33 replies to this topic

[Jersey_Devil]

Thank you, lateapex - more to come!

And Jim, thank you for your memories of that race. I am the biggest auto racing fan - as must be obvious to most by now - and yet have NEVER actually attended a race in person. The closest I got was when I lived in Michigan and they parked a show IndyCar in front of the Blue Cross/Blue Shield of Michigan headquarters (where I worked) in Detroit as part of the pre-race publicity for the return of IndyCar to the city in 2007.

Also, one year in New York City (in the '90s?) I got Danny Sullivan's autograph during the pre-race festivities for the stillborn New York City IndyCar race. That was a great moment for me - the only time I ever saw one of my racing heroes in person - because I asked him if he thought he would have won the 1988 Indy 500. Sullivan led 91 of the first 93 laps and after pit stops was coming back from 4th when his front wing broke and sent him into the wall and out of the race. Rick Mears eventually won it - the third of his four wins in the 500 - and most people talk about it as if his win was inevitable considering Mears' penchant for spending races fine-tuning his car to find the optimum setup before coming from behind to take the trophy. In fact, it was Sullivan's accident which led Team Penske to shore up his teammates' (Mears and Al Unser, Sr.) front wings due to a fault that potentially would have put the other two out before race-end with the same failure.  

Anyway, I asked Danny if he thought he would have won if the wing hadn't failed - and he looked me in the eye with a completely straight face and no hesitation said, "Yes, I would have won".

LOVE it !

Edited by Jersey_Devil, 24 May 2016 - 03:05 PM.

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[Boy from Ozz]

Thanks for the most interesting topic. really learning a lot about Can Am etc

​I don't collect many American race car series, but always loved the Can Am Mclaren's, something special about them.
My favourite of all the Porsche 917/30 "the killer'

Here are my American based Mclaren's:

Edited by Boy from Ozz, 31 May 2016 - 05:32 AM.

[slartibartfast229]

Jersey_Devil, on 01 May 2016 - 09:54 PM, said:

I'll start with something I promised Retroclassics - Ashley, here are all the GMP Lola T70s I am aware of:

This is my own GMP #12001 1966 AAR Bardahl Special Lola T70 Mk. II-Gurney Weslake Ford driven by Dan Gurney to win the 1966 Bridgehampton Can-Am race (the only win by a Ford in the entire history of the series):

>>>> A Ford powered car did win a Japanese invitation race at the end of 1968. Run on 23/11/1968 this was a CanAm invitation event held at the Fuji circuit, with cars running anti-clockwise. Despite that the infamous banking was originally designed for use going this was around, it wasn't used for this event. It was a big enough deal that the likes of Penske brought a car for Mark Donahue (who is on the cover of my magazine - Japanese text only) and included Carroll Shelby whose car driven by Peter Revson was the winner. Although some of the cars in the event were rather tatty local 'specials', names such as Pedro Rodriguez attended.  



GMP #12002 1966 Penske Sunoco Special Lola T70 Mk. II-Chevy driven by Mark Donohue to win the 1966 USRRC race at Kent (internet photo):


GMP #12003 1969 Penske Sunoco Special Lola T70 Mk. IIIB-Chevy GT driven by Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons to win the 1969 Daytona 24-Hour race (internet photo):


I found this on the internet and realized it's my pic of my since-sold GMP #12004 Team Surtees Lola T70 Mk. II-Chevy that John Surtees won the first-ever Can-Am race in at St. Jovite in 1966:



GMP #12004-1 is the Team Surtees Lola T70 Mk. III-Chevy that John Surtees drove in the 1967 Can-Am series before switching to his 1966 Can-Am-winning Mk. II above and winning the last race of the season at Las Vegas (internet photo). Despite the relabeling, it's clearly the same model:



GMP #12005 - this is my Penske Sunoco Special Lola T70 Mk. III-Chevy that Mark Donohue dominated the 1967 USRRC championship with, winning five of the six races started (and finishing third in the other one; he won the final race of the USRRC season in the Mk. IIIB he would campaign in the Can-Am series). I believe this is the most beautiful Group 7 model available:



GMP #12006P - this is my George Bignotti Lola T70 Mk. III-Ford that Parnelli Jones drove in three races of the 1967 Can-Am with a best finish of 4th in the Riverside race. It's noteworthy because of the spaghetti exhaust of the Indy Twin-Cam Ford engine installed by famed Indy head mechanic George Bignotti who maintained this car:



