Lime Rock Grand Prix

Lime Rock, 6 Sep 1971

All cars are 5-litre F5000 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. McLaren M18 (Lothar Motschenbacher): May be 500-07. This car was originally built for Graham McRae to replace the car crashed in practice at Snetterton in April 1972 but it remained unused as Trojan "released" McRae. The M18 was sold instead to Lothar Motschenbacher and used in the SCCA series in North America, starting at Edmonton on 1 August. Motschenbacher retained the car for 1972 but it was very badly damaged at Road Atlanta in August when Motschenbacher and two other drivers crashed at Turn 1 in a sudden rain storm just as the race was finishing. Jonesy Morris, his mechanic at the time, recalls that the car was not repairable. Duncan Fox has been working hard to determine the fate of this car and is now satisfied that the tub was dumped although some parts from the car may survive somewhere. Some parts were reported to be in Los Angeles in 2002.
2. Lola T192 [HU19] (Brett Lunger): New to Roger Penske for Mark Donohue to drive in the 1970 US series, starting at Mosport 13 Sep 1970. To Competition Research & Development (Pomona, CA) for Brett Lunger US 1971, then to Larry McNeil US 1972, US 1973 and then in SCCA Nationals from 1974 to 1978. Via Alan Marvin to Gordon Close (Hinsdale, IL) 1979, and used it for 1979 SCCA drivers school and Regionals. To former racer Don O'Sullivan (Perth, Western Australia) in 1983 but not run by him and sold to Bob Harborow (Camberwell, Victoria, Australia) in 1989. Restored and used in historic racing in Australia, including VHRR Historic Sandown and Phillip Island Classic 1999-2013, and the Australian GP support races in 2009 and 2010. Reappeared in October 2015, when run by Kieran Patel (Victoria, Australia) at the Baskerville Historics. More information about Lola T192 HU19
3. March 712M [71BM-2?] (Bill Gubelmann): New for Bill Gubelmann (Oyster Bay, NY) and used in British Formula Atlantic at the start of the season, winning at Oulton Park 21 March, and then in the SCCA Pro Formula B series. The car was often described as a 712M but it seems more likely that he used the same 712BM all season. Also raced with a BDA in the Formula A race at Lime Rock in Sep and in one round of the Canadian series. Sold via Joe Grimaldi's The Race Shop to Frank Del Vecchio (Trumbull, CT) and used in NEDiv FB and in a couple of rounds of the Pro series. Sold back via Joe Grimaldi at the end of 1972; Frank thinks it went to a Canadian, and it is very likely to have been the car driven by Ken Huband, Norm Joy and David Westgate in 1973 and 1974. Sold to Mauro Lanaro (Montréal, Quebec) to replace the 71BM he lost in a transporter fire in 1974. Significantly modified in 1976 as the Lanaro Special with triangular sidepods, a different nose, and with its Cosworth BDA engine laid on its side. This car went through many evolutions, and was still being raced by Lanaro right up to 1995 when it was used in a vintage event. Lanaro eventually rebuilt to original 71BM specification about 1999. In late 2018, it was part of a package of cars bought from Lanaro by David Clubine (Brantford, ON), and was sold to a collector in Ontario.
4. March 712M [15] (John Cannon): New to John Cannon (Montreal, Quebec) for Formula 2 Europe, but he took it to the US in September for the Lime Rock Formula 5000 race where he ran it with a Cosworth FVC engine. In 1972, the car was converted by Joe Grimaldi's The Race Shop to Formula B specification with a carbureted Hart twin cam and sold to Warren G. Ogden III (North Andover, MA) to race in SCCA Nationals and Regionals. He won a Regional at Bridgehampton in May, finished fifth in the Thompson National in June and had a couple of other strong results in Regionals. Ogden advertised the car in February 1973 but then traded it to The Race Shop for a new March 73B. Subsequent history unknown.
5. Lola T142 (Randy Johnston): See full history: Lola T142 'the Randy Johnston car'.
