In 1969, Roger Penske fielded a Lola T70 MkIII-B coupe with a race prepared 5 litre Chevrolet V8 engine in the 24hr race at Daytona in Florida. Also entered were several Porsche prototypes and a number of Ford GT40s, so competition was expected to be strong. In the event though, the Porsche prototypes (mostly 908s) failed to last the distance and this car driven by Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons won.
Ronnie Bucknum was meant to have partnered Mark Donohue for this race, but he broke his finger in a motorcycle accident and had to withdraw. Chuck Parsons was flown in from California by Roger Penske to take his place but he nearly didn't make it either. He missed the first plane he was meant to take, which was a fortunate event for him, as that flight was hijacked!
Donohue started in the Lola from second place on the grid behind the pole sitting Porsche 908 driven by Vic Elford and Brian Redman. Penske had instructed his drivers not to race too hard in the first stages of the race, as lasting the distance was the key to victory and pushing the car hard early on would decrease it's chances of lasting the full 24hrs. As soon as the flag fell this plan went out the window and Mark Donohue chased hard after Vic Elfords 908. First to hit problems was the Penske Lola, Donohue bringing the car into the pits suffering from fuel starvation. It was discovered that the fuel pump was unable to pick up the last third of the tanks fuel capacity, which meant the team would have to make many more stops for fuel over the 24hrs than planned.
Porsche soon hit problems too, when the exhaust manifolds on the 908s began cracking up. This required lengthy pit stops to remove and then replace the hot exhausts. The Penske Lola came into the pits streaming fire from it's exhausts and it too was found to have a fractured exhaust manifold. Unlike Porsche, Penske did not have any spare exhausts so the cracked original system was taken off the car, welded up and given new seals. The repairs cost the team an hour and 19 minutes, and when they rejoined the race they were 40 laps behind the leaders. But in a 24hr race anything can happen and happen it did! The leading Porsches began to fail overnight, all with the same problem. Initially the Porsches were pitting with what was believed to be a broken alternator belt, but when this was replaced, the cars refused to fire up again and were found to have a broken driveshaft between the crankshaft and the camshaft. Porsche did not have any replacement parts to repair this failure and one by one the 908s retired.
Porsches misfortune helped the John Wyer Gulf sponsored GT40s and at the 3am mid-point of the race they were in first and second places. But at 4.30am one GT40 with Mike Hailwood at the wheel retired with a cracked cylinder head, and shortly after dawn Jacky Ickx lost control of the other Gulf GT40 and hit a wall, ending his race.
At 7am the starter motor failed on the Penske Lola, costing another 17 minutes in the pits, and when they rejoined they were 200 miles behind the sole remaining Porsche 908. At 8.15am the last 908 suffered the same fate as it's team-mates and retired. This left the Penske Lola in 3rd place overall, but it was the lead car still running and over the following two hours it made up the distance on the now retired Mitter/Schultz Porsche 908 and the Ickx/Oliver GT40 and took the lead. For the remainder of the race the Lola behaved itself, and apart from the nuisance of frequent stops for fuel continued on to win the race. The Penske Lola completed 2382.63 miles and 626 laps over the 24 hours, averaging over 99mph. After the race, an ABC television commentator asked the winning drivers and Roger Penske "had they ever won a race with so much going wrong?", at which all three of them burst into laughter! It was a good example of the saying, "to finish first, first you have to finish".
After their success at Daytona, the Penske team came under pressure from Chevrolet to enter the car in that years 24hrs of LeMans. Penske had not initially intended to compete at LeMans that year, but flushed with their success at Daytona they agreed to give it a shot. Unfortunately it was not to be as the truck carrying the winning Lola back to Penske's workshops in Ohio was stolen! Eventually the truck along with the stripped out shell of the Lola was found, but all the race prepared engines for the car were ruined and much of the teams equipment was gone. There was no time to rebuild their Lola racing effort in time for LeMans so they did not get the chance to enter in 1969. The car was rebuilt with a roadgoing version of the Chevrolet V8 and was sold on as a road car. I believe it has now been restored to it's former glory.
This model of the '69 Daytona winner was made by GMP and was released in 2000. When it was released it was rightly criticised for the incorrect shape of it's nose, which was too short and blunt compared to the real thing. Additionally there is a highly visible join between the upper and lower parts of the nose which is not visible on the real car. GMP stated that they accepted the nose did not look right, but the coupe models were based on the open CanAm spider versions of the T70 they had released earlier, and to modify the mold to properly represent the longer nose would not have been cost effective. A real shame as the real thing looks much nicer with it's longer, lower nose. The front bodywork is not removable and nor do the doors open. The rear engine cover does open however to show a nice representation of the race prepared 5 litre Chevy V8. GMP have since raised their game (and their prices too!) since this model was released in 2000 and their more recent models are more accurate and more detailed, with fully opening parts. Until someone else releases a 1:18th of the '69 Daytona winner, this model is the only game in town, and hence for a Mark Donohue fan like myself it has an important place in my collection.
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