Flashback: 1980 - Watkins Glen Can Am - [www.ZOOMPICS.com]

1/5/2002 - By Shaun Lumley (www.ZOOMPICS.com)

The fourth round of the 1980 Citicorp Can Am Challenge Cup took place at the historic Watkins Glen. The dominant team since the re-birth of the series in 1977 was the Haas/Hall factory Lola entry. Their driver was Patrick Tambay, a former champion, returning after a couple of years in Formula 1 with McLaren. Tambay won the first three races of the season - Golden State (later renamed Sears Point), Mid Ohio and Mosport.

Much of this early season success could be attributed to not only Tambay’s driving skill but also the team’s preparation. Ground-effects were introduced to many of the new Can Am cars in 1980, which meant that, teams had to contend with a new variable. Understanding ground-effects was such a challenge that Bobby Rahal’s crew removed the skirts from his Prophet at Mid Ohio. This allowed him to qualify on the pole, however, his time was only a third of a second quicker than Keke Rosberg’s lap record. Lola’s latest creation the T-530 incorporated ground-effects and originally suffered from poor straight-line speed and understeer. With few alternatives on the market, most of the top teams chose this model to contest the season.

The Haas/Hall team was able to solve these problems quicker and unlike the competition was finishing races. As a result, Tambay entered Watkins Glen with a 20-point lead in the Driver’s standings. The next closest driver in the point’s chase was Geoff Brabham with 7 and tied for third with 6 points were Al Holbert, Elliott Forbes-Robinson and Bobby Brown. However, the competition was coming to grips with the new cars and by Watkins Glen the Haas/Hall team would find that being at the front of the grid was becoming much more difficult.


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Returning, after missing Mid Ohio and Mosport, due to budget constraints, was John Morton in the Trevor Harris designed Frissbee. Much pre-season talk surrounded this car as Morton turned a 1:11.4 at Riverside during testing - well under Keke Rosberg’s lap record of 1:12.733. At Golden State he qualified the car on the front row and was the only driver that could stay with Tambay. At Watkins Glen, Morton grabbed the pole with a time of 1:39.665. Qualifying in the 1:40s were Geoff Brabham driving for Count Rudy van der Straten and Elliott Forbes-Robinson part of Paul Newman’s team - both in Lola T-530s. Tambay was fourth quickest, however, he was almost 2 seconds slower than Morton.

Qualifying fifth was, Elliott Forbes-Robinson’s teammate, Stephen South a star from the Formula 2 series. Next was Bobby Rahal in Herb Caplan’s Prophet. Starting seventh was Al Holbert in a car called the Holbert CAC-1, which was designed by Lee Dykstra. Fastest of the non ground-effects 5-litre cars was Bobby Brown in a Lola T-333CS. Gary Gove led the under 2-litre contingent with a 1:50.285 in a converted Ralt Formula 2 car. He qualified almost 1.5 seconds quicker than the next under 2-litre car of Bertil Roos. Qualifying had produced some unexpected results and the race would prove no less interesting.


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QUALIFYING

STARTING CLASS        
POSITION POSITION DRIVER CAR ENTRANT TIME
1 1 John Morton Frissbee Brad Frisselle Racing 1:39.665
2 2 Geoff Brabham Lola T-530 Racing Team VDS 1:40.377
3 3 Elliott Forbes-Robinson Lola T-530 Newman Racing 1:40.784
4 4 Patrick Tambay Lola T-530 Carl A. Haas 1:41.516
5 5 Stephen South Lola T-530 Newman Racing 1:42.458
6 6 Bobby Rahal Prophet U.S. Racing 1:43.905
7 7 Al Holbert Holbert CAC-1 Holbert Racing, Inc. 1:44.113
8 8 Bobby Brown Lola T-333CS Bobby Brown Racing 1:46.215
9 9 Robert J. Nelkin Lola T-530 Nelkin Racing 1:47.300
10 10 Danny Sullivan Intrepid GB1 Garvin Brown Racing 1:47.602
11 1 - U2L Gary Gove Ralt RT2 Pete Lovely VW 1:50.285
12 11 Tom Klausler Schkee DB3 Schkee Cars 1:50.841
13 2 - U2L Bertil Roos Chevron B27 Roos Racing School 1:51.723
14 3 - U2L Tony Cicale Cicale Red Roof Inns 1:52.027
15 12 Horst Kroll Lola T-332 Horst Kroll Racing 1:53.424
16 4 - U2L Richard Guider Marquey Elite Racing 1:54.041
17 5 - U2L Ray Petry Chevron Ray Petry 1:57.992
18 6 - U2L Bob Roy March CFI Bob Roy 1:58.492
19 7 - U2L Roman Pechmann Lola T-290 Roman Pechmann 1:59.672
20 8 - U2L Steven Payne-Herbert Lola T-294 Steven Payne-Herbert 2:10.012
21 9 - U2L Michael Prevost Lola T-212 Ecurie Autosport 2:14.109
22 10 - U2L Jim Trueman Cicale Red Roof Inns NT


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There is an old expression in car racing “That the race can not be won in the first corner.” however, this concept seemed to be lost on Tambay. He made a good start allowing him to draw alongside Brabham and Morton - making it three wide into the first corner. Morton had the inside line and braked early with Brabham in the middle who had no alternative but to make contact with Tambay. This forced Tambay off course and by the next lap Brabham had a comfortable lead followed by Morton, Tambay, Forbes-Robinson and South.

