A Lola T70 Mark 3 with an interesting history

As he wandered through the garages at the CSRG Charity Challenge at Sonoma Raceway the first weekend of October 2019 , the author found this Lola T70 Can-Am car that competed in the famous Group 7 Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) Canadian-American Challenge Series in 1967 and 1968 owned by a famous mechanic, sponsor and with a pair of well-known drivers.

This car, chassis number SL73/127 was originally sold to famed racing mechanic George Bignotti sometime during the middle of the 1967 season.  Bignotti at the time was employed by Texas oil man and racer John Mecom, who was the Lola Cars importer for the United States. In 1967, Bignotti had already amassed three Indianapolis 500-mile victories – two with AJ Foyt in 1961 and 1964, and a third in 1966 with rookie driver Graham Hill in a career that would eventually total seven Indy ‘500’ wins.  

While the Ford Motor Company was very successful in Indianapolis-type car racing with Indianapolis 500-mile race wins in 1965, 1966, and 1967, as well as United States Auto Club (USAC) national championships those years, along with victories at LeMans in endurance racing in 1966 and 1967, Ford struggled for success in Can-Am racing.

Despite well-funded efforts with Dan Gurney’s All-American Racing team, Shelby American, and Holman & Moody, as well as its own G7A program with the unique three-valves per cylinder Calliope V-8 engine, Ford had been unable to break the McLaren/Chevrolet stranglehold in the Can-Am series. The 1967 Bignotti effort was another innovative Ford effort that used the proven-at-Indianapolis Ford double overhead camshaft DOHC "four cam" V-8 engine bored out to 305 cubic inches of displacement.  

The Bignotti Lola T70 with race number #98 was initially entered for the third round of the1967 SCCA Can-Am series, the ‘Player’s 200’ at Mosport Park in Canada in late September for driver Al Unser, but the car did not appear as the engine was not yet ready. The car appeared finished in metallic blue at the series’ fourth round in mid-October at Laguna Seca Raceway carrying race number 21 for driver ‘Parnelli’ Jones with sponsorship from American Rubber and Plastics Corporation.

American’s owner John Chalik Junior from LaPorte Indiana had raced at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from 1961 through 1964, with his first year the most successful. Veteran Hoosier midget car racer Gene Hartley started the 1961 ‘500’ in fifteenth place in a Floyd Trevis built machine and finished eleventh, two laps behind winner AJ Foyt. 

In 1962, Chalik expanded his efforts to two cars, a new Quinn Epperly-built laydown for driver Paul Goldsmith and the previous years’ Trevis built chassis was assigned to Eddie Johnson. Both entries made the starting field, but both cars retired early in the race within laps of each other with magneto failure.      

For 1963, Chalik contracted with famed car builder Frank Kurtis to build the final Kurtis Kraft chassis built for the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, the KK500L roadster, which incorporated three innovations – first, a roll cage around the cockpit to reassure the driver, NASCAR stock car star Robert “Junior” Johnson, second, fully independent suspension on all four corners and finally, the car’s Offenhauser engine used a battery and distributor ignition system, as Chalik now mistrusted the common magneto ignition system after the team’s Indianapolis 1962 debacle. Chalik remained a two-car team owner, as he also entered the Epperly laydown roadster for New Mexico rookie driver Bobby Unser.

Johnson was never comfortable in the Kurtis-Kraft and stepped out of the car before his completed his rookie test and was replaced by Colby Scroggin. The battery system in the KK500L did not allow the Offenhauser engine to develop full power, and Scroggin could not generate enough speed to qualify for the 33-car starting field. Unser successfully completed his rookie test, then spun and afterwards, Chalik asked Unser to buy his own tires. After Unser landed a Novi ride and left the team, Chalik replaced Unser with Bob Harkey, who crashed in practice and the seriously damaged car could not be repaired in time.

In 1964, the repaired Epperly was entered for journeyman driver Chuck Rodee, but early in the month, Rodee ran over some debris and crashed. Later in the month, the engine blew during practice and car owner Chalik elected not to repair the damage. 

Chalik’s Indianapolis efforts ended with a whimper, and most historians assumed that was the end of Chalik’s involvement in racing. While it is unclear on how (or why) John Chalik Jr.  became involved in the Bignotti Can-Am effort it is without question as the American Rubber and Plastic Corporation sponsorship was (and still is) emblazoned on the Lola’s front fenders.  

