Canadian American Prototype Thunder Car Race

Phoenix International Raceway, 1 Nov 1987

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

Notes on the cars:

1. March 85C [51] (Bill Tempero): Bill Tempero's #2 March 85C Can-Am car was identified at Willow Springs in 1987 by Martin Spetz as 85C-51 "ex-Rahal".
2. March 85C [08] (Buddy Lazier): Buddy Lazier's #19 March 85C Can-Am car was identified at Willow Springs in 1987 by Martin Spetz as 85C-08 "ex-Rahal".
3. Frissbee-Lola KR4 [Lola T400 HU9] (Mike Engstrand): New to Eppie Wietzes (Thornhill, Ontario) and raced in the SCCA/USAC F5000 Championship in 1975 and early 1976. Retained by Wietzes until 1986 and used as show car by Canadian Tyre in mid-1980's. Sold to Horst Kroll and converted to Can-Am Frissbee specification as "Frissbee KR4" for Can-Am 1986 and CAT in 1987. Retained by Kroll until sold to Glenn Richards (Auckland, New Zealand) in mid-2010. Raced by Reg Cook in the 2010/11 F5000 Tasman Revival series, and then by Richards in the series every season from 2013/14 to 2017/18. More information about Lola T400 HU9
4. Frissbee-Lola KR3 [Lola T330 HU2] (Horst Kroll): See full history: Lola T330 HU2.
5. Lola T332C [HU46] (Ray Reimer): See full history: Lola T332 HU46.
6. Rondel M1 [201] (Jim Del Russo): The prototype Rondel was used for testing in late 1972, before the first production cars were built. It was taken to Hockenheim 8 April 1973 as team spare, and to Pau as a spare for Tim Schenken, but not raced. Its history is then unknown until 1974, and it appears it has been acquired by Fred Opert to use as a set of spares. After Mike Rand crashed his car, wrecking the monocoque, 201 was supplied to Ron Ignatowski (Milford, CT), who rebuilt Rand's car on 201's tub with a BRM 1-litre engine and used it in SCCA Formula C. In 1980 it was sold to Randy Zimmer (Buffalo, NY) as the basis for his Can-Am car. He raced it with a Volkswagen engine in 1982 and then with a Mazda rotary engine from 1983 to 1986. Zimmer then entered it for Jim Del Russo in the 1987 CAT championship, and raced it a few more times himself in 1989, 1990 and 1994. Then retained for many years until Zimmer sold it to Seann Burgess (Markdale, Ontario) in 2019.
7. Lola T360 (Bill Hill): Doug Moe (Bremerton, WA) owned a Lola T360 in the 1980s, which had been fitted with sports car bodywork and a Mazda engine. Exactly when Moe started racing the Lola is unclear, as he had a series of BSR class "Mazron" sports racing cars that he used in ICSCC events from 1977 (the "Mk 1"), 1978, 1979, 1980 and 1981 (the "Mazron Mk V"). The name would suggest a Chevron-Mazda combination. Moe was reported to be driving the Lola T360 in 'B' Sports Racing with Mazda engine in September 1985, and as he does not appear in the ICSCC points table for the 1983 or 1984 seasons, that would suggest he first raced it in 1985. The T360-based car was raced by Bill Hill in the CAT championship in 1987, after which it was reportedly stored. Early in 2003, Moe sold the the car to Allan T. Chou (Westfield, NJ), and in 2009 it was being restored. Bought from Chou in 2012 by Guilbert Twiss (Pittsfield, MA). Bought from Twiss by Dean Baker (Bowmanville, Ontario, Canada) in 2022.
8. Longhorn LR03 (Gerald Nelson): Although Gerald Nelson's 1986/87 Can-Am car is listed as a Williams in some entry lists, it was identified at Willow Springs in 1987 as an ex-Unser Longhorn LR03.
9. Lola T333CS [T332 HU39] (Fred Parkhill): See full history: Lola T332 HU39.

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.