Can-Am Challenge Race

Riverside, 26 Oct 1980

All cars are 5-litre Can-Am unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T530 [HU5] (Elliot Forbes-Robinson): Built April 1980. New to Budweiser Newman 1980 and raced by Elliot Forbes-Robinson as the team's #2 Budweiser entry. Unknown after 1980 until sold by Mike Brayton to Burke Ratcliffe (UK) 1986 to be used in the Thundersports series. Referred to as one former Burke Ratcliffe crew member as "the Budweiser show car", it is unclear when this car was raced. Sold with the other BRR cars to Mike McComas (Pampa, TX) in 1989 and then via Michael Duncan (Los Altos, CA, later Colchester, CT) to Shayne Windelburn (Auckland, New Zealand).
2. Lola T530 [HU2] (Patrick Tambay): Built March 1980. New to Haas Racing for 1980 and raced by Patrick Tambay, winning the Can-Am championship. Retained for 1981 when it was fitted with a taller rollhoop and raced by Jeff Wood but wrecked in practice at Watkins Glen in July 1981. Race reports say that Haas acquired VDS's backup T530 to replace it, so this car effectively ceased to exist at this point.
3. Lola T530 [HU8] (Keke Rosberg): Built May 1980. New to RJ Nelkin (Roslyn, NY/Woodbury, NY) for Can-Am in 1980 and rebuilt on fresh tub after an accident. Sold by Nelkin to Newman Racing August 1980 but they changed their mind and the car quickly passed to Garvin Brown Racing for Danny Sullivan in the last half of 1980. Retained for 1981. Sold to Mike Brayton and raced in Can-Am in 1982. Later sold to Burke Ratcliffe to be used in Thundersports in England in 1986 but wrecked in a testing accident at Brands Hatch in June 1986. Retubbed and rebuilt by Jack Smith of VDS. Believed to be the car raced by Andy Ratcliffe (Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire), Mike Wilds and David Leslie in 1986, winning the last two races of the season. Also then likely to be the car shared by Wilds and Ian Flux through the 1987 season, winning two races, and then by Flux and other in 1988, when it dominated the series. Then to Mike McComas (Pampa, TX) 1989 and then to Bud Bennett of RM Motorsport (Wixom, Michigan) 1996. Completely restored by Bennett to Garvin Brown livery. It then went via either Scot Kennedy or Ron Coburn to Norm Goldrich (Cincinnati,OH) 1998 and was still with him in September 2001. Sold to Gregg Jackson (El Paso, TX) 2002 then to Kim Baker 2009 or 2010 and then to Larry Galbo (Buffalo, NY) 2011.
4. Lola T332 [HU29] (Rocky Moran): See full history: Lola T332 HU29.
5. Lola T530 [HU6] (Ricardo Londoño): Built April 1980. New to Ricardo Londoño (Medellín, Columbia) and raced in nine out of ten of that season's Can-Am Challenge races. He almost always qualified in the top ten, and his best results was fifth place at Mosport Park in June. Londoño progressed, briefly, to F1 for 1981, and the Lola went to an unknown Columbian, spenind some time abandoned and used as a flower bed. It was rescured in the late 1980s by Oswaldo Farjado and restored for racing by 1990. Farjado and José Clopatofsky Londoño (Bogotá, Colombia) raced it in the Bogotá Six Hours in 1990, 1991 and 1992, with guest drivers Rob Wilson the first two years and David Sears in 1992. The team won the race in 1991, but retired the other two years.
6. Marguey CA80 [March 782] (Richard Guider): Rad Dougall's T-car at Thruxton 27 Mar 1978 and presumably the one he uses after wrecking 782-2 at the Nürburgring 30 Apr. Used by the Toleman team in early 1979 and for Needell at Donington. Sold to Richard Guider (Ben Lomond, CA), and fitted with Tony Cicale's original blue 1978/79 body from the Cicale-Ralt Can-Am car. Guider named this creation the Marguey CA80, and raced it in Can-Am in 1980 and 1981. Guider shared the car with Bertil Roos at the August 1981 Lumbermens 500. Guider crashed on the final lap at Trois-Rivières in September 1981 and the car was extensively damaged.
