Road America Grand Prix

Road America, 18 Jul 1971

All cars are 5-litre F5000 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. McLaren M18 [500-06] (Evan Noyes): See full history: McLaren M18 500-06.
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. Lola T142 [SL142/30] (John Saucier): Unknown in 1969 but maybe the car of Richard Negley (San Antonio, TX). Raced by John Saucier (MidWest City, OK) in 1970, 1971 and 1972. To Brad Blankenship (Indianapolis, IN) 1972, then to Duane Smith (Milwaukee, WI) 1973 and raced to 1975. Then to Dick St John's car owner, converted into a supermodified and raced in 1975 by Dick St John (Milwaukee, WI). Still in his livery when sold by Mike McComas (Pampa, TX) to Earl Zwickey (Amarillo, TX) 1995. Sold to Kerry Anderson (Auckland, New Zealand) late 2004 or early 2005, and raced by in the F5000 Revival Series from 2006 onwards. More information about Lola T142 SL142/30
4. Eisert 65/68 (Bill Tempero): New for Skip Hudson to drive at the 1965 Indy 500 as J Frank Harrison's #96 Harrison Special. The new car got on track on 13 May, at which point the older 1964 car was renumbered from 96 to 93. Hudson was a successful sports car racer, but was unable to pass his rookie test when an engine blew, so Al Unser took over the drive but he made no attempt to qualify the car. Unser then drove the car through the 1965 USAC season, but only once finished inside the top 10. The 1965 car was retained for the opening races of the 1966 season, driven by Unser at Phoenix and by Billy Foster at Trenton. It then became the team's #93 entry, and was only seen again at Fuji, where Jerry Grant finished tenth. Greg Weld failed to qualify the car for the 1967 Indy 500, after which it was sold to Don Wilcox, who raced it at Pikes Peak and made an unsuccessfiul attempt to qualify at Indianapolis Raceway Park in July. The old car was ideal for the SCCA's new Formula A, so was sold to Stew McMillen (Libertyville, IL) who raced it in SCCA Nationals, winning twice, and in Pro races. At the end of 1968 he took it out to New Zealand, racing it at Baypark Raceway in December, before it was leased to Dennis Marwood for the 1969/70 season. It returned to the US later in 1970 and was acquired by Bill Tempero (Fort Collins, CO), who fitted it with wedge-style bodywork and raced it in Pro races and SCCA Nationals in 1971, then in Midwest Division Formula A in 1972. It was later converted for street use by brothers Wayne and Steve Huntley in Nebraska and was also used as a show car by Fred Bosselman in the late 1970s or early 1980s, probably at his Bosselman Truck Plaza in Grand Island, Nebraska. In the early 1990s it was acquired by Bill Wiswedel (Holland, MI) who has restored it to 1965 colours but still with the later, squarer bodywork.
5. 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".
6. 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.
7. Lola T142 (Gerald Geishart): Former snowmobile racer Gerald 'Jerry' Geishart (Wisconsin Rapids, WI) bought a Lola T142 from "a Firestone engineer in Ohio" in April 1970. He raced the red #98 Lola T142 in SCCA Nationals, Midwest Council events and in some Pro races in 1970. He scored 25 points in CenDiv Formula A, narrowly losing the title to McKee driver Kurt Reinold. He appeared again in 1971 but only scored four points in Nationals and was a non-starter at the Elkhart Lake Pro race in July. To Barry Michael (Coldwater, MI) in 1971, Bill Schmitt (Frankenmuth, MI) in late 1974 or 1975, then Ed Murray (Farmington, MI) 1976. To Dino Crescentini (Rochester Hills, Michigan) early 1980 and stored the car in a museum in San Marion for about ten years. Restored by RM Motorsports (Wixom, MI) in 1996 then sold to Mead Korwin (Shelby Township, MI) in 2001.
8. Chinook Mk 12 ['1'] (George Eaton): New for George Eaton to drive in the 1971 USAC Road Racing championship. Tested at Mosport Park prior to the only surviving round of the series at Seattle in August, but unable to start the race. The series did not continue into 1972 so the car was then retired and later sold off for Formula 5000 racing. In July 1975, Dennis Reed (Irving, NY) was planning to race the car in the SCCA National at Mid-Ohio but this evidently didn't happen, and he advertised the car with "testing miles only" in 1975 and 1976.  It was next seen when bought by Mike Knittel (Chittenango, NY) in November 1986 from an unknown seller in Buffalo, NY. Like Reed's car from 20 miles away in Irving, it had a Ford Boss 302 engine. Knittel restored the car over the next two years and raced it in US historic events from 1991 to 2021.
9. McLaren M10A [300-09 (B)] (Wil Painter): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-09(B).
10. 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.