F5000 Lola T332 at Mallory

[Andrew Kitson]

Thought I'd show you this one as you don't often see racing paintings of F5000 cars.
I painted it in the mid 90s for Dave Finnegan, the ace restorer and mechanic on many historic cars, based at Gamlingay near Cambridge. Dave used to tend the cars of John Jordan - he of the 'Jordans' muesli/crunchy bar fame - who owned this car until recently as Dave has bought it. He also acquired John's M6B Can Am McLaren and two P207 BRM's, one of which he has beautifully restored and was shown at the 'Autosport' show at the NEC recently on the Force stand.

Tony Trimmer drove this Lola to many Libre wins in the 70s/80s and early 90s, as seen here at Mallory in 1984 ahead of Alo Lawler's F1 McLaren M30. It is the ex- Tom Belso car and has had many other wins since Tony drove it, driven by Frank Lyons. Dave also works on Frank's other cars such as McLaren M18 and Surtees TS9 at European historic meetings.
Perhaps I should paint more F5000s or even the Kincraft!

[gfm]

Super stuff Andrew. What great cars. Bet the trees felt close in those!

[Andrew Kitson]

Thanks John. I have fond memories of the 1970s Rothmans F5000 races around Mallory. We used to watch from the hairpin and I remember the great 'wall of sound' that drifted up from the start area as the twenty 5-litre Chevvy V8s lit up - 20 starters being the max on this short 1.35 mile circuit. Then the excitement as they powered into view approaching the Esses. How they got all of these wide hairy single seaters around the first gear hairpin on the first lap in one piece is still a mystery!
The locals in Kirkby Mallory village just behind the hairpin must have had terrible Sunday afternoons relaxing in their gardens with that wonderful relentless Chevvy sound! Hopefully most came to watch.
Just noticed, you can see where Tony Trimmer signed the painting for Dave in the bottom RH corner.

[DaveM]

Another great painting Andrew! You keep producing them like rabbits out of a hat. The ground certainly shook when the F5000s came to Mallory, and didn't they reappear quickly? No sooner had you shaken the ringing out of your ears from the last in the queue whenthe first came into view again.

This is David Prophet in his McLaren at Shaws.

[DaveM]

IIRC Prophet was killed piloting his own helicopter. Maybe someone can either confirm or deny this.

[Andrew Kitson]

Yes, sadly he was Dave. On the way home from Silverstone. Got any more pics?

[paddy]

Great painting Andrew. I think I saw this car being driven by Tony Trimmer on Sky Sports coverage of the Force F5000 race from Brands last season. The programme was on on Monday of this week I think.
I remember David Purley particularly from this era as my Mum took a shine to him! The 1976 F5000 meeting was held during the really hot weather that summer and the organisers cancelled a proposed bicycle race for the drivers because it was too hot. Anyway Purley got his bike anyway and casually rode it down to Gerards where we were watching during the lunch interval. He propped it against the Armco and walked down the jetty and dived into the lake to great cheers from those watching! After a short swim he peddled back to paddock. What a star.
I watch from Gerards still and think of him at most meetings when I see that jetty.

[Dan Rear]

Purley, yeah a real star I always thought, certainly at British National level. That Chevron he had was a lovely thing, superbly prepared (Mike Earle?), and one of the first cars with a 'high nose'. The team were about 15 years ahead of their time. He was great in F2 and Atlantic too, but I guess we'll always remember him more for his involvement in the Williamson tragedy.

Last time I saw him was at the October 79 Silverstine race, going really well in a borrowed works Shadow. For a while in practice, he, Keegan, Kennedy, de Villota were trading fastest times. Every lap in practice, one of them would go faster, spurring the others on. This was the first time I ever realised practice could be quite exciting.

[Dan Rear]

I've been looking at old Mallory progs recently, there was one in, I think 83, with 2 Lola T330s. They were driven by Mike Connor and Dave Williams, the latter being, I think, the Trimmer car . Also in the same Libre race was Alistair Thompsons Iso-Marlboro (which I think he made into a mark3 Cortina Supersaloon of all things!),F2 Marches of Dave Hoban and John Travis, Stuart and Janet Macpherson in Chevron B42 and March 803B, Bain's Atlantic RT4, a FF2000 Van Diemen and S2000 Tiga. There they only ones on my, admittedly awful, photos. Can't remember who won though !!

