It was built in the US in the 70's, It has the US bug eye headlights, I can't remember ever hearing of a genuine Abarth with the official USA bug eyed body but I suppose they could have made some. Its more likely that if it was Abarthised, it would have been done with a kit (like many of the Abarth badged cars) but it does not look like it has any abarth bits on it.
I don't think its a waste, many cars have been saved by the fact that they have been used for racing, if it was a standard car it is unlikley to have had the care and attention lavished on it over the past 30 years and would have probably ended up rotting away in a junk yard. If you were to take a rare car like an Abarth now and chop it up, then thats a different matter, but back then it was jsut anotheroout of date production model, do you think the same about sombody building a Focus to use a a race car today?[/i]