6. Coyote [Lotus 38/4?] (Crockey Peterson): Built 1965 (fifth chassis built) from spares with symmetrical suspension and using some parts from the original 38/2. Used by Jim Clark at St Ursanne and Ollon-Villars 1965. For Jim Clark at the 1966 Indy 500 (#19 qualified 2nd, finished second). Sold to AJ Foyt and wrecked in practice at Milwaukee a week later when the suspension on the straight and the car hit the wall and burst into flames. Returned to Lotus in England and rebuilt; returned to Foyt August 1966 but no further results known in 1966. Likely to have been the #84 Lotus 38 used by Foyt in the opening races of 1967 at Phoenix and Trenton. Then used by Gary Congdon at the Indy 500 when he was bumped. With the other Foyt 38s wrecked, this last survivor was the car Foyt raced at Langhorne in July. Several years later, a ‘Coyote’ was raced in F5000 by Crockey Peterson, but photographs show that it was a Lotus 38, and it has been identified as 38/4. Later sold to Chuck Haines (St Louis, MO) and then to collector James L. Jaeger (Cincinnati, OH). Run at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1997, 1998 and 2000. On display in the Speedway Museum March 2009. Ran again at Goodwood 2011.
7. Lola T142 (Randy Blessing): Randy Blessing (Lakeland, FL) raced a T142 in the SCCA Regional at Daytona in August 1970 and at the 'Pro' race at Sebring 25 Oct 1970. He raced more consistently in the Pro series 1971 entered as #31, appearing in five races but retiring at every one. The Lola's colour was listed at Brainerd as blue. Blessing's recollection is that his T142 was John Gunn's, but that clashes with a newspaper article from November 1969 where Dave Heinz stated that he had bought that car from Gunn. Blessing later advertised both his T142 and the ex-Hood T140 in Aug 1972 but before the T142 could be sold, Blessing wrecked the T142 in a race at Roebling Road. Although the mangled frame was sold off, Blessing reports that "there really was nothing left of it".
8. McLaren M18 [500-06] (Evan Noyes): See full history: McLaren M18 500-06.
9. Surtees TS8 [003] (Clive Baker): New for Bob Griffin's Corsair Racing Team (San Antonio, TX) June 1971 for Clive Baker to race in the US series (from Edmonton 1 Aug 1971). The TS8 was retained for Baker for 1972 as teammate to Ron Grable in a new TS11, but the team did not reappear after Grable crashed his TS11 at Edmonton on 4 Jun 1972 and went bust at some point during the year. Both cars were sold to Gus Hutchison (Dallas, TX), and the TS8 was entered by Hutchison's HRE (Dallas, TX) for Syd Demovsky (Chicago, IL) throughout the 1973 US series, with a best finish of ninth in the final race. The TS8 was advertised by Hutchison in Autoweek 22 Sep 1973 and later 7 Dec 1974 as "ready to race". Also in the advert was a TS11 which was said to have a new tub and a further new spare tub. Subsequent history unknown.

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.

1968 US information has been taken from SCCA results sheets with additional information from Autoweek race reports and from some entry lists. Thanks to David McKinney and Wolfgang Klopfer for providing these. Identifying the classes and model of some entries has proved very difficult so all new information would be welcomed.

1969-1971 US information has been collated by Chris Townsend using Autoweek reports. All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome.

1972-1976 US information was originally collated by Wolfgang Klopfer, converted to database format by Dawn Harrison and checked by Jim Thurman and Don Capps. Wolfgang's main sources are Autoweek and individual SCCA results bulletins but Autosport, Autocourse and Road Racing Annual have also been consulted.

US SCCA Runoffs, Nationals and Regionals results were collated by Wolfgang Klopfer from Autoweek reports. These reports were usually very brief so the information on the majority of races is limited just to the identity of the FA class winner.

Some race programs have also been used for entry lists and other information. My thanks to Richard Coe for the generous contributions from his collection.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen if you can add anything.