Can-Am Challenge Race

Road Atlanta, 23 May 1982

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

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T530 [HU4] (Rex Ramsey): 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.
2. Lola T330 [HU2] (Horst Kroll): See full history: Lola T330 HU2.
3. Chevron B24/B28 [24-73-02] (Dan Johnson): New for 1973 season. Doug Shierson for Peter Gethin: raced in UK 1973 (won Race of Champions) and US 1973. To Roger Bighouse (Eastlake, OH): raced in US 1974 (7 races); US 1975 (4 races + 1 DNS) - Pat McGonegle (Cincinnati, OH): raced in US 1976 (1 race) and Can-Am 1977 (4 races + 1 DNS); probably the car entered by McGonegle as 'Mannix MX-2' in Can-Am 1978; advertised April 1979 - Danny Johnson (Kewanee, IL) 1979: raced in Can-Am 1979 (1 race), Can-Am 1981 (5 races), Can-Am 1982 (6 races) - Brian R Taylor (now Clive, Iowa) for Mike Engstrand (Des Moines, Iowa): raced in Can-Am 1985 (3 races) - Chuck Haines (St Louis, MO) - Anthony Taylor (Blackburn, UK) 2001: due to be rebuilt and raced in FORCE Historic F5000 series (UK) 2001. Then unknown until owned by Greg Thornton in 2011 and raced in UK and New Zealand 2011/12. Badly damaged in a fire at Thornton's garage in June 2012 but completely reconstructed.
4. VDS 001 (Patrick Tambay): New for the VDS team in 1981 and raced by Geoff Brabham, winning from pole first time out at Edmonton in August 1981. Raced with great success by Geoff Brabham in 1981 and then by Al Holbert in 1982 alongside a new car VDS-002. Sold to Jerry Hansen for 1983 and 1984, winning the ASR class at the Runoffs both years. Bought by John Foulston for 1985 but presented by him at the time as a rebuild of the standard T530 that he had raced in 1984. As part of this, it was fitted with the chassis plate of Foulston's previous Lola T530 HU10. VDS-001 then raced by Foulston and his co-drivers in UK Thundersports from 1985 until his death in 1987. Sold at auction by the Foulston estate in 1997 when the car still wore the HU10 chassis plate and no mention was made of its life as VDS-001. Bought by dealer and racer Nick Whale (Evesham, Worcestershire) 1997 and run by him at the Goodwood Festival of Speed in 1998. Sold to Don Braaten (Janesville, WI) 2000.
5. Lola T530 [HU8] (Michael Brayton): 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.
6. Lola T530 [HU9] (Mike Freberg): 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.
7. Chevron B26 [74-08] (Luc Behar): After the closure of Red Rose Racing, Roger Hire struck a deal to run works-assisted Chevron B26s in 1974 under the name Forge Mill Racing. John Lepp ran the main car and Rafael Barrios joined the team to run a second B26, now positively identified as chassis 74-08. This car only raced once in 1975 but was then bought by Robin Smith to be used in endurance and Interserie in 1976. Gary Gove (Tacoma, WA) acquired it for Can-Am in early 1977 and raced it for three seasons, winning the Pacific Coast title in 1978 and the last BSR title at the Run-Offs. It went to John Graham in Canada for the 1981 season and then to Luc Behar-Bannelier for 1982. The B26 was sold to Gil Baird for Thundersports in England in 1983 then to Richard Piper for another three seasons during which time it was converted to DFV power before moving to Ireland in the late 1980s where it stayed for nearly 15 years. It was sold back to the US again around 2003 and has raced in US vintage racing.
8. March 77S/802 [77ST-1] (Charles Monk): Built new for 1974, fitted with a BMW engine and entered by March Engineering for Jean Ragnotti in the European 2-litre Sports Car championship, with Antar sponsorship. Fitted with a Richardson FVC after the first few races, and later with a Cosworth BDG. Retained by March for 1975, fitted with a Hart 420R engine, updated to 75S specification and plated as '75S-U2' for John Lepp to race. The car was retained again for 1976, now to 76S specification and reportedly using the identity '76S-1', now raced by Lepp as part of the Ultramar team. Sold to Bobby Brown (Hicksville, NY) for the 1977 Can-Am season, now using the identity '77ST-1'. Sold to Greg Sorrentino (Troy, Michigan) and raced in 1979. In 1980, it was converted to centre-seat specification with a new body fabricated by Dave Craddock and campaigned in this form by Sorrentino in 1981, described as a March 802. To Charlie Monk (Sarnia, Ontario) for 1982, and then via John Adams Racing & John Kalagian to J. Byron Walker (Detroit, Michigan). Raced by Walker in 1983 and 1984 before being stored. Walker later acquired the 1977 bodywork from EB Lunken, who had used it on his March 73S, and found Lepp's Ultramar livery under the layers of paint. In 2013, Walker was in the process of restoring the car to its 1975 specification.
9. March 73S/77S [14] (E. B. Lunken): Sold new to Henry Candler (Lakewood, CO) and used by him in a few British sport car races in May and June 1973, before he took it back to the US for SCCA racing in the BSR class. Candler soon decided the car was too quick for him, and he sold the car to his cousin, Edmund Backus Lunken (Cincinnati, Ohio), who entered his cars as E. B. Lunken, and was known to his friends as Ebby. Lunken first raced the car in 1977, then used it in the Can-Am series from 1978 to 1982. There has been some debate over the engine used in the 73S during this time, with some reports that it was a Ford, and others that it was a BMW. Irv Zwicker, who built engine for Ebby, says Lunken used BMW engine with Heidegger rods, Kugelfischer fuel injection and a proprietary intake cam. Lunken still had the car in 2006.
10. Cicale-March 77B (David Locke): Rick Koehler (Milwaukee, WI) raced an Excalibur EE2B in Formula Atlantic in 1978, with sponsorship from Brooks Stevens. The car was essentially a March 77B and was described as ex-Shierson and ex-Brack in adverts in late 1978 and 1979. It was leased to Joe Castellano for the Long Beach race in April 1979, and then sat unused until August 1980 when it was sold to David Locke (Cambridge City, IN). Locke fitted the car with 79B bodywork and Bobsy fenders so that it could be used in Can-Am racing, using an 1850cc Hart BDA engine and Hewland FT200 gearbox. In October 1981, Locke ordered a Kevlar Cicale body for the car, and used it in this form in 1982 and 1983, but without success. He acquired a Hart 420R engine from Jim Trueman for 1984 and raced the car in Can-Am and then CAT until 1987. Chris Townsend advises that it was sold to Lee Johnson in Colorado in April 1988, and was still with Johnson in 2012.

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.