The race took an interesting turn on the fourth lap when Forbes-Robinson attempted to pass Tambay at the Scheckter Chicane (since removed but previously located at the Esses). As Forbes-Robinson braked the back wheels locked up sending the car sideways and with no where to go he was collected by his teammate South. Just four laps into the race a quarter of the twenty-car field was gone. Prior to the incident, Michael Prevost was black-flagged and R.J. Nelkin crashed at turn 5. On the same lap as the teammates collided, Tony Cicale retired with electrical problems. The top three, Brabham, Morton and Tambay, ran in close quarters until the tenth circuit when lapping the Lola T-294 of Steven Payne-Herbert. The under 2-litre car lost it’s engine in turn 7 and dropped a large amount of oil. Brabham was quick to avoid the oil slick, however, Morton spun but was able to continue.


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Morton was able to make up the lost time and got within a second of Brabham by the time the pair pitted on lap 37. The van der Straten and Frisselle teams were positioned at opposite ends of the pit lane. Morton’s crew was located at the entrance of the pits and provided him with a very quick stop. He reached Brabham’s pit having got up to speed just as the van der Straten crew waved their driver out. Unfortunately, the two cars made heavy contact at the pit exit and were unable to continue. A lap later Bobby Rahal retired the Prophet with a broken upright. This left only six cars running with seventeen laps remaining. The leader was now Tambay who had a one-lap margin over Danny Sullivan in the Intrepid GB1 and Holbert. They would run this way to the checker with Brown finishing fourth overall followed by Gary Gove the under 2-litre category winner.

Tambay’s victory was somewhat remarkable as it was accomplished without a clutch, second and fourth gears and a deflating tire. But the finishing order of races are not always settled on the track. Citing two incidents, Garvin Brown Racing the entrant of Danny Sullivan’s Intrepid filed a protest against Tambay. First, they maintained that Tambay passed Morton during the full course yellow that occurred as a result of the Forbes-Robinson/South accident. At the time, however, Tambay realized his mistake and allowed Morton to take back his second place. They also claimed that the Haas/Hall team had too many crew members over the wall during a pit stop. The protest was later withdrawn as the team felt it would not have been a proper win and would only have adverse consequences for the series.

RACE RESULTS

OVERALL CLASS        
POSITION POSITION DRIVER CAR ENTRANT LAPS
1 1 - O2L Patrick Tambay Lola T-530 Carl A. Haas 55
2 2 - O2L Danny Sullivan Intrepid GB1 Garvin Brown Racing 54
3 3 - O2L Al Holbert Holbert CAC-1 Holbert Racing, Inc. 54
4 4 - O2L Bobby Brown Lola T-333CS Bobby Brown Racing 53
5 1 - U2L Gary Gove Ralt RT2 Pete Lovely VW 53
6 2 - U2L Roman Pechmann Lola T-290 Roman Pechmann 42
7 5 - O2L Bobby Rahal Prophet U.S. Racing 38
8 6 - O2L Geoff Brabham Lola T-530 Racing Team VDS 37
9 7 - O2L John Morton Frissbee Brad Frisselle Racing 37
10 3 - U2L Bertil Roos Chevron B27 Roos Racing School 36
11 4 - U2L Richard Guider Marquey Elite Racing 33
12 8 - O2L Horst Kroll Lola T-332 Horst Kroll Racing 28
13 5 - U2L Ray Petry Chevron Ray Petry 18
14 6 - U2L Bob Roy March CFI Bob Roy 14
15 7 - U2L Steven Payne-Herbert Lola T-294 Steven Payne-Herbert 9
16 8 - U2L Tony Cicale Cicale Red Roof Inns 4
17 9 - O2L Elliott Forbes-Robinson Lola T-530 Newman Racing 3
18 10 - O2L Stephen South Lola T-530 Newman Racing 3
19 11 - O2L Robert J. Nelkin Lola T-530 Nelkin Racing 2
20 9 - U2L Michael Prevost Lola T-212 Ecurie Autosport 2
21 DNS Tom Klausler Schkee DB3 Schkee Cars DNS
22 DNS Jim Trueman Cicale Red Roof Inns DNS


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A casual review of this race – Tambay’s fourth win in four races, a one lap margin of victory with an ailing car and only six finishers – would suggest a boring and predictable event. However, there was enough drama throughout to make it one of the more interesting races of the 1980 campaign.





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