Can-Am Challenge Race

Mid-Ohio, 8 Jun 1980

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

Notes on the cars:

1. 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.
2. Lola T530 [HU8] (Robert J. Nelkin): 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.
3. Chevron B27 (Bertil Roos): Having raced a Chevron B27 with a 1.6-litre Cosworth BDD and fenders in Can-Am in 1979, Bertil Roos (Blakeslee, PA) acquired another Chevron B27 for 1980, and fitted a full sports car body and a 2-litre Hart 420R engine. He raced this six times in Can-Am in 1980, finishing in the top 10 every time. According to Doug Waters, this 1980 car was sold to someone in Pennsylvania for regional racing. Subsequent history unknown.
4. Lola T332 [T330 HU2] (Horst Kroll): See full history: Lola T330 HU2.
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. Lola T530 [HU3] (Geoff Brabham): Built March 1980. New to VDS Racing for 1980 and used as Geoff Brabham's main race car until it was destroyed in his accident in practice at Road America in July 1980. In 2006, the chassis plate to this car was auctioned on Ebay by Ben Severin and sold to Shayne Windelburn (Auckland, New Zealand), who had previously acquired some surviving components of HU3 that had been brought to New Zealand by ex-VDS mechanic Ian Algie.
7. Lola T332 [HU30] (Larry Johnson): See full history: Lola T332 HU30.
8. Lola T294 [T292 HU40] (Steven Payne-Herbert): Described consistently as the "prototype" T292, HU40 first appeared at Jarama 5 Nov 1972 where it was raced by Richard Scott. It was then Guy Edwards' works car throughout 1973 after which it was updated to T294 specification and sold by Lola to Martin Raymond for 1974. It went to Stewart Chubb for 1975 and continued to race in the European series. In 1976, Chubb sold the car to Steven Payne-Herbert and it was used in Can-Am and SCCA BSR racing until 1980. Payne-Herbert kept the car until 1989 when it was sold for vintage racing and, three owners later, it was being offered for sale by Grand Prix Classics in February 2011.
9. 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).
10. Lola T530 [HU7] (Stephen South): Built April 1980. New to Budweiser Newman 1980 and raced by Stephen South as the team's #4 Budweiser entry. Crashed heavily by South in practice at Brainerd in August. The team bought another T530 from RJ Nelkin so this car presumably destroyed. However, this car is said to be one of the cars sold by Mike Brayton to Burke Ratcliffe (UK) 1986 to be used in the Thundersports series. Reported to have been built up as a show car for the team and then to have been sold to Peter Kaus's Rosso Bianco Collection (Aschaffenburg, Germany) in 1990. However, no mention has been found of the car in this connection and it seems more likely that it ceased to exist after South's accident..
11. Chevron B36 [36-76-06] (Chris Strong): New to Mort Platt (Kansas City, MO) and used in SCCA BSR racing from 1976 to 1978, qualifying for the Run-Offs each year. Also used in Can-Am races at Road America in July 1977 and July 1978. Then to Chris Strong (Lawrence, KS) and used in Can-Am in 1979 and 1980. Then probably the car raced by Dick Leppla in Can-Am in 1981 and still being raced in BSR several years later. Then via Ed Henning (early 1990s), Rudy Junco and Steve Fusillo to Brian Stark (Mequon, WI) by around 2004. Still with Stark in 2013.
12. Lola T332 [HU39] (Randy Lewis): See full history: Lola T332 HU39.
13. Lola T430 [HU3] (James Woodruff): Haas Racing spare car for Brian Redman US 1976 (qualified 4th at Road America but not raced during the season). Duane Smith (Milwaukee, WI) and used in SCCA Formula A in 1978. Converted to Can-Am specification and raced in a handful of Can-Am races in 1979 and 1980 by James Woodruff (Ravenna, OH), better known as guitar maker "Woody James", who died in 2015. The car evidently returned to Duane Smith, as it was sold by him to Chuck Haines (St Louis, MO) in 1988. To Todd Stewart (Christchurch, NZ) late 2002 and won on its historic racng debut in the 2003/04 F5000 Tasman Cup Revival series race at Sandown Park Nov 2003.

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.