Lola T330 HU24 history
This page aims to demonstrate the history of this car, using all the available evidence. Some information has been redacted as it would be possible for it to be used to authenticate a rival car. The redacted items are:
- The number stamped on the car's rollhoop, and also printed on the cover of the original SCCA Log Book. This is a number of the form "03 1xx".
- The gearbox number, which is mentioned on the original Lola invoice, was also mentioned when the car was offered for sale in 2004, and is still visible on the car today.
This page is still in draft, and there are several more things that would help, such as more information from Gerre Payvis on how his four Lolas were used, or photographs from Mike Korn, allowing comparison with modern photographs from the same angle. Efforts continue to find more information, but a great deal of information about the car is already available. Please contact Allen Brown at allen@oldracingcars.com if you can add anything, or is you believe anything here is inaccurate or expressed in a biased way.
1973: Sid Taylor and Jody Scheckter
According to Lola's invoice summary, this car was originally invoiced to Sid Taylor. Taylor was running Jody Scheckter's F5000 team in the US series in 1973.
The Lola invoice, of which this is a copy, shows that the car was immediately shipped to Taylor at Chicago's O'Hare airport:
Autosport's report on the 19 August Road Atlanta F5000 race takes up the story.
The Log Book is dated 18 August, the day before the race, and presumably the date of technical inspection. The number on the log book is not revealed here, so that information cannot be misused, but it is of the form "03-1xx", where "03" is the SCCA region number for Atlanta Region, whose tech crew would have been running this event, and the "1xx" is a three-digit number.
The Log Book lists the "Manufacturer's Identification No." as "# 24", a reference to the car's chassis number.
Autosport reports that Scheckter drove this car in his Heat at Road Atlanta, but Taylor decided to put him in the Trojan T101 for the final. Then Scheckter races the Lola at Pocono on 3 September, but the team focused on the Trojan for the final race of the season.
1974: Nestor Garcia-Vega
The car was next seen in 1974, when Nestor Garcia-Vega drove what Autosport described as "the ex-Scheckter Lola T330". The car was run for Garcia-Vega by Jerry Entin, Sid Taylor's partner on the 1973 Scheckter season, so the car had not changed hands at this point.
Records show that Garcia-Vega drove the car at three events: the California Grand Prix at Ontario on 1 Sep 1974, the Monterey Grand Prix at Laguna Seca on 13 October 1974, and the Riverside Grand Prix on 27 Oct 1974. All three races are shown in the same SCCA Log Book.
1974-1975: John Korn
According to the SCCA Log Book, the car was acquired by Dr John Korn on 4 November 1974.
Just two weeks after Garcia-Vega drove the Lola the Riverside Grand Prix on 27 Oct 1974, the California Sports Car Club (the southern California Region of the SCCA, based in Los Angeles, known as CSCC or simply "Cal Club") held a SCCA Regional at Riverside. According to the club's own newsletter "Finish Line", Dr Korn raced the "ex-Scheckter ex-Garcia Viega Lola T-330".
Dr Korn's subsequent races are all shown in the same SCCA Log Book.
Mike Korn, Dr Korn's son, provided these two images of the T330:
1976: Doug Correa
On 23 April 1976, the car was sold to Doug Correa (Newport Beach). The change of ownership is shown in the SCCA Log Book:
Doug Correa's subsequent races in the car are shown in the SCCA Log Book pages 16 to 27. The dates shown for these technical inspections are Riverside 3 May 1976, Riverside 2? July 1976, Riverside 7 November 1976, Riverside 28 May 1977 (which Correa won), Riverside 2-3-4 July 1977, Laguna Seca 16-17 July 1977, Riverside 10 February 1978, Phoenix 25 February 1978, and then four where the location is not indicated clearly: 30 April 1978 (Texas World Speedway, which he won), 24 October 1978 (Road Atlanta Runoffs), 28 April 1979 (presumably TWS again), and 16 June 1979. Correa moved to Woodlands, Texas, then a very new dormitory suburb of Houston, during 1978, and these last four events may have been as a Texas Region member instead of CSCC. Doug now lives in Hawaii.
In an email to the author on 25 October 2005, he recalled buying the car from Dr John Korn, but could not remember who he sold it to.
1980: Gerre Payvis
According to the SCCA Log Book, the car was bought by Gerre Payvis on 1 August 1980. Payvis was based in Peoria, a northern suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. No races by Payvis are shown in the original SCCA Atlanta Region Log Book, which end with Correa's 16 June 1979 race.
