Minnesota Grand Prix

Brainerd, 16 Aug 1970

All cars are 5-litre F5000 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T190 (Gus Hutchison): New to Champlin Racing in July 1970 for Gus Hutchison to drive, replacing the F1 Brabham BT26 with which he had won two rounds of the US F5000 championship. Crashed in practice at Mosport, where Hutchison drove Crockey Peterson's T190 in the race. Hutchison was a non-starter again at Sebring in October, after which he and Doug Champlin parted company. The T190 was advertised by Champ Carr (San Juan Capistrano, CA), Champlin's new venture with Fred Carrillo, in Autoweek 13 Feb 1971. Bafflingly advertised ("ex-Hutchison") by Michael Brockman (Orlando, FL), the owner of T190/F1/18, in September 1972. Subsequent history unknown.
2. Lola T190 [190/F1/6] (Dow "Jack" Byers II): Test car. Epstein-Cuthbert for Mike Hailwood UK R1 1970 but crashed Heat 1 and replaced by 190/F1/15 for next three races. Original car apparantly to Dow 'Jack' Byers II US 1970 (11 races) and presumably the car he raced at Questor 1971 ("T190/6"). Advertised by Jack Byers 12 Jun 1971. Subsequent history unknown. Note that two cars in the US may have carried this number, Byers' and Don Dierking's ex-Epstein car (see 190/15).
3. Lola T190 [190/F1/8] (Eric Haga): New to Eric Haga (Seattle, WA) and raced in the US Pro series in 1970. To Don Baker (Long Beach, CA) for 1971 and used in local SCCA events. To Jim Gustafson (Costa Mesa, CA) for 1974 and again raced in West Coast SCCA events. To Richard Votava (Southern California) in 1975. The log book then identifies a Troy R. Milken (or Millen or Milleau) driving the car in a school on 21 Feb 1976. Then Votava in SCCA Regionals (mainly at RIR) in 1976 and 1977; then SCCA Nationals in 1978 and 1979. To Marshall R. Tarnow March 1980 - Alan Sevadjain (owned with Don Johnstone) and raced at Texas in 1981 - Larry C. Clain (Tulsa, OK) and raced at RIR and elsewhere 1982 - Chuck Haines (St Louis, MO) 1984 - Chip Boatright (Illinois) 2006. Sold back to original driver Eric Haga (Renton, WA) for historic racing. Appeared in the 2011/12 and 2012/13 Tasman Revival series, but wrecked at Teretonga Park in February 2013. Tony Garmey built a new monocoque for the car, but it was still incomplete when Haga died in November 2021. Ted Wenz bought the project from the estate in early 2022 as a retirement project and completed it. After testing, it was sold via Art Hebert at Motorsports Market to Paul Kuhl (San Diego, CA) in 2023.
4. Eisert 70 (Dennis Ott): Dennis Ott (Montclair, CA/Upland, CA) raced a Eisert in Formula A in 1970. He later advertised the car as a 1970 model, but it looked much like a 1969 model, and may actually have been second hand. At 6'2" and 185 lbs, Ott was large for a racing driver at the time. He came up through modified racing in his home state of Nebraska, then California Racing Association sprint cars in 1967, and then FA in 1970 at the age of 24. He advertised the Eisert in November 1970, describing it as a "1970 wedge style Eisert USAC or F/A" that had been "road raced nine times". For 1971, he acquired a McLaren M10B, and the Eisert was sold to 29-year-old CAMRA driver Ken Hamilton (Boise, ID), who completed the SCCA drivers school at Seattle International raceway in April 1971 and drove the Eisert in SCCA Regional and National races that season, as well as the USAC road-racing event at Seattle in August. In 1971 he was considering having Eisert convert the car to use in the 1972 Indy 500, but nothing came of this. He was entered for the Laguna Seca and Edmonton Pro F5000 races in early 1972, but there is no record of his participation in either event. He focused on CAMRA and MRAO racing in 1972, driving for Art Sugai, and had a very successful season. The subsequent history of the Eisert is unknown.
5. Lola T190 [190/F1/1] (Rich Galloway): New to Jerry Hansen and raced at Sebring in December 1969. Also driven by Chuck Parsons (his #44 Aqua Velva T190 at US R1 1970), then by Hansen at the Laguna Seca Pro race on 14 June 1970. Advertised 25 Jul 1970. Apparantly sold to Rich Galloway and raced in the US series, starting from R9 Brainerd 16 Aug 1970. Probably the car used by Galloway Tasman 1971 (crashed by Bobby Brown in practice for R1 but rebuilt for Brown in remaining New Zealand races and then for Galloway in Australia; then crashed at last race. To Charlie Hayes and raced by Bobby Unser at the Questor GP 1971; presumably then the car advertised by Hayes in August 1971. Advertised "Bobby Unser's Questor GP T-190-92" from Los Altos, CA (in the San Francisco Bay Area) April 1972 which would appear to rule it out from being the either the Cal Rayburn or Dick Losk cars. Subsequent history unknown.
6. LeGrand Mk 11P (Jim Paul): Raced by Rex Ramsey in late 1969, winning at Trois-Rivières in September, but well off the pace in the L&M series. Jim Paul raced the car in 1970, with a best result of eighth in the Pro race at Laguna Seca, and appeared a few times in 1971 and early 1972. To Keith Saunders (Albuquerque, NM) for SCCA racing later in 1972, then to Bill Swope (Albuquerque, NM) for 1973. Swope advertised it late 1975, and it seems likely that this was the LeGrand used by JB Walton in SCCA Regionals in Utah Region in 1978. The next time it was seen was when Harold Janke owned it in Nebraska in the late 1990s. To Kirk Severson and racing in historic events by 2001. To Marty Fidrich (Elisabeth, CO) by 2007.
7. Lola T142 (Gerald Geishart): Former snowmobile racer Gerald 'Jerry' Geishart (Wisconsin Rapids, WI) bought a Lola T142 from "a Firestone engineer in Ohio" in April 1970. He raced the red #98 Lola T142 in SCCA Nationals, Midwest Council events and in some Pro races in 1970. He scored 25 points in CenDiv Formula A, narrowly losing the title to McKee driver Kurt Reinold. He appeared again in 1971 but only scored four points in Nationals and was a non-starter at the Elkhart Lake Pro race in July. To Barry Michael (Coldwater, MI) in 1971, Bill Schmitt (Frankenmuth, MI) in late 1974 or 1975, then Ed Murray (Farmington, MI) 1976. To Dino Crescentini (Rochester Hills, Michigan) early 1980 and stored the car in a museum in San Marion for about ten years. Restored by RM Motorsports (Wixom, MI) in 1996 then sold to Mead Korwin (Shelby Township, MI) in 2001.
8. McLaren M10A [300-02] (Ludwig Heimrath): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-02.

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.