At the 1967 Laguna Seca Can-Am race, Parnelli Jones qualified the metallic blue #21 fourth for the ‘Monterey Grand Prix’ behind pole sitter Bruce McLaren, a Weslake Ford-powered Lola T70 Mark 3 driven by Dan Gurney, and Denny Hulme.   On race day, October 15, Jones dropped out after 14 of the 106 scheduled laps with fuel vaporization issues. 

Two weeks later, at Riverside International Raceway, Jones qualified sixth for the ‘Los Angeles Times Grand Prix’ and finished in fourth place, one lap behind winner Bruce McLaren.

At the 1967 Can-Am season finale, held in early November at the Stardust International Raceway outside Las Vegas Nevada, Jones qualified fourth only ½ second behind pole-sitter Bruce McLaren. In the October 12^th ‘Stardust Grand Prix,’ Jones jumped the start from the second row and surged into the early lead, but the Lola was eliminated after just four laps when the gear selector linkage broke at the shifter. This race marked Parnelli’s final appearance in North America’s famed Group 7 racing series.

For 1968, the driver of the Bignotti DOHC Ford-powered Lola T70 Mark 3 for the Can-Am series was two-time USAC National Champion Mario Andretti, who had appeared at five 1967 Can-Am rounds behind the wheel of the fast but unreliable Holman & Moody ‘Honker II.’ At the opening round of the 1968 Can-Am series at Road America in Elkhart Lake Wisconsin, Andretti qualified eighth and was running in third place on lap 48 of 50 when the DOHC Ford engine lost oil pressure and grenaded in spectacular fashion.

   

Two weeks later, on September 17^th at the ‘Bridgehampton Grand Prix’ held on the Bridgehampton Road Course on Long Island, Andretti again qualified the metallic blue #21 to start eighth on the grid, but this time during the race the DOHC Ford Indy engine lost oil pressure on the fourth lap and Andretti retired in the car’s final SCCA Can-Am race appearance.

Andretti and Bignotti skipped the next two rounds of the 1968 Can-Am series but reappeared at the final two rounds with a new car, the red #3 Lola T160, chassis number SL160/1 which was powered by a Ford 427 cubic engine built by Holman & Moody that carried STP Oil Treatment sponsorship. The Lola blew its engine during the qualifying session at Riverside, but in the season finale at Las Vegas, Andretti qualified the red T160 sixth and finished twelfth after a lengthy mid-race pit stop.

The appearance of such a historic machine as Lola chassis SL73/127 that appears as it did in 1967 and 1968, even though it is now equipped with a small block fuel injected Chevrolet engine at the CSRG Charity Classic highlights the importance of vintage car racing in keeping racing history alive. It was true joy to watch car owner Carl Moore of Alamo California put this restored beauty through its paces.      

Hogan HR-001 Can-Am car 

The second Can-Am series was created to use the unloved SCCA Formula 5000 open-wheel single-seat stock-block cars, a series that had been created in 1968 but had never caught the public’s attention even though it featured star drivers and American powerplants. From the beginning the Formula 5000 series was a source of controversy between the United States’ top open-wheel racing sanctioning body, the United States Auto Club (USAC) and the SCCA.  

In 1974 USAC threatened to withdraw from ACCUS over the “Full International” status of SCCA races but instead a series of meetings between USAC and SCCA officials commenced in January 1974 with an agreement was reached in May 1974 for the Formula 5000 series to be jointly sanctioned by the SCCA and USAC. The eighth season of the open wheel formula car road racing series, known as the 1974 “SCCA/USAC Formula 5000 Championship” began June 2 at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course with "Buckeye Cup." 

Beginning immediately, the Formula 5000 championship was open to not only SCCA legal cars but also to USAC cars powered by either 161 cubic-inch turbocharged, 255 cubic-inch double overhead camshaft or 305 cubic inch "stock block" engines. The USAC cars would run on methanol, with a required pit stop for turbocharged cars. Over the next few years, there were several USAC stars that competed in the Formula 5000 series; the roster included Mario Andretti, Mike Mosely and Johnny Rutherford, as well as Bobby and Al Unser, but there were only three turbocharged Offenhauser powered entries that ever tried to run the Formula 5000 series.