In January 2019, after the first version of this page was published, Gerre Payvis commented on Facebook: "I bought Lola 330- 24 from Doug Correa, no ID tag present. It was in F 5000 body work. It was painted black, but was used and easy to see it was white before black. The car was equipped w/ webber carbs. The steering rack was id as 024."
The dificulty with Gerre Payvis's period of ownership is that he had more than one Lola. As he commented on Facebook in May 2012, "We had 4 Lola's and they were all converted to CanAm". From the pictures Gerre has posted, the one with a centre bodywork section closest in livery to the one on this car when Mark Bailey acquired it is this one:
Note that despite the similarity in livery, the car above has an air intake in the nose, a feature introduced by Lola with its 1978 Can-Am bodywork kit, and is almost certainly Payvis's Lola T332 HU53 that he acquired from Charlie Kemp for the 1980 season. His older T330 HU24 appears to have been retained as a backup car to HU53, so is likely to have had very similar livery.
The two pictures below show two of Payvis's cars at Road America in July 1983:
The bodywork on the #31 car being driven by Payvis more closely resembles that of the car later owned by Mark Bailey. Again, this car is believed to be T332 HU53.
1980: Mark Bailey
The Bill of Sale between Payvis and the next owner Mark Bailey is missing, but among the documents acquired by Flavio Tullio with the car is this document dated 30 July 1990, which is during the period that later owner Rick McLean was researching the car's history:
There are a number of problems with this document, the most obvious being that Gerre Payvis's name is spelt as "Jerry Pavis", yet the signature has a descender consistent with a 'y'. The first letter of the signature is a cursive 'G' (cursive being the writing style taught in New Jersey schools in the 1960s), so the signature disagrees with the text. Could this be a document written by Rick McLean for Payvis to sign, and Payvis did not bother to change the spelling? This is a very unsatisfactory document, and no weight can be placed on it for the car's provenance. However, Bailey was very clear that he bought the car from Payvis, and it can be seen to have Payvis's name on the bodywork in Bailey's pictures.
In January 2019, after this page was first published, Payvis commented on Facebook, "Looking at the doc's here the bill of sale, from rick mclean is fake. I never use jerry as Gerre and would not misspell my last name. I believe the car Tullio has is the Lola 330 24 I sold Mark Bailey. My signature is correct but had sold Mclean parts, so he had access to it. I see a Lola 330 down under for sale, as ex Jody Scheckter car, this is a re production not 330 24. Do you know of any dg 300 for sale, beside Chuck Haines? Good at you G.P.".
Flavio Tullio also has a note saying "March 8 1986 Payvis sold to Mark Bailey", but this date appears too late. In correspondence with the author in 2018, Bailey was confident that the purchase was much earlier, based on the time he spent rebuilding it, the Chevrolet El Camino tow car he used for the "tow from hell" back from Phoenix, and the fact that he was dating his future wife at the time. He recalls that the El Camino was stolen from outside his house the day after Christmas 1980, so if he's got these things right, he must have bought it in the last four months of 1980. In that case, Payvis can only have owned it for a very short time.
In an earlier email to OldRacingCars.com in October 2016, Bailey had confirmed the purchase from Payvis and the subsequent sale to Rick McLean.
It is noteworthy that the car had lost its chassis plate by the time Bailey acquired it.
In 2018, Bailey supplied the following images of his rebuild of the car. His photo caption is shown in each case:
Fig 1/1980s: "The rolling chassis as I first saw it In Phoenix at Payvis’s shop. Back Up car in his transporter – very rough"
Fig 2/1980s: my shop during final Assembly after everything I build was plated or anodized
Fig 3/1980s: .250 graphite plates in the front foot well bolted in with Hi-loc fasteners worked as a scatter shield to protect my legs. (Compare with Fig 3/2018)
Fig 4/1980s: I designed and hand fabricated the whole rear wing and body attach system. Can be rotated up without disassembly to change gears. (Compare with Fig 4/2018)
Fig 5/1980s: .125 graphite dash & custom wiring. You can see the added roll cage roughed in. (Compare with Fig 5/2018)
Fig 6/1980s: I coated the inside of the fuel cell pods with rubber coating to protect the bladder. (Compare deformable structures and radiator fittings with Fig 6/2018)
Fig 7/1980s: I used the chassis as a jig for all my fabrication. I designed and fabricated all the steel hangers, upper control arm supports, front hanger. Payvis’s name is still on the body work at this point. (Compare with Fig 7/2018)
Fig 8/1980s: Finished chassis with wing raised for gear box work. I designed and fabricated all the try sump tanks, swirl pots and heat exchanger surrounds
Fig 9/1980s: Finished chassis – duel Spaulding fire breather ignition – quick change with pip pins. Can see the added cage. I made headers from scratch. Added back struts from roll bar. (Compare with Fig 9/2018)
Fig 10/1980s: Finished chassis – graphite plates in foot well cage, custom plumbing for Hillborn injection flatcrank 305, hand fabricated batter box. Everything was electroless nickel plated or anodized. Can’t remember if type 2 or 3 There were also gouges in the side of the monoque (just ahead of the battery box) that I welded up – everything was had TIG welded. (Compare with Fig 10/2018)
Fig 11/1980s: First test runs at Willow Springs in Landcaster Ca. Notice enclosed rear wheels and custom windscreen I had made at Aircraft Windscreen. Front and rear wings were original I just put new end plates on them. Still have one of the real end plates with Goodyear on it.
