Run, Lola, Run

If youre looking for a vintage race car, you can't do better than find one that has just been rebuilt from the ground up. And if a champion driver like Bobby Rahal did that restoration, all the better.

In 1999, when Rahal wanted to go vintage racing against his old teammate and rival Brian Redman, he first looked for the Lola he'd raced in the Can-Am series in 1973. Failing to find it, he bought this one instead, a Group 6 T298 s/n HU-98 built August 31, 1979.

One of the last of a very successful type built by Lola from 1973 to 1980, it was shipped to Heini Mader Racing in Switzerland, where a BMW M12/7 16-valve, four-cylinder engine was mated to the Hewland 5-speed transaxle. The car was then delivered to Italian driver Mauro Nesti, who campaigned it with much success in road races and hillclimbs throughout Italy.

The car was still in Italy when Rahal bought it through broker Mark Leonard of Grand Prix Classics in La Jolla, California. In November 1999, it was flown from Milan to Ohio, where Rahal discovered that it was not quite as "race ready" as it had been described -at least not to Rahal's demanding standards. Over the winter, Rahal had Clay Filson Racing go over the car from nose to tail, and ordered a new body from Tony Waterman in England. Waterman used the original factory molds to make the replica bodywork in Kevlar, which is both lighter and stronger than the fiberglass used by Lola back in 1979.

As the bodywork was being prepared, Rahal opted for the older-style short track wing over the long track type fitted to most later Lolas. Since the circuits used by American vintage racing organizations tend to be shorter, twistier courses with only moderate straights, the higher-downforce short track setup is more ideal. It was also standard on the earlier T292 and T294 Lolas with which Rahal was already familiar. Once it arrived in Ohio, the new bodywork was painted black and given the number 3, Rahals racing number from his Indy 500 win.

It was time to go racing, so Rahal took the Lola BMW to Florida for the historic races in West Palm Beach, then on to California for a vintage 2-liter event at Sears Point (now Infineon Raceway) in Northern California during the fall of 2000.

Fast, fun racer
There, Rahal was taking some practice laps, when race car developer and driving coach Bob McCormick pulled out of the pits in another car. Rahal slowed down to let McCormick catch up, and the two then raced around the track at full-tilt. McCormick would pass the Lola under braking, then Rahal would put his foot in it and shoot past again.

The Lola's speed impressed McCormick's client Tom Byrnes, who was watching from the sidelines. That winter, he decided to find a 2-liter car of his own to race. "Theyre fast, fun, and less expensive than Formula One cars," McCormick says. "Lots of bang for the buck!"

Rahal and his car, meanwhile, had gone back to Ohio, where a complete ground-up rebuild was underway over the winter of 2000-2001. Since the Lola's folded and riveted aluminum box tub lasts for just three or four racing seasons, a new one was fabricated at Filson Racing. Two BMW M12/7 engines - the one that came with the car as well as a spare Rahal had bought - were sent to Veloce Motors West in Petaluma, California, where Dave Vegher would give them the complete rebuild's they need after 10-12 hours of use. (Vegher is the U.S. M12 expert, and he's also got a vast stockpile of racing parts on hand, having acquired the inventories of the late Vasek Polak and McLaren Cars USA, BMW NA's racing partner in the 70s and 80s.)

In the spring of 2001, Byrnes contacted Mark Leonard, whod found the car for Rahal. Byrnes mentioned the Rahal Lola when he asked for a 2-liter sports prototype, and Leonard called Rahal to ask if it might be for sale. Even though Rahal would soon be moving to England to take up his post as the head of Jaguar Racing, he initially declined to sell the Lola." It was too much fun", he said. Within a day, however, he realized that the decision was impractical and called Leonard back to say he would sell the car. Byrnes jumped at the chance to buy it; Filson was still reassembling the Lola in Ohio when the deal was closed. As soon as it was ready, the T298 was shipped to Byrnes' garage at Sears Point, where it would join his other vintage race cars - an ex-Bruce McLaren 1962 Cooper T62 (the Australian GP winner), and a 1964 Brabham BT8.

Over the next four months, McCormick made modifications and adjustments to adapt the Lola to Byrnes' driving style. He also reinforced the Lola's notoriously weak front end by adding an additional cross-member of sandwiched and honeycombed aluminum in the front of the tub. Byrnes didn't mind the extra weight to gain a little more crush resistance in a head-on collision, which would protect against the Lola limp that can result from such impacts.

McCormick also tweaked the unequal-length double A-arm suspension with its parallel lower links in the rear until it performed as desired, and he tested the 4-piston Lockheed disc brakes at ever corner. The car's original three-piece Lola wheels showed signs of weakness upon X-ray inspection, so they were stored in favor of a set of 13-inch Jongbloed wheels that also came with car and a set of Avon racing slicks. Before the Lola BMW made its first appearance at the 2002 Wine Country Classic, Rahal's #3 was replaced with Byrnes #97, and historic sponsor logos were added to offset the paint. The cars sleek black visuals caused quite a sensation, and its quickness and agility on the track were apparent to even the most casual fan.

Return to the Wine Country
Since the winter had been spent preparing the car, Byrnes didn't have enough seat time to feel entirely comfortable racing it. He turned the driving chores over to McCormick, his coach since 1991. In Saturday's qualifying session for Can-Am cars, McCormick and the Lola BMW had just one challenger: engine-builder Dave Vegher in a Cosworth-powered Chevron B26. As the two cars battled each other around the track, fans were reminded of the duels that had taken place when both cars were new. McCormick and Vegher were far out in front of the field and Vegher crossed the line just ahead of McCormick. The crowd was on its feet, cheering for that rare thing in vintage racing: a real race between equally matched cars and drivers.

On Sunday, the excitement was high when the Can-Am group rolled onto the track for the last race of the day. Unusually, most of the fans had stayed to watch rather than leave early. As the pace car peeled off into the pits after the warm-up lap, Vegher and McCormick were first and second as decreed by their qualifying performances when the third-place car shot forward from behind before Turn 1. Trying to squeeze past the first two cars as the track narrowed and dipped, he hit the left wall, careening into the rear of the Chevron and sending it out of control toward the infield.

The Chevron kissed the Lola as it went by, sending McCormick into a spin and finally into the wall at about 80 mph. The car hit front-first, but since McCormick had installed honeycombed reinforcing, he escaped without injury and with only minor damage to the car. After much anticipation, the race between the B26 and the T298 was over before it had begun.

Since that exciting and dramatic debut, Byrnes has learned to drive the BMW-powered Lola and now competes in it himself, although a lot of the Hewland's non-synchromesh gears were trashed in the process. "The hardest thing was to learn to downshift as soon as I take my foot off the gas. You can't go into a turn with this car and downshift from 5th to 2nd like I was used to doing in other cars. You have to keep the revs up above 7,500 or the engine bogs down and you lose a lot of time trying to get going again. You have to go through all the gears all the time."

Nonetheless, he loves driving the Lola BMW and is pleased to keep this 2-liter sports prototype in the public eye. It always competes well, and it always attracts an appreciative crowd that loves to watch this sleek black beauty in action.

Copyright Thom Anderson 2004