In a press release that announced the agreement worked out with USAC President Reynold McDonald, SCCA President Cameron Argetsinger was quoted that “joint sanction is an important step, but more importantly, USAC and the SCCA have agreed to direct their best efforts of a long-range plan for a common open-wheel car and engine formula and a single championship to be run on both road courses and ovals.” The timetable called for the two groups to formulate a detailed plan for approval by each governing board by January 1975 with the common formula put into effect in January 1976.

Alas, this plan of a common formula never came to pass as the SCCA and USAC were unable to agree on a common formula. Nearly a year after the planned target, on October 11, 1976, the USAC announced its withdrawal from the joint sanction of the Formula 5000 series. Frankie DelRoy, USAC’s Technical Director told Milwaukee Journal writer Roger Jaynes “for a while it looked like we could work out a common formula. But every time we tried to work out a compromise the SCCA wanted everything their way. Fuel, tire sizes, type of engine- everything.”

In the end, said DelRoy, “it was a case of us helping out the SCCA and them not helping us (USAC).  They got our name drivers - Mario Andretti, Al Unser and the rest to strengthen their series, but they didn’t want to help us one bit.”

The Formula 5000 series came to an end at the close of the 1976 season, and most of the teams enclosed their Formula 5000 chassis in full bodywork to compete in the “new” SCCA Can-Am series for 1977. This second version of the Sports Car Club of America’s Can-Am series, was created as the stepchild of the original Canadian-America Challenge Series for Group 7 (unlimited) sport cars which had collapsed in 1974.

For the 1977 racing season, the Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) “new” Can-Am series used the same single seat chassis used in Formula 5000 cloaked in enclosed bodywork. 

The same team that dominated the final years of Formula 5000, Carl Haas Racing, won the 1977 Can-Am title although the team’s lead driver Brian Redman was seriously injured in the first race of the season and replaced by Patrick Tambay who won six of nine races as Redman’s replacement.

With driver Alan Jones, the Haas team again claimed the 1978 Can-Am title as they won five of the series’ ten races. Veteran American second-generation road racer Al Holbert finished third in the Can-Am points for the Carl Hogan Racing Team and he scored a win at the series’ penultimate round at Laguna Seca Raceway and six top-five finishes. 

For the 1979 Can-Am series, Holbert and the Hogan team had a new weapon- the Hogan HR-001 designed by veteran race car engineer Lee Dykstra with a new revolutionary body that used the new concept of “ground effects’ with enclosed rear wheels, an undertray designed to generate suction and side skirts. Under the body the Hogan HR-001 used the Formula 5000 Lola T333 chassis and suspension components and a 305-cubic inch fuel-injected Chevrolet V-8 racing engine.   

Lee Dykstra was a graduate of the General Motors Institute and worked for the Cadillac division until he left GM to join the Ford racing program with the Ford GT40 and led the design team for Carroll Shelby’s Trans Am Mustangs. In the early nineteen seventies Dykstra formed his own firm DeKon Engineering with driver Horst Kwech.

Carl Hogan was a second-generation St. Louis trucking magnate who had been involved in Formula 5000 racing since the early nineteen seventies, and his 1979 Can-Am effort carried sponsorship from St. Louis based Anheuser-Busch Breweries Busch beer brand.  

In 1979, in addition to the Can-Am Series, Al Holbert was in his third season of racing with the NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Racing) Grand National series in his own self-sponsored Chevrolet Monte Carlo painted in Porsche racing colors of blue, red and yellow.

The new Hogan car’s debut at Road Atlanta in May was a success, as Holbert qualified fifth fastest and finished fourth, albeit a lap behind the first three finishers, as the HR-001 was slowed during the alter stages of the race with fuel pressure problems. At the next race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Holbert qualified tenth but dropped out on lap 40 of the 69-lap race with a burnt piston.

On June 3, 1979 at Mosport Park, Holbert qualified third but finished the race fifth, three laps behind winner Jacky Ickx in the Carl Haas entry.  A week later at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, Holbert qualified fourth with the HR-001, but again was victimized by fuel system problems and dropped out on lap 11.