7. Lola T332 [HU53] (Gerre Payvis): See full history: Lola T332 HU53.
8. Tiga CA80 (Vern Schuppan): Based on Tiga's Formula 2 F280 model, the CA80 appeared only for the two races at Laguna Seca and Riverside at the end of the 1980 season. Vern Schuppan could not qualify it in the top ten and retired in both races. It was not raced again and, by 1982, was in storage in the Sacramento, CA premises of Proformula, the Tiga importer. In 2009, the car was with a Salinas, CA owner.
9. Brabham BT29 [11] (Jerry Kehoe): Bill Boyer (Tucson, AZ) raced an orange #88 Brabham BT29 in two early rounds of the 1970 SCCA Formula B championship, both in California, retiring both times. He was not seen again in the car but advertised it in August 1972, over two years later, complete with Vegantune FLC engine and said to be "ready for pro races". In 1973 or 1974, it was bought from dealer Pierre Phillips (Portland, OR) by Jerry Kehoe (Santa Rosa, CA), who recalls having seen it at Max Mizejewski's MRE operation in Santa Ana maybe a year earlier. Mizejewski had raced a MRE-entered BT29 at Sears Point 16 Sep 1973 and this is assumed to be the same car. Presumably the Formula B car Kehoe drove in SCCA races at Sears Point in 1975 and 1976. By 1977, Kehoe had fitted it with a Cosworth FVC engine and was using in in Formula A in SCCA Nationals. Kehoe later rebuilt the car as a sports car and used it in Can-Am in 1980 as a 2-litre car, then with a 3.5-litre Oldsmobille from 1981 to 1983 and finally with Frissbee bodywork in 1984. It later went to James Connell (Pollack Pines,CA) and Fred Schrameck (Orangeville, CA) . It changed hands again in 2007.
10. Lola T530 [HU9] (Danny Sullivan): Built July 1980. New to Garvin Brown Racing for driver Danny Sullivan, replacing the Intrepid GB1. Raced for the rest of 1980 but Garvin Brown then acquired the ex-Rosberg car from Newman Racing and Sullivan raced that car instead at the start of 1981. Assumed for now that HU9 remained as Sullivan's backup car through the 1981 season. Sold to Mike Freberg (Toronto, Ontario) and raced by him through the 1982 Can-Am season but heavily damaged at Laguna Seca in October 1982. Mike Brayton is reported to have bought this car, repaired it and sold it to Burke Ratcliffe but the exact details are not known. Subsequent history unknown.
11. Lola T530 [HU4] (Geoff Brabham): Built April 1980. New to VDS Racing for 1980 and used as Geoff Brabham's T-car for the first part of the season, becoming his race car after HU3 was destroyed in a practice accident at Road America in July. Retained for 1981 and raced by Brabham until the team's new T530-based VDS-001 was ready. Sold to Rex Ramsey 1982 but very heavily damaged in an accident at Laguna Seca in October. The damaged and disassembled car sold to Mike McComas (Pampa, TX) 1988 and sold by him to Paul Sauer (Woodside, CA). In 2002, the car was still completely apart with the new tub still under construction.
12. Wolf-Brayton 001 (Michael Brayton): Michael Brayton (Newport Beach, CA) acquired a Talon Formula 5000 car for 1977, but previous history of the car is unknown. During 1977, he rebodied the car for SCCA A Sports Racing, and then raced the car, as the "Wolf-Brayton 001" in Can-Am from 1978 to 1981. The car was later acquired by Mike McComas, who was then under the impression it was the Wolf-Dallara WD1. He sold it to Tony Roberts and Duncan Fox in New Zealand in 2003, where it was restored to F5000 specification. Raced by Roberts in the F5000 Tasman Revival from 2003 to 2005, when it was sold to Aaron Burson, then raced by him from 2005 onwards.
13. Bazeley Mk.3 (Andrew Bazeley): Andrew Bazeley (San Diego, CA) returned to the Can-Am series in 1980 with the Mk 3, a very well presented single-seater monocoque car powered by a 4-litre Repco engine and fitted with a Hewland DG300 gearbox. He was slowest qualifier at Road Atlanta in September, and was the first retirement, completing just one lap. At Laguna Seca in October, he was listed as 24th of 25 qualifiers, but did not start, and at Riverside a week later he was listed 23rd in qualifying, with the slowest time, and again did not start.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.