LOLA T600

By H.A. Branham 

The Lola T600 was a comet of sorts across the IMSA landscape but also a bridge, coming smackdab in between the days when increasingly exotic production-based cars ruled and the GTP technology train arrived to alter North American sports racing for evermore.

The T600 was IMSA’s first customer car and the first to use ground tunnel effects. It was unique for its time as the GTPs would be later in the decade, although perhaps not as space-age appearing. Still, it was pretty wild in retrospect and set the tone for what could come years later.

Lola's Eric Broadley, wanting new chassis and bodywork for new IMSA GTP specs, hired developed specifically for the new IMSA GTP regulations. He hired aerodynamicist Max Sardou to design the then-revolutionary ground effects.

It was something different, a game-changer. Not the most aesthetically pleasing car because it wasn’t trying to be; Lola was trying to build functional cars to win races, in a groundbreaking, maverick-like fashion. 

Mission accomplished, because after the Lola T600, aerodynamics played a far more significant role in IMSA and beyond. Basically, it backhanded the sport’s technical foundation. Henceforth, emphasis no longer focused on power-to-weight ratios but rather aerodynamics.

Cooke-Woods Racing was the first to purchase a T600 and got to the party late, debuting in the 1981 season’s fifth race. It still was time enough. Brian Redman, Broadley’s longtime sports car cohort, drove to three consecutive victories – WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca, Lime Rock Park and the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course. Redman later won twice more clinched the IMSA GT title, ending a four-year Porsche streak.

“It's been one of those years,” Redman said in 1981, after clinching the title. “You get them about one in 10. Absolutely everything I've done has come up roses. This has just been my year. Almost as if it were willed.”

Both Redman and part-owner Roy Woods departed after the season. The rebranded Cooke Racing Team would never approach 1981’s level.

But Cooke-Woods Racing was not alone as more Lolas began to appear.

John Paul Jr. and JLP Racing, Ted Field and Interscope Racing, and Chris Cord and Chris Cord Racing started bringing more of the T600s to the IMSA paddock. 

Redman and Paul brought two Lolas to the podium at Sonoma Raceway (Sears Point Raceway) and Cord and Jim Adams were third at the 500-miler at Road America. 

In ’82, it was a mixed bag although still quite successful. Paul Jr. won seven times but only once in a Lola, creating, technically, a split championship between Lola and Porsche. 

Lola T600s did take the checkered four other times; Interscope’s pair of Field and Danny Ongais, also known as the “Flyin’ Hawaiian,” won the Paul Revere 250 at Daytona International Speedway, 500-miler at Pocono Raceway and three-hour Daytona finale. Field and Ted Whittington brought home the triumph earlier in the year for Interscope at the six hours of Riverside International Raceway. 

Cord, now running for Rayfin, Inc., also visited the podium in a Lola during the year. 

The 1983 season produced no victories. New imposing GTP chassis such as March and Jaguar were now superior to the Lola. Times had changed and the real beasts, Porsche 962s, weren’t even on the scene yet. 

That’s not to say there weren’t still legendary drivers and teams running the T600. Hurley Haywood, for instance, finished fourth in a Lola in a 100-miler at WeatherTech Raceway Laguna Seca in 1983. John Morton and Bob Lobenberg finished third in a Phil Conte-entered Lola for Conte Racing in a three-hour race at the streets of Miami in March 1984. 

The last T600 entry in an IMSA event was in 1987, Del Mar, California. Tommy Kendall finished 25th – next to last.

The comet had diminished, down to a tail. But what a sight it had been to behold.