Next up was the Watkins Glen Can-Am race which was held the same weekend of the Watkins Glen Six-hour race for sports cars. Holbert qualified sixth for the Can-Am race but dropped after contact with another car broke the front suspension. Later in July, Holder finished third at the long Road America road course on the same lap as winner Jacky Ickx and won $8,600.  

Before the next Can-Am race, Holbert was involved in a dramatic NASCAR crash at Pocono and his Monte Carlo burned and was destroyed. On August 19 Holbert qualified fifth at Brainerd International Raceway Can-Am race, but the clutch failed on lap 29.  

Before the next race, the original Hogan HR-001 body was replaced, and the team debuted the new car sans the enclosed rear wheels over Labor Day weekend at the Grand Prix de Trois-Rivières in Canada, the Hogan HR-001 broke on lap 37 of the 42-lap race after Holbert qualified seventh. That was the final race for Holbert with the Hogan HR-001, and after he left the team he was replaced by Australian racer Geoff Brabham for the final two West Coast rounds in October.

At Laguna Seca Raceway Brabham qualified fourth, 1.2 seconds behind pole-sitter Keke Rosberg, but once again the engine failed during the race on lap 16 At the season finale at Riverside International Raceway, Brabham qualified eighth, the car’s worst time trial result of the season, but in the race Geoff and the Busch-sponsored Hogan finished in fourth place on the same lap as the winner Jacky Ickx who posted his fifth win of the 1979 season and claimed the championship for Carl Haas Racing. 

In interviews regarding his racing career, Brabham has credited the Hogan ride as his big break in racing which lead to subsequent contract with the VDS Racing team  which led Geoff to an IndyCar ride.   

Holbert was disappointed in the performance of the Hogan HR-001 the first true “ground effects” Can-Am car which developed high levels of downforce that helped in the corners but hampered the car’s overall straight-line speed. Certainly some of the disappointment stemmed from the reliability problems with the fuel system which dogged the team 

Holbert started his own team for the 1980 Can-Am season, with the CAC-1 designed by Hogan designer Lee Dykstra and scored two wins and finished second in the 1980 season points.

The restored Hogan HR-001 shown in its second body configuration is today owned by Steve Ruiz, was shown over the winter of 2018 at the Automotive Driving Museum as a fund raiser for the Racing History Project. Check out the project’s website at  http://www.racinghistoryproject.com/index.html

All photos by the author 

   

Porsche 917/30 – “the Can-Am killer”

After John Surtees drove a Lola to the inaugural 1966 season championship for the Johnson Wax-sponsored SCCA Canadian-American Challenge (Can-Am) series, the series for FIA Group 7 racing machines was dominated for the next five seasons by Team McLaren in their orange Chevrolet-powered rockets.  

 

 

Then as now, Porsche, the German sports car manufacturer sold a large percentage of its production in North America, had made previous attempts at competing in the Can-Am series with a spyder (open-top) short-tail version of the 908 sports car for driver Tony Dean in 1969 and 1970.

 

In 1969 the 183-cubic inch flat six powered 908 was part of a two-car factory effort and the following year Dean himself was the entrant of the 908.  Dean in the 908 emerged as the surprise winner of the seventh round of the 1970 Can-Am series at Road Atlanta after four separate accidents eliminated the leaders. 

In the latter stages of the 1969 Can-Am season, in addition to the 908 entry the Porsche factory entered a spyder version of the new 917 sports car, known as the 917 PA that was driven by Swiss driver Jo Siffert. The 917 PA consistently placed in the top five finishers but being heavier and with “just” 580 horsepower as it was typically two seconds a lap slower and never in the hunt for victory versus the mighty big-block powered McLarens and Lolas.   

Porsche tried again with the revised bright red 917/10 spyder with STP Oil Treatment sponsorship for the 1971 Can-Am series. Powered by a naturally aspirated 305-cubic inch flat twelve-cylinder engine the 917/10 finished in the top five positions in all six races that it appeared in, but it remained heavier and underpowered compared to its competition. That would change for the 1972 season, as the Porsche factory partnered with Team Penske, led by driver and engineer Mark Donohue.

