Road Atlanta Grand Prix

Road Atlanta, 20 Aug 1972

All cars are 5-litre F5000 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Chevron B24 [24-72-01] (Brian Redman): Built for 1972 season. Works for Brian Redman: raced in UK 1972 (debut at Oulton Park 29 May 1972 - 5 races 3 wins) and US 1972 (Redman 4 races 1 win, Gethin 1 race) - Keith Holland for John Player Challenge Trophy at Brands Hatch 22 Oct - Alan Brodie for Steve Thompson: raced in Tasman 1973 and UK 1973. Badly damaged in a severe testing accident at Silverstone on 24 May when a tyre burst at Woodcote at 140 mph, and Thompson was lucky to escape with bruising. The car was written off, and Brodie acquired a brand new 1973 B24.
2. Lotus 70B [01] (John Morton): Intended for Bill Brack but his deal fell through. Run by Bruce Burness for George Follmer to drive in the Questor GP at Ontario in March 1971. To Pete Brock of BRE (El Segundo, CA) for John Morton in the 1972 US series, starting at R4 Road America in July. Very heavily damaged on the slowing down lap after finishing fourth at Road Atlanta when Morton hit a flooded area of track. Brock did not have the funds to repair the car and advertised its remains in 1974. Bought by Bob Dunlop to keep his Lotus 70 running. The rest of the car was stored by Dunlop and his partner Stephen Rich.
3. 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.
4. Lotus 70B [03] (George Follmer): Kerry & Charlie Agapiou (from Lotus in partial kit form) fitted with Bartz Ford V8: financed by Roy Woods for George Follmer US 1972 (from R4 Road America 16 Jul 1972 to end of season). The brothers had previously run Follmer in Can-Am in a Lola and then in the Ford G7A. The Lotus was still at Woods' garage September 1973. In or around 1992, G&G Motorsport (Indianapolis, IN) advertised "1970 Lotus 70B, Chassis #03, Bartz/spares, restored to original AGAPIOU livery with race #16 (photo has #58), ex George Follmer." This may have been advertised on behalf of the Agapiou brothers as the car was reported to still be owned by Kerry Agapiou January 2002.
5. Lola T300 [HU14] (Warren Flickinger): Invoice date 8 Mar 1972 (sold to 'Haas', colour 'White'). New to Warren Flickinger and raced in the US series in 1972 (7 races, debut R1 Laguna Seca 7 May 1972) and in 1973. Advertised by Chuck Jones Racing (Costa Mesa, CA) in Formula Magazine (Vol 1 No 6, Mar/Apr 1974) and sold to Floyd Sable (Anaheim, CA) for SCCA National and Regional racing in 1974 and 1975. The original T300 bodywork was lost in a fire during this time, so Sable fitted T332 bodywork. Sold to Terry Hinesly (Prospect, Oregon) and raced for another two years. Then to Dana Leung (Vancouver, BC, Canada) in 1978 who ran it at Sears Point and Riverside, wrecking an engine, and then in an SCCA Regional at Portland, where he crashed it. The car passed into the ownership of mechanic Bob Hume but, before it could be repaired, it was stolen and stripped. Bob recovered the tub and retained the engine, but little more. It due course, he sold the tub to a New Zealand mechanic/driver called Peter who worked for Pierre Phillips. Nothing more known.
6. Lotus 70B [02] (Bob West): Jefferson Racing Enterprises (from Lotus in kit form) for Bob West, one of a small number of African American drivers in road racing at that time: US 1972 (Boss Ford): R6 Road Atlanta 20 Aug 1972 (Q24) and R8 Riverside 24 Sep 1972 (Q19). Crashed on the second lap at Riverside, hitting Lunger's Lola and damaging the front left suspension and tub. Advertised by Roland Jefferson (Los Angeles, CA) Autoweek 28 Oct 1972: "damaged at Riverside". To Bruce Russell (Estacada, OR): racing history unknown except for an SCCA Regional at Riverside 26 May 1974. Advertised by Russell "70B - Boss 302" on 16 Oct 1976. Sold to Dave Edgar (Eugene, OR) late 1970s. To Dave Swigler (Panama City, FL) 1988: raced at the Walter Mitty event in April 1988 and then regularly to the end of the 1993 season after which it was unused for five seasons. Raced again by Swigler from 1999 up to Mitty 02 in July 2002. Retained by Swigler until sold, together with Swigler's Shadow and Surtees F1 cars, to Harin De Silva and sold on by him to David Arrowsmith (Christchurch, New Zealand) in July 2011. Raced in the 2011-12 Tasman Revival series in NZ and David is planning to compete again in the 2013-14 season.
7. Lola T192 [HU19] (Larry McNeil): 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
8. Lola T192 ["HU14"] (Colin Hyams): Said to be the fourth T192 but does not appear in Lola records. New (?) for Frank Gardner in the 1971 Tasman series; then to Colin Hyams for the 1971 Australian Gold Star, 1972 Australian Internationals, then to America for the 1972 US series. Via Carl Haas to Dan Furey (Columbus, OH) for the US series in 1973 and 1974 - Randall Dana 1975 - Phil Niles 1976 - Bob Danzi 1978 for Single-Seat Can-Am - Dana Seymour 1981 - Brian Blaine 1984 - Bob Young by 1987 - Hans J. Glaser 1992 to 2006. Acquired by Nick Shrigley-Feigl (Ramsey, Isle of Man) by 2010. To Roland David (Vienna, Austria) 2016. More information about Lola T192 "SL.192/14"
9. Leda LT27 [002] (Evan Noyes): Built as Leda LT27-002 for the 1972 season. To Evan Noyes (Cedarville, MI) and raced in UK and US series in 1972, then Tasman 1973, then US series 1973. Via Roy Campbell, "Race Car Drivers Institute" and a bankrupcy auction to Jim Sechser (St Louis Park, MN) by 1975, and used in SCCA racing and a single Pro race in 1976 and 1977. Crashed heavily in 1977, but rebuilt and raced again in 1979. To Fred Schilpin (St Cloud, MN) 1979 or later, and used in minor racing; then retained until 1996. To Roger Williams (Auckland, New Zealand) 1996. Raced by Williams in Australian historic racing from 2001 onwards, and in the F5000 Tasman Revival series from 2003 to 2006. To Alastair Russell (Auckland, New Zealand) and raced in Tasman Revival series from 2006 onwards. More information about Leda LT27-002/McRae GM1-002
10. McLaren M18 [500-06-2] (Allan Lader): See full history: McLaren M18 500-06.
11. McLaren M22 [M22-2-72] (Allan Lader): See full history: McLaren M22 M22-2-72.

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.