GMP #12006M - This George Bignotti Lola T70 Mk. III-Ford is the same car and model as above driven by Mario Andretti in two races in the 1968 Can-Am series (internet photo):



GMP #12007 1966 Penske Sunoco Special Lola T70 Mk. II-Chevy driven by Mark Donohue to win the 1966 Nassau Trophy Race (internet photo):



GMP #12008 1968 American Internation Racing (AIR; this was actor James Garner's racing team) Lola T70 Mk. III-Chevy GT driven by Ed Leslie and Lothar Motschenbacher to 2nd place in the 1969 Daytona 24-Hour race (internet photo from DX'er preisman - thank you!):



GMP #12009 1966 Lola T70 Mk. II-Ford owned and driven by A.J. Foyt in the 1966 Riverside Can-Am and the Nassau Speed Weeks (internet photo):



GMP #12010 1965 John Mecom Zerex Special Lola T70 Mk. I-Chevy driven by Walt Hansgen to win the 1965 Laguna Seca twin-heat race (internet photo also from DX'er preisman - thank you!):



GMP #1801511 - This is the AAR Lola T70 Mk. IIIB-Gurney Weslake Ford driven by Dan Gurney in the 1967 Can-Am series. Another GMP shortcut, this is clearly the same mold as the GMP Mk. II and Mk. IIIs (internet photo):



And lastly, GMP #1801512 is my Sid Taylor Lola T70 Mk. III GT-Chevy driven by Denny Hulme in numerous British Royal Auto Club championship sprint races and select endurance races:



OK - that completes the GMP run of Lolas to the best of my knowledge. Let's see what other 1/18th diecasts of cars in this racing class you can bring to the party!

[Jersey_Devil]

Nice collection, Ozz! This is exactly what I want people to do, post photos of their cars or photos of cars they want made in 1/18th in the Can-Am/sprint sports racing car class over the years !

[Batman]

WOW!!! I know nothing about this series but these are cars are amazing!!! I especially liked the #21 Parnelli Jones Lola/Ford! AMAZING!!!

[slartibartfast229]

Just a little note: A Ford powered car did win a Japanese invitation race at the end of 1968. Run on 23/11/1968 this was a CanAm invitation event held at the Fuji circuit, with cars running anti-clockwise. Despite that the infamous banking was originally designed for use going this was around, it wasn't used for this event. It was a big enough deal that the likes of Penske brought a car for Mark Donahue (who is on the cover of my magazine - Japanese text only) and included Carroll Shelby whose car driven by Peter Revson was the winner. Although some of the cars in the event were rather tatty local 'specials', names such as Pedro Rodriguez attended. (Posted again since it didn't appear where I originally intended).  

[Jersey_Devil]

Look earlier in this thread, Slarti - I already covered the 1968 and 1969 "Fuji Can-Ams" at the end of "McLaren Pt. 3" and "McLaren Pt. 4"  (including photos).

[StratosWRC]

Are you a racing commentator or historian? How do you know all this?

[Jersey_Devil]

I read a lot, Wes . My go-to reference for Can-Am is Pete Lyons' "Can-Am", but I have numerous other books on that and other series, as well as many Autocourse and other annuals. Also back when the races were actually occurring, I read a lot of race reports in Road&Track, Car & Driver, Motor Trend, Sports Car Digest, Motor Sport, Competition Press & Autoweek (now Autoweek), and numerous other magazines and newspapers. It used to be a labor of love for me while in college to go to the library and look at newspapers and magazines from all over the world to get the tiniest bit of info about national and international races that virtually no American papers covered.

I also scour the internet for personal blogs about cars, drivers, races and series, finding hundreds of photos I've never seen before in the major publications. Before ESPN sold its soul to NASCAR, it used to broadcast a series of edited film clips of all sorts of historical race series called "The Glory Days", some of which you can still see on YouTube. I still have BETA tapes of those shows!

I've even been clued to events, and driver/car combinations I never previously heard about by finding 1/43rd models of them! That's how I found out Dan Gurney (my all-time favorite driver) had driven a Jaguar E2A prototype at Le Mans in 1960 with Walt Hansgen or that he drove an AAR McLaren-Elva Mk. I in 1965 at the Brands Hatch Guards Trophy and the Riverside Los Angeles Times Grand Prix.

Reading IS FUN-damental !

Edited by Jersey_Devil, 01 June 2016 - 09:42 AM.