Donohue and the Porsche developed an improved version of the Porsche 917/10 powered by the twin-turbocharged 330-cubic inch flat twelve-cylinder engine that could develop over 1100 horsepower in qualifying trim. The #6 car with sponsorship from the Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company’s L&M cigarette brand, won the pole position for at the opening race at Mosport Park and dominated the early stages of the race until Donohue pitted with engine problems.

With the problems solved, Donohue returned to the track three laps down then stormed back to finish second to finish on the same lap as winner Denny Hulme’s McLaren. After Donohue was injured in a pre-race test crash before the series’ next race at Road Atlanta, he was replaced by George Follmer who won five of the remaining eight races and the 1972 SCCA Can-Am championship while Donohue, recovered from his injuries, won one race in his twin 917/10.

Although the McLaren juggernaut had been vanquished in 1972 and McLaren had quit the series, for the 1973 Can-Am season Porsche and Team Penske continued their development program and built the most powerful racing car ever built to that time.  The 917/30 was bigger and faster in every aspect compared to the 1972 racer with a longer and aerodynamically efficient body and an engine that developed up to 1500 horsepower for qualifying.

 

 

 

Mark Donohue and the Sunoco-sponsored 917/30 won six of the season’s eight races, finished second once and won the championship in dominant fashion over his ex-teammate Follmer and Charlie Kemp who drove the former Penske 917/10 cars for Rinzler Racing with RC Cola sponsorship.  

 

 

 

The Porsche 917’s back-to-back domination of the series combined with the nationwide gasoline shortage led the Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) to introduce a rule requiring 3-miles per gallon maximum fuel consumption for the series for 1974.  The new rule worked as Porsche withdrew from further Can-Am competition.

 

Without Porsche and Penske racing, competitor and fan interest ebbed and five races into the 1974 season, the SCCA cancelled the Can-Am series. Although the Can-Am series had already lost teams and spectators through the years, the death of the series was blamed on Porsche’s domination, and the 917/30 was branded “the Can-Am killer.”  Penske and Donohue saw it as another example of applying their “Unfair Advantage.”

The history of the 917/30 is worth reviewing. A total of six chassis were eventually built, but only three cars were actually raced in period, and only two of those competed in blue and yellow Sunoco colors. All six cars remain in existence and today five of them are painted in the Sunoco colors. 

The first car built, serial number #001 built during 1972 featured an adjustable wheelbase and served as the factory test car. In 1973 #001 was raced three times in the Group 7 European Interserie Championship (the European version of the Can-Am series) and scored a victory at Hockhenheim Germany driven by of Vic Elford. It raced again in 1975 and won at Hockenheim driven by Herbert Mueller. It is part of the Porsche factory collection, painted as it appeared in 1975 in sponsor’s Martini & Rossi colors of silver, red white and blue.

917/30 chassis serial number #002 was one of two cars built for use by Team Penske and Mark Donohue in the 1973 Can-Am challenge series. Donohue drove it to his first 1973 Can-Am victory in the third round of the season at Watkins Glen.

 

Serial #002 was later seriously damaged in a testing crash then was completely rebuilt and served as the Penske backup for the remainder of the 1973 season. After the Can-Am program had ended chassis serial number 002 was returned to Porsche and it has since been part of the factory museum collection. 

 

 

 

The car on display at “The Porsche Effect” exhibit at the Petersen Automotive Museum, chassis 917/30 #003 is the most historically significant as it was the most successful, driven by Mark Donohue to six consecutive victories in the 1973 SCCA Can-Am series.

 

 

 

Mark won both heats at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course, followed by a win at Road America (where he won the pole position by over three seconds), Edmonton International Speedway, Laguna Seca Raceway (where he won by a lap) and the season finale  at Riverside International Raceway.

With the withdrawal of Penske and Porsche from the 1974 Can-Am series following the SCCA fuel mileage rule change, the car sat in Penske’s Pennsylvania shop until 1975 when the bodywork was modified and painted in red and white to represent its sponsorship from “Cam 2” motor oil (a new hobbyist oil from Sun Oil Company) for Mark Donohue’s attempt to break the world’s closed course speed record.

In preliminary testing at Daytona International Speedway, the team broke the original 330-cubic inch engine as they discovered that the mighty flat-12 engine was not designed for sustained wide open throttle operation.  This meant they had to use the smaller 305-cubic inch engine from 1972, and with help from Porsche engineers, massive intercoolers were fitted to cool the charge air. 