Fig 12/1980s: Finished car prior to a race at Riverside in Ca. Notice bodywork is real tight to heat exchangers. Dimples added to rear section to clear shock tops – kept punching them through. Helmet pad below scoop and Simpson harness system. We put numbers and livery on it 10 minutes after this was taken.
Note that in Fig 10 and also in Fig 6 and Fig 9, the deformable structures can be seen, indicated by a line of rivets running forwards from the outeer edge of the radiators. The addition of deformable structures was one of the key differences between the T330 and T332, showing that this is an updated T330. Note that the radiators are brass, and still in the original T330 position. Note also the way the bottom corner of the radiator intake is kinked in, as was necessary on a narrow T330 tub, but not on a wider T332 tub.
The black tubular front rollover structure seen in Fig 10 was a requirement for the 1976 season.
Bailey raced the car in the CAT Teams event at Willow Springs 3 May 1987, and in the paddock that day was IMSA historian Martin Spetz, who had attended for the day because, as he recalls, "the IMSA Camel GT race was at Laguna the same weekend". He looked all over the cars and made several annotations in the entry list for Bailey's car:
The ex-Gerre Payvis bit is correct, but the "ex-Follmer" is wrong. The "78-31" was not originally understood, but Mark Beasy has pointed out that it was the SCCA number of another of Payvis's cars, Lola T332 HU53 (see update 1). Written underneath Bailey's name is the number "031-xx":
This number matches the number on HU24's original 1973 SCCA Log Book. Spetz has written it as "031-xx", when it should really be "03 1xx" but the appearance of those five digits in that order cannot be a coincidence. However, as '78-31' was also noted, it is not at all clear where Spetz had got these numbers. Spetz recorded the chassis number of every other Can-Am car present at that race meeting, so this is further evidence that the T330 had lost its chassis plate by this stage.
A second SCCA Logbook was then issued to Bailey by CSCC (which is Region 19):
The Log book issued to Bailey is dated 4 May 1986, and then lists five more events: Riverside Regional/National 25 May 1986, Riverside Regional 3 August 1986, Riverside Regional 1 March 1987, Willow Springs CAT 2 May 1987, and Riverside 24 May 1988.
The two pictures of the car on the pictures pages of the log book were evidently taken at the same time as Bailey's pictures above:
These pictures provided by Matteo Tullio show the car during Bailey's ownership. This first picture may be the earliest, as it shows the sides of the tub painted red, as shown in the pictures above.
Note the CAT stickers from 1987 on the first two of these pictures. The sides of the car are no longer painted; nor are the front wings or rear wing.
This last picture shows the car as it was in 1987, but now wearing No 5 instead of No 8, the same number used by later owner Mike Yanchek.
1989: Rick McLean
On 20 December 1989, Bailey sold the car to Rick McLean (Oceanside, CA). The Bill of Sale describes the car as "Lola T-330 Can-Am race car" and identifies it as "#192890 Chassis 330 - 24". This references the original chassis number of the Lola T330, and also its second SCCA Logbook. Note that although the car had lost its chassis plate, its chassis number was clearly known to Bailey.
McLean is currently wanted by the FBI and it has not been possible to discuss this car with him.
1990: Mike Yanchek
On 7 August 1990, McLean sold the car to Mike Yanchek (Allen Park, Michigan). The Bill of Sale below describes the car as a "1973 Lola T-330 Can-Am car #HU 330/24".
Yancheck entered the car in concours events, and was featured in a local newspaper when his car won an award. The car was described as being a "1973 Lola T-330 Can-Am car" and "originally a Jody Scheckter Formula 5000 car".
Two further pictures show the car at a similar event. The pictures shown here are from a photograph of two prints, so are not good quality. They are dated "8 4'91" which is assumed to be a US format date of 4 August 1991.
