined.

He and his mates worked day and night on it. They fired it up at about 11am on the day of the Otago Sports Car Club's annual Mt Cargill Hillclimb and towed it over the hill for a late start. The steward took one look and said "That's not running" – the clerk of the course replied "Yes it is."

The car didn't run well. Bruce had only one other run in it, at Teretonga, before deciding it was too hard – and bought the race-ready ex-Rod Coppins Camaro. The exhausts, routed straight at the ground, had been blowing grit into the downward-facing inlet and wore the engine out "in double quick time". When Kevin Haig bought the V8 for his own road-going Zephyr Corvette and found it worn, "Jelly, being a good bloke, fronted for the parts."

Source: the clerk of the course's own account, Classic Auto News (Facebook), 11 July 2023

Mid-1970s · New Zealand

The ex-Rod Coppins Camaro

Bruce raced a Chevrolet Camaro in New Zealand's Open Saloon Car Association (OSCA) series – the ex-Spinner Black, Rod Coppins car, bought race-ready and then heavily modified, with Ultra as a sponsor. It raced as #41 in ACE Auto Products / Ultra Service Station colours, and as #17 with "Ultra Dyno Tune" across the screen, "Dunedin" on the side and much-modified bodywork. "Jelly was a social racer who was also competitive," recalls Classic Auto News.

• Ruapuna, Christchurch – Bruce in the #17 leading Kevin Haig's ex-Red Dawson Camaro, Rod McElrea's ex-Fahey/Riley Mustang and Alec Dickie's Victor. Kevin Haig raced the ex-Dawson Camaro in the 1974–75 season, so the photo is probably from then; one reader suggests the OSCA Championship 0–6000cc race at the 30 November 1975 meeting, which had 12 starters.
• Baypark, Easter 1975 – racing Ken Smith in Haig's Camaro, and taking a bump to the front.
• Levin – on the second row of an OSCA grid behind John Armstrong (ex-Paul Fahey, John Riley Mustang), Gerald Hargreaves (Cortina V8) and Grant Aitken (Mini); and the #41 leading Grant Aitken's 1410cc Mini and Frank Ryan's Escort, with John Armstrong's ex-Fahey/Riley Mustang in the distance.
• Levels, Timaru – "the OSCA Chevrolet Camaros of Kevin Haig and Bruce Jenner", 1976/77; and the #17 kicking up dust, possibly at the Levels pit entry.
• Teretonga – a friend of Bruce's younger brother Barry remembers it racing there, and seeing it in the garage at the north end of Dunedin.

OSCA at Levin: John Armstrong's #222 Mustang, Gerald Hargreaves' Cortina V8 and Grant Aitken's Mini on the front row; Bruce's ex-Coppins Camaro on the second row, far right. Photo: via Classic Auto News

"I worked for Bruce then, and he built that car himself, day and night for months. The moulds, all the fibreglass work, shifted the motor back, everything. He was amazing."Phillip Laughton, who worked for Bruce at the time

The two accounts fit together: PDL spaceframed the front of the car for Bruce, and Phillip remembers Bruce building the rest himself – the moulds, the fibreglass bodywork, moving the engine back.

1974–75: chasing Kevin Haig for the OSCA title

In the 1974–75 season Bruce was the main challenger to fellow Dunedin racer Kevin Haig, who was driving Don Peddie's ex-Red Dawson Camaro in brown-and-cream Zephyr heater colours. Allan Dick, who ran Haig's car, wrote that Bruce "had spent a fortune upgrading" the ex-Coppins Camaro, "including getting PDL to 'spaceframe' the front of it", and that "Jenner (Jelly) was to keep Kevin honest throughout the OSCA season, but Kevin would take the title" – Haig needed one more win with two rounds left "to put the title in his pocket and out of the reach of Jelly".

At the Easter meeting at Baypark that season, Bruce was "marginally ahead" of Ken Smith, standing in for Haig in the Zephyr Camaro, when Smith gave him a bump and damaged the front of Bruce's Camaro – before the Zephyr car lost two cylinders and retired.

Source: Allan Dick, "Journeys with Johnny Cash, Part II", Classic Auto News, 15 May 2024

What became of it

The Camaro stayed in New Zealand. It was later owned by the late John Osborne of Dunedin, with Stars Travel sponsorship – possibly in a gold colour scheme – and has since been restored.