The track chosen for the record attempt was the 2.66-mile long Talladega Motor Speedway oval in Alabama. Donohue, who had returned to driving after a short retirement of eight months, cut short his first attempt due to an engine wiring fire that destroyed the rear bodywork.

 

After overnight repairs, Donohue’s second attempt the following day on August 9th, 1975 in rainy and windy conditions opened with a lap of 195 miles per hour (MPH) from a standing start, followed by a 220.027 MPH lap, then on his third lap he set a new closed course standard of 211.160 MPH, with a recorded trap speed on the long back straightaway of 240 MPH.

 

 

 

The team expected faster lap speeds, but Donohue confessed after the run "I might have gone a little faster, too, but I got chicken," as he cited the weather conditions. Ten days later Donohue was killed in an accident while practicing for the Austrian Grand Prix, but his speed record stood for 11 years until it broken by Penske IndyCar driver Rick Mears, who reset the record at 233.924 MPH at Michigan International Speedway. 

In 1976 Porsche chassis 917/30-003 was sold to noted American collector and Los Angeles Times owner/publisher Otis Chandler who had the car returned to its 1973 Can-Am appearance as part of his extensive collection. Following Chandler’s death, the car changed hands several times, and within the last few years it was purchased by  investment banker racer and NASCAR team owner Rob Kauffman who had chassis serial #003 recently meticulously restored by Canepa Motorsports of Scotts Valley California.

Chassis 917/30 #004 was under construction intended for use for the 1974 Can-Am season, but became obsolete following Porsche and Penske's withdrawal from the Can-Am series. It was sold as an unpainted car to long-time Porsche racer and Melbourne Australia Porsche dealer Alan Hamilton who displayed it in his showroom and later sold the car back to the Porsche factory in 1991. Porsche had #004 painted in the Sunoco livery and fitted with a rebuilt engine which reportedly produced 1,200 horsepower during a dynamometer test. At one time 917/30 chassis # 004 was owned by comedian Jerry Seinfeld.  

Chassis 917/30 #005 was never completed as work stopped with the termination of the program. In 1979, it was found at the Weissach factory as a bare chassis by Florida Porsche/Audi dealer and Porsche collector Gerry Sutterfield. After the factory’s discovery of a mislabeled 917 engine in storage and the exchange of a huge sum of money Porsche completed the car for Sutterfield and was delivered painted white with the Porsche logos. 917/30 chassis serial #005 was used for a track test that was published in the March 1982 issue of  Motor Trend magazine, and a subsequent owner had it painted in its current Sunoco livery.

Chassis 917/30-006 the final chassis was acquired by legendary Porsche dealer Vasek Polak in 1982 along with existing parts were after he found sufficient parts to complete the car in 1995 and had it painted as it might have appeared in the Group 7 European Interserie Championship. The car has since been painted in “Cam 2” motor oil livery to resemble the 1975 record attempt 917/30 serial number 003. 

Color photos by the author

 

“500” Platolene gasoline

 

Several  years ago an episode of the History Channel "reality" television program 'American Pickers,' made a visit to Southern Indiana. At one site, one of the show's two protagonists bought a large old porcelain service station sign that read “500 Platolene” which used a checkered flag. The owner of the sign mumbled something about the people that ran the Indianapolis ‘500’ had owned this service station chain. Was this truth or reality show fiction?
 

Anton “Tony” Hulman Junior, who bought the Indianapolis Motor Speedway from Eddie Rickenbacker in 1945, was born in Terre Haute Indiana the only child of grocery magnate Anton Hulman and his second wife Ada Grace Smith Hulman.  Ada’s family owned the Princeton Mining Company and the Deep-Vein Coal Company both bituminous coal mining operation as well as Princeton Farms all in the vicinity of Princeton Indiana about 80 miles due south of Terre Haute.

Henry P. Smith Junior operated those businesses after the death of his father as well as the RJ Oil and Refining Company which in addition to its refinery RJ operated 100 service stations in Illinois, Indiana and Kentucky. Henry’s cousin, Tony Hulman was a partner in RJ Oil and Henry’s son, Donald Smith (later a Hall of Fame racing promoter) was RJ Oil’s sales manager.