In these pictures, the car is exactly as last driven by Bailey.
Mike Yancheck died on 20 May 1998. His company was in Romulus, Michigan, the above news article said he lived in Allen Park, and the death notice says he lived in Gibraltar, but was formerly of Allen Park. All three places are in the southern Detroit metropolitan area. His wife Gail dealt with the sale of the car from his Estate.
2004: Flavio Tullio
Bud Bennett of RM Motorsports in Wixom, Michigan, about 30 miles from Romulus, advertised the car on behalf of the Yancheck family.
These two pictures were provided by Matteo Tullio and appear to show the Lola T330 in RM Motorsports' showroom. It is clearly the same car seen above in Mike Yancheck's pictures.
Bennett also provided details of the engine and transmission. Details of the engine are an interesting comparison with the details provided by Mark Bailey above. The 3-digit gearbox number is given, and matches the number on the 1973 invoice. This will be confirmed by photograph later, but if true is an important direct link in this car's from 1973 to the present day.
On 3 August 2004, the car was sold to Flavio Tullio of Padova, Italy. The bill of sale is rather unsatisfactory as it is undated and was made out only for the initial deposit of $10,000. More detailed email correspondence between Bud Bennett and Flavio Tullio explains the context of this. The Bill of Sale appears to have been signed by Mike Yanchek's widow Gail. The company Approved Aircraft Accessories Inc, in Romulus, MI, was Mike Yancheck's company, and the current company president is Gail Ann Yancheck.
With the car, Flavio Tullo acquired a huge amount of paperwork, including the bills of sale shown above.
The photograph below of the car in Italy in 2016, shows that it was exactly as it had been displayed by Mike Yancheck during his ownership.
The gearbox is still the same one supplied with the car when it was new:
The two SCCA Logbook numbers are also still stamped into the car's rollhoop today. Matteo Tullio cleaned the black paint off the rollbar to make the first number easier to read.
Photographic comparison between 1980s and 2018
The following pictures were taken on 11 December 2018, and are designed for comparison with Mark Bailey's pictures above of the car during his rebuild between 1980 and 1986.
Fig 3/2018. Compare with Fig 3/1980s, described by Bailey as, ".250 graphite plates in the front foot well bolted in with Hi-loc fasteners worked as a scatter shield to protect my legs".
Fig 4/2018. Compare with Fig 4/1980s, described by Bailey as, "I designed and hand fabricated the whole rear wing and body attach system.".
Fig 5/2018. Compare with Fig 5/1980s, described by Bailey as ".125 graphite dash & custom wiring. You can see the added roll cage roughed in".
Fig 6/2018. Compare with Fig 6/1980s, described by Bailey as "I coated the inside of the fuel cell pods with rubber coating to protect the bladder".
Fig 7/2018. Compare with Fig 7/1980s, described by Bailey as "I used the chassis as a jig for all my fabrication. I designed and fabricated all the steel hangers, upper control arm supports, front hanger.".
Fig 9/2018. Compare with Fig 9/1980s, described by Bailey as "Finished chassis – duel Spaulding fire breather ignition – quick change with pip pins. Can see the added cage. I made headers from scratch. Added back struts from roll bar.".
Fig 10/2018. Compare with Fig 10/1980s, described by Bailey as "Finished chassis – graphite plates in foot well cage, custom plumbing for Hillborn injection flatcrank 305, hand fabricated batter box. Everything was electroless nickel plated or anodized. Can’t remember if type 2 or 3 There were also gouges in the side of the monoque (just ahead of the battery box) that I welded up – everything was had TIG welded.".
After restoration - January 2019
Summary
Given the continuous history, as evidenced by log books, bills of sale and recent email testimony, and the original SCCA and Hewland numbers still stamped on the car, it is hard to see any basis on which the Tullios' car's authenticity could be disputed.
Updates
This article was written and published on 17 January 2019. Since then, some new information has been provided, and these updates will outline any of significance.
Update 1 - 24 May 2019
The article noted that Martin Spetz had annotated his race program with the numbers '03-1xx' and '78-31' in his programme, and that 78-31 was unexplained. The appearance of '03-1xx' was taken as evidence that Spetz must have seen that number on Bailey's car. Mark Beasy has pointed out that '78-31' was the SCCA number of Gerre Payvis' Lola T332 HU53, a car he owned at the same time as HU24. So the numbers that Spetz notes were the SCCA numbers of two distinct cars; Spetz cannot have seen both, so we cannot conclude that he saw '03-1xx' on Bailey's car.