Quote:
Originally posted by Alain HACHE
thanks Michael for infos about D Rouveyran .
Now I'm sure that HU01 was not destroy in this accident.
JL Lafosse had an accident with an T280 in practice of 9 H
Kyalami 1972 and the car couldnt start the race . Do you
know something about ?
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Hi Alain
Jeremy has already answered this question - it was indeed a T282 entered by Ecurie Bonnier, crashed by J-L Lafosse and, by all accounts, written off, and probably the prototype as driven by Beltoise/Larrousse at Rouen in October.
Just having a quick look through my old Autosports re the 72 season for clues about chassis numbers:
It appears that HU-02 was driven by Bonnier/Wisell in Buenos Aires, with Larrousse/Craft sharing the prototype HU-01. The magazine reports a plan to sell them and run them for Karl von Wendt being 'apparently quite likely'. However, in the next sentence it says that after the race 'the Wisell car was sold...to a Brazilian driver' but does not say who (one can maybe assume Garcia-Veiga?). This suggests that HU-02 was sold but in fact Wisell drove both cars in the race, switching to the Larrousse/Craft T280 after his own retired. If we know that HU-02 was still with the team at Le Mans, this suggests that they may have sold the older prototype, HU-01, which would make more sense.
However, for the next race at Daytona, Garcia-Veiga was entered in the second car, alongside Craft and Larrousse, so maybe Bonnier did a deal such as suggested with von Wendt, e.g. they sold the car but continued running it for Garcia-Veiga and pairing him with their own drivers? Alternatively, maybe they never sold the car at all, but struck a deal for Garcia-Vega to drive it (e.g. sold a race drive) at Sebring and this was mis-reported as Garcia-Veiga having bought the whole car!
For Sebring, they are reported as only bringing one car, HU-02, for Bonnier/Wisell/Larrousse. For Round 4 at Brands Hatch, I know 2 Bonnier cars started, as there is a picture of them just after the start of the race. A few other interesting points: "By contrast to all these operations, that of Ecurie Bonnier is very much a shoestring effort. Their Lola-Cosworth T280s, the only two in existence, looked rather travel weary and were in need of some real development testing." Drivers for this race were Craft/Larousse (HU-01?) and Wisell/Bonnier (HU-02?). When the Craft car retired early on, Larousse switched to the Wisell/Bonnier car until that retired at about half distance (don't think JoBo drove but not 100% sure).
For Monza 1,000 kms, Hughes de Fierlandt replaced Craft as Larousse's partner, because he brought some money along... Both cars qualified well but went out of the race early on again.
For Round 6 (Spa 1,000kms) it appears that HU-01 may have actually been sold, as it reports Larrousse as driving "Lola number two after driving the original car all the rest of the season" and he shared with de Fierlandt. Wisell/Bonnier might have been originally entered but they don't appear to have turned up.
Don't think any T280s started Round 7, the Targa Florio. Ditto Round 8, Nurburgring 1,000kms, although Bonnier/Larousse were present driving an FVC-powered T290. I believe that by this stage the two cars were being prepared for Le Mans, with a reported 48,000 man hours being put into the task.
For Le Mans, two cars were fielded for Bonnier/Larrousse/van Lennep (Wisell was injured apparently)and de Fierlandt/Jorge de Bagration/Mario Cabral. Maybe the identities of two of the co-drivers is an indication that this second car had been sold before Le Mans to a Spanish or Portugese owner (sorry don't know the nationalities of these two!)? The Bonnier car (HU-02?) was destroyed in JoBo's fatal accident, while the de Fierland/de Bagration/Cabral car (which had also been driven by Larousse, in fact don't even know if de B and Cab got a drive) retired around midnight.
The following weekend (June 18th), Carlos Caspar is reported as winning the sports car race at Estoril in his "Lola-DFV T280". So, either this is HU-01 (or HU-02 depending on which car Bonnier was driving when he crashed!), ex-Le Mans or a new car. It seems this might have been a new car (HU-03?) because for the next round of the World Sportscar Championship at Osterreichring (June 25th), Vic Elford appears, partnered by Larrousse, "driving the Ecurie Bonnier second Lola T280 which had also appeared at Le Mans". By definition this can only be the car driven by de Fierlandt et al and it really depends how you interpret the use of the words "Ecurie Bonnier second Lola T280", e.g. if it was the number two car in the squad (which is what I think they mean) or the second T280 built (e.g HU-02)!!! They actually out-qualified all the Ferrari 312Ps for this race, only being beaten to pole by the Mirage. Not bad!
For Round 11, at Watkins Glen (July 22nd), Larrousse was paird with Wisell and Autosport reports that "The Lola was No. 1, and appeared in usual configuration..." Since its race number was 90, one can only assume that this is a reference to the car being chassis HU-01, again supporting the conclusion that it was HU-02 that was destroyed in the Bonnier accident.
For a sports car race at Estoril, November 11th 1972, Carlos Caspar is reported as a 'no-show' in his "3-litre Lola T280", apparently after sponsorship difficulties.
So this leaves us with three reported T280s that have appeared in public during the 1972 racing season.
In its season review of Group 5 sportscar racing, Autosport adds a few more tidbits:
"They were to have been run with sponsorship from Karl von Wendt's racing team, but when von Wendt withdrew after everything had been ordered, the cars were run at Bonnier's expense. They were even supported by his preparation business or BonGrip spike concern. With such an expensive project - around £100,000 invested - Bonnier was forced to take 'paying' drivers...
"The car's debut at Buenos Aires saw it leading at one stage and set fastest lap - a fat that, one would have expected, would make many private entrants think of running a car. This was what Ecurie Bonnier had hoped (Bonnier was the European agent for Lola cars) but surprisingly only one other car was sold throughout the year and this was never raced in Europe."
An interesting comment, particularly in the light of the fact that we know that Caspar raced his at Estoril in June! Maybe the writer didn't regard Portugal as being part of Europe!!!
As Jeremy pointed out, the Paris 1,000kms car was the prototype T282. NB although a T280 is listed in the grid for Smith/Ligonnet, this is actually a misprint and is the 2-litre T290 they had raced that year.
You probably already know a lot of this detail but I hope some bits of it are useful!
Cheers
Michael