In 1953 RJ Oil undertook a one million dollar expansion of its refinery that was completed in August 1953. The refinery was the first such plant in the area that used a new process developed by Universal Oil Products of Des Plaines Illinois known as “platforming”

In an article published in the Terre Haute Tribune,  Smith promised motorists that the company '500' service stations  will have “the most powerful, cleanest burning, most economical gasoline that has even been refined” because of “the specially developed catalyst in this secret new process.” The process used “precious platinum, a metal more costly than gold;” in 1953 an ounce of platinum cost $70 compared to $40 for an ounce of gold.  The name of the new gasoline was “Platolene” - the “gasoline made with platinum.” The name and logo ‘500 Platolene’ was trademarked in 1953.   

 

A matchbook from the author's collection combines two

Tony Hulman businesses - 500 Platolene and the

Meadows Shopping Center (Terre Haute's first mall)

 

 

Today the Smith and Hulman family business interests remained intertwined. Tony George, Tony Hulman's only grandson, recently re-installed as chairman of Hulman & Company currently sits on the board of directors of First Financial Bank N.A. (once run by the late Don Smith), Deep Vein Coal Company, Princeton Mining Company, and R.J. Oil Company.  

Postscript

 

 

 

There is one final racing connection to this story. In the early nineteen seventies Universal Oil Products (UOP) developed a new process known as ‘CCR platforming’ that allowed refineries to produce high-octane lead-free gasoline. To help promote their new process, in August 1971, UOP signed a sponsorship deal with Don Nichols’ Advanced Vehicle Systems.

The series of sinister black race cars in the SCCA Can-Am and Formula One series were known as “UOP Shadows.” The UOP Shadow DN4A driven by Jackie Oliver and powered by a 494-cubic inch Chevrolet engine powered by lead-free gasoline won the 1974 SCCA Can-Am championship.   

Postscript 2

Tony Hulman became a partner with RJ Smith in the Princeton Farms the primary product of which was popcorn. Around 1940 Smith and Hulman hired the former Vigo County Farm Bureau extension agent to run the Princeton Farms. The agent who ran the Farms for 12 years later became world-famous for marketing his own brand of popcorn: Orville Redenbacher.

Mark Donohue’s 1967 Can-Am Lola T70

The Sunoco Race Fuels booth at the 2017 PRI (Performance Racing Industry) trade show featured a Lola T70 Mark IIIB car as raced in 1967 SCCA (Sports Car Club of America) J Wax Canadian-American (Can-Am) Challenge series for FIA Group 7 cars by Mark Donohue for Roger Penske Racing Enterprises.

 

The FIA Group 7 regulations developed in 1966 specified few rules - the cars had to be fitted with fenders, windshield, two seats, two doors, headlights, taillights, roll bar, dual braking system and a self-starter and that they must run on commercial gasoline.

 

 

 

This particular Lola chassis was the third of three Lola T70s purchased by Penske over a two-year period.  Lola Cars, based in England was founded in 1958 by designer Eric Broadley. The T70 was by far the company’s most successful customer car with over hundred cars built in three iterations, with its reputation established after a Lola T70 Mark II driven by John Surtees won the inaugural SCCA J Wax Can-Am series in 1966.

 

 

The first Penske Lola car, a Mark II series identified as chassis number SL71/21, was raced during the 1966 season but after just three races was destroyed in a crash in the Watkins Glen Grand Prix after contact with John Cannon’s spinning Genie owned by actor Dan Blocker. The subsequent fire after the crash virtually destroyed SL71/21 which was replaced by Lola Mark II chassis number SL71/32.  

The second Penske Lola T70 chassis powered by a 327-cubic inch Chevrolet V-8 built by Traco Engineering was dominant in the 1967 United States Road Racing Championship (USRRC) as Donohue won five of the series’ first seven races - the rounds at Las Vegas’ Stardust International Raceway, California’s Riverside International Raceway, the sandy Bridgehampton Road Course on Long Island, Watkins Glen, and Pacific Raceway in Kent Washington.    

 

Chassis SL71/32 was damaged in a July 1967 crash during a private Firestone tire test at Riverside and though it was later repaired, Penske needed a new car for the start of the 1967 SCCA Can-Am Series so he took delivery of our feature car, identified as chassis SL75/124, a Mark IIIB lightweight Spyder.