[Andrew Kitson]

Yes Dan, Dave Williams did drive the Dave Finnigan / Trimmer T332 on occasion.

[allenbrown]

Dan

The Trimmer car started life as Lola T330 HU6, originally Colin Hyams then Trevor Twaites UK 1974 and 1975 (raced also by Brendan McInerny UK 1974), not seen in 1976 and then entered by John Jordan for Tom Belso in 1977. I'm not clear what happened to it between 1977 and 1983, when it reappeared with Williams racing it but, at some point in its life, it was rebuilt with a T332 tub from Lola and given the chassis plate HU42. The real HU42 had been Brian Redman's Haas Racing car in the US in 1974.

Mike Connor had Lola T332 HU62 in 1983, this car having been built new in 1977 for Len Gibbs Racing and went to John Hinley for sprinting before Connor bought it.

I'd guess that Mallory program was for the BRSCC Libre Championship race on 19 July 1983.

Allen

[Andrew Kitson]

Allen - Dave Finnegan has all the records for HU6/HU42 and may be able to fill in the gaps. He also has Jordan's old M6B that was crashed at Thruxton. PM me if you want his contact details.

[allenbrown]

Andrew

How well do you know Dave? When I tried to ascertain exactly when HU6 became HU42, Dave did a very good job of making sure I couldn't understand the answer. He clearly didn't want me to know the full facts. Maybe he was suspicious of my motives.

If you get along with him, would you be able to ask him when the T332 tub came along? This could have been in the 1977-1983 period (pre-Trimmer) but it could also have been some time in the 1990s (post-Trimmer).

Thanks

Allen

[Dan Rear]

Allen

I remember the Connor car being the ex-EL Gibbs Holland car from 77, possibly the last new F5000 ever seen over here. I think Magee used it later in 77, it never seemed to go very well here, I suppose by then the better Gp8 F1s had the measure of the 5000s.

[Joe Austronic]

Did not know so many still remember F5000. Can one find a Shadow F5000 DN6 picture on the Web? Best, Joe

[Greg Nye]

Hi Joe,
Welcome to ten-tenths. Try these

Tom Pryce DN6 Long Beach 75
http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/...5/75long00.htm

Jean-Pierre Jarier DN6A Watkins Glen '75
http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/...75/75wat00.htm

Jackie Oliver DN6A unknown '75
http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/...75/75usf00.htm

Jackie Oliver DN6B unknown '76
http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/...76/76usf00.htm

I must say I’m surprised they are still there. The home page on the link has been missing I would say for at least a year maybe two. There are or where lots of other F5000s and Tasman formula cars here too.

Tasman http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/...as65/tas65.htm then change the URL by 1 untill you get to /tas75/tas75.htm

Australia http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/...us76/aus76.htm then /aus77/aus77.htm

Euro F5000 http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/retro/5069/5069.htm then again by 1 until /5076/5076.htm

US F5000 http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/...sf68/usf68.htm up to /usf76/usf76.htm

There is also http://www.trainingscotland.i12.com/70f1/70f1.htm for non champ F1

Some 450 images altogether. There used to be a lot more F1 and F2 as well but they have disappeared. The was a replacement site at with an ad for a CD of all the images at the old site and a growing collection of new images at http://www.motorracingretro.i12.com/home.htm but that’s gone now too. Anyone know where its gone?

[Greg Nye]

Ive just found the original home page at http://uk.geocities.com/motorracingr...pport/home.htm
unfortunately all of the links beyond the first page are missing but at least you can see whats no longer there. I remember the shock I had when I first discoverd this but fortunately I had keep all the urls for the individual pages as supplied above.

[allenbrown]

Greg

This site has been somewhat controversial. On the F5000 pages you may find some images that look remarkably like copyrighted images found on OldRacingCars.com.

Allen