Sources: Classic Auto News (Facebook) posts of 31 March 2022, 1 April 2022, 11 and 13 August 2023, 15 May 2024 (Allan Dick) and 30 December 2025, and readers' comments · Oversteer – Blast from the past: OSCA

1985 – 1986 · SCCA Trans-Am

Bruce's original car

Bruce's first car in American championship racing was a 1982 Pontiac Firebird in white with red and blue stripes, wearing #72. He was its only driver.

These were the toughest years for the privateer team: reliability struggles, but glimpses of mid-field pace, especially in 1985 with consistent top-15 finishes.

New Zealander Max Crawford was his crew chief. After 1986 Bruce moved into the Porsche 944, and the team's new 1985-built Pontiac took over the #72 – the car that survives today as the Jenner Camaro.

1987 · Porsche 944 #42

Two podiums

Switching to the Porsche 944 in 1987 was the turning point. In the white #42, in Olivetti colours with Goodyear, Bosch and Bendix support, Bruce finished 3rd at the Long Beach opener (one lap down) and 3rd at Portland against seasoned professionals – two podiums from 11 starts.

Source: Trans Am Series – On This Day: Long Beach 1987

More on the Jenner Porsches →

1988 · Porsche 944 #42 and #11

A difficult year

By 1988 the programme was struggling. Bruce's confirmed results are 43rd at Detroit, a non-start at Niagara Falls and 18th at Cleveland (July 2), his best of the year. The #42 had shown his potential with two podiums; the struggles of 1988 showed how hard it was to sustain as a privateer.

Two Bruce Jenners The Olympic decathlon champion Bruce Jenner (now Caitlyn Jenner) also raced in Trans-Am. At Niagara Falls on 26 June 1988 both were entered: race photographer Mark Windecker's captions list "15th Bruce Jenner (Olympian) Camaro" and "DNS Bruce Jenner (non-Olympian) Porsche 944" – our Bruce, in the #42. Results databases sometimes merge the two, so this site only uses results that match Bruce's Pontiacs and Porsches.Source: Mark Windecker – Niagara Falls 1988 · More historical notes

Early 1990s · Manfeild & Wigram

Trans-Am comes to New Zealand

Bruce and Pam Jenner brought the 1985 Pontiac and the Porsche 944 #11 home to New Zealand. The Pontiac was painted blue with New Zealand Auto News and "Team USA", and Bruce raced it at Manfeild.

For Wigram he brought over two of his American drivers – Scott Lagasse in the Pontiac and Chris Kneifel in the Porsche – with Bruce on the grid helping Lagasse into the car.

Bruce later had Brennan Racing fit a Camaro body in AC Delco colours, before selling the car to Paul Williams. Follow the car's full story →

c. 1994 · Ruapuna, Christchurch · the AC Delco Camaro

Bruce with the AC Delco Camaro

Back home in New Zealand, around 1994, Bruce ran the newly rebodied Camaro as #10 in blue and red AC Delco "All Makes Parts" colours, with a Noel Leeming / Sharp rear wing, a "USA" plate on the tail, and Brennan Automotive Specialists – who built the Camaro body – on the front wing alongside Team Jennian, Bosch, Simpson and Tech Line.

In the paddock with Bruce (in the red team jacket) is Paul Williams, in a red race suit and white helmet – the man who would buy the car from Bruce and Pam and take it to the OSCA championship.

Across the Tasman: Surfers Paradise

The Camaro also raced overseas while Bruce still owned it: a TraNZam race over 10 laps on the Surfers Paradise street circuit in Queensland, Australia, as a support race at the IndyCar carnival, shown on Channel 9. Bruce and Grant Brennan – whose Camaro was a TraNZam front-runner in 1993, and whose Brennan Automotive Specialists name is on the Jenner Camaro's front wing – both raced there.

The only footage we have found is Channel 9's coverage, uploaded to YouTube as "Tranzams Surfers Paradise". It shows the blue Camaro with its red rear wing on the street circuit's concrete walls, in a field that includes Australian V8 saloons. The year and results aren't known yet.

Find "Tranzams Surfers Paradise" on YouTube →

Paul Williams' driver profile →