 

The new dark blue Lola debuted at the 1967 USRRC season finale at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course powered by a thundering Chevrolet 427-cubic inch V-8 engine. Donohue set quick time in qualifying, posted the fastest lap during the race and won the race by three laps over Jerry Hansen to clinch the 1967 USRRC championship.    

Despite the Lola’s Mid-Ohio success, testing showed that the 427-cubic inch engine lacked reliability, so for the 1967 Can-Am series the car was powered by a 327-cubic inch Chevrolet engine.  With finishes in only three of the series’ six rounds Donohue finished tied with John Surtees for third in points behind Bruce McLaren and Denny Hulme and their dominant McLaren M6As.  

 

 

The key visual elements of this Lola T70 are the unique ram-air inlets located on either side of the roll bar. In his 1974 book The Unfair Advantage Donohue remembered the inlets as “….the greatest things! They made the car look like a spaceship. We didn’t realize that they were interfering with airflow to the rear spoiler, which probably offset any gains in horsepower. And they would crack, and they would fall apart, and we even sucked their screens into the carburetors.”  

Penske sold the car to the Carroll Shelby and Shelby Racing used it to test various engines and suspension parts.  Later in 1968, long-time Shelby American employees, brothers Charlie and Kerry Agapiou were encouraged by the Ford Motor Company to start a Can-Am team, and they bought using the Lola T70 from Shelby and raced the car with a hugely powerful Ford 427-cubic inch bored out to 464 cubic inches.

 

The Agapiou brothers started the season with Ronnie Bucknum as the driver but later George Follmer came on board. The car proved to be powerful and fast but unreliable though Follmer did finish second in the final 1968 Can-Am race at Las Vegas.

 

 

After its racing career ended, Lola SL75/124 was rebodied as the T70 coupe version and it spent time in a museum, but later it was sympathetically restored to its 1967 Can-Am appearance. Currently fitted with a 365-cubic inch Chevrolet V-8 engine it is raced in vintage events frequently.  

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All Photos by the author

 

A pair of real race cars at the Petersen

During a summertime 2017 tour of the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles, the author photographed a pair of nineteen seventies real race cars. 

This McLaren M8F represents what the author considers the pinnacle of American road racing, the Canadian-American Challenge Cup for group 7 race cars, basically no rules racing. In 1971, the author, then a teenager, pleaded with his father for weeks to attend the Valvoline Can-Am race in August at the Mid-Ohio sports car course. 

The author was thrilled when Denny Hulme qualified his #5 McLaren M8F powered by a 494-cubic inch Chevrolet big-block engine for the pole position, but was disappointed when the mighty McLaren broke its drive line on the pace lap and never raced. 

Hulme and his teammate Peter Revson battled Jackie Stewart in the weird box-like Lola T260 all season long, and no racer besides those three men won any of the ten Can-Am races held in 1971. Stewart won two races that included Mid-Ohio, while Hulme won three races. Peter Revson won five races and was crowned the Can-Am champion.

This McLaren M8F example part of the Museum's permanent collection was restored by Canepa Motorsports of Scotts Valley California. 

In 1976, regular race fans could watch a Formula 1 grand prix race without confusion; the Ferrari is powered by a 183-cubic inch flat 12 cylinder engine connected to a transverse mounted five-speed gearbox. There was no carbon fiber, electro-hydraulic shifted transmissions, DRS wings, or  two-way communication with the "strategist" of the modern Formula One, just drivers that drove like hell. 

This Ferrari 312T2 represents the car defending world champion Niki Lauda drove that season, thus it carried the number 1. Even casual fans know the story of the 1976 season due to the success of the motion picture Rush.  Lauda nearly burned to death in a crash in Germany but returned to action after he missed two races six weeks later at Italy and finished fourth. 

Lauda won five races to James Hunt's six and lost the World Championship to Hunt by a single point after he withdrew after three laps in the season-ending Japanese Grand Prix. Citing the danger of racing in a downpour, as Lauda later said "my life is worth more than a title."  Lauda returned with the 312T2  in 1977 and won the second of his three world championships.    

This Ferrari  312T2 is part of the exhibit "Seeing Red: 70 years of Ferrari" in the Bruce Meyer gallery through April 2018.   

Photos by the author