Originally from Lynchburg, VA, Fred Simmonds attended high school in Charlotte, NC, where he became attached to cars and especially auto racing. His first car was a 1956 Pontiac Star Chief coupe with the 317 CID 4-barrel engine and dual exhausts. He enjoyed NASCAR and drag racing equally, and eventually went to college at General Motors Institute (now Kettering University), sponsored by Pontiac’s Gear & Axle Plant in Pontiac, MI.

One of his first assignments was to “road test” the 1966 OHC-6 cars after they came off the assembly line. GMI students drove each car for ten miles prior to the cars being OK’d for shipment. His life-long interest in OHC-6 Pontiacs stemmed from that one job assignment. He even briefly drag raced a 1967 OHC-6 Tempest in NHRA N/Stock class before being drafted into the Army.

After spending eight years in the Army Transportation Corps and rising to the rank of Captain, he rejoined Pontiac as a District Service Manager in Ft. Lauderdale, FL in 1977. For the next 31 years, he had assignments in sales, service, marketing, and advertising, eventually becoming Pontiac’s Motorsports Manager in 1997. In January, 2000, GM reorganized its Divisional racing programs, resulting in his appointment as GM Drag Racing Marketing Manager (for all Divisions), a position he held until his retirement in November, 2008.

Fred’s interest in Pontiac history piqued when he purchased an unusual 1967 Pontiac Tempest in January, 1986: a four-door sedan with the 4-barrel carb OHC-6 and a four-speed transmission. This rare combination spurred him to find out more about what historical records were still retained by Pontiac. Through a series of fortunate happenings, he was able to gain access to the microfilm library containing individual VIN records dating back to 1961.

Spending untold hundreds of hours scouring these records, he was able to not only document the OHC-6 cars, but also the 1962-63 421 Super Duties, the 88 1970 LS1 Ram Air Super Duty Trans Ams, the 697 1969 Trans Ams, and various years of Ram Air V-8s in the GTO and Firebird carlines. His early Super Duty files were published in Pete McCarthy’s excellent book about Pontiac performance. Without these files, the Pontiac hobbyist would have had no idea how many SD cars were produced, nor what their VINs would have been.

As word spread that Fred had access to VIN documentation, he received an ever-increasing volume of requests from Pontiac collectors wishing to document their own cars, which he happily obliged. Complying with those requests continued until his transfer to Pontiac’s Orlando Zone in November, 1989. However, the groundwork had been laid for an enterprising Jim Mattison to form Pontiac Historic Services, a business which continues today, still providing VIN documentation to the Pontiac hobbyist.

As mentioned before, Fred participated in Pontiac racing activities for several years. Under his guidance, Pontiac won 10 NHRA Manufacturers Championships and 10 Pro Stock Drivers Championships, setting and re-setting track speed and elapsed time records. He leveraged Pontiac’s on track racing activities by utilizing Pontiac drivers for children's hospital visits and even four USO-sponsored trips to Germany and Kuwait to visit our troops for morale and welfare purposes. He arranged for NASCAR champion Pontiac drivers such as Tony Stewart and NHRA champion drivers such as Warren Johnson and Jim Yates for meet-and-greet sessions at POCI conventions, and even set up Pro Stock match races at several Ames Performance Pontiac Nationals events.

He also represented Pontiac as a member of the Board of Directors for the Motorsports Hall of Fame of America for eleven years. While working at GM Racing, he was instrumental in bringing the HANS device to the sport of drag racing, arranging for the distribution of over 100 HANS devices to any and all racers (Pro or Sportsman) who requested one, long before NHRA mandated their usage for driver safety.

Fred’s efforts continue in the Pontiac hobby today where he is a member of the Board of Directors and engine technical advisor of the Overhead Cammers chapter of POCI. He also provides Pontiac documentation data to Pontiac hobbyists on an ongoing basis. For more information on Fred's BIO and PHS history, click this link: Fred Simmonds

ADDITIONAL MEDIA