Mike Donovan - 1969 Sunoco Lola T70 Mk3B - 2016 Donington Masters Historic 
Great angle to shoot a Lola from, and Mike Donovan's blue & yellow example looks fantastic in it's evocative Sunoco livery. Seen here in the pits midway through it's qualifying session for the FIA Historic Sports Car Championship.
In 1969, Lola unveiled a monocoque version of their T70 race car with hope that it could better compete with the best from Ford, Ferrari and Porsche. The design was certainly up the task, but the limited budget of Lola restricted them from frequent success. Fortunately, Penske Racing won the 1969 Daytona 24-hour outright in their Mk3B and it was the model’s best result.
Based on Lola’s potent Can-Am challenger, the T70 Mk3 Coupé could be seen as GT40 replacement. That’s because Eric Broadley was watching the first GT40 win at Le Mans in 1967 and he was involved car since its inception. Like the GT40, the T70 Coupé used a mid-mounted American V8 in a thoroughly European chassis. Unfortunately the model was up against The Porsche 917 and Ferrari 512M which were in another league.
Aerodynamicist Tony Southgate was responsible for the new sleek body which was much more efficient than the GT40 and the T70 could reach a top speed of 200 mph on the Mulsanne straight. This new Coupé body was made to follow Group 4 regulations which required minimum production of 50 cars and Lola nearly had produced enough Mk1 and Mk2 cars to homologate the Chevrolet-powered version.
Unfortunately the T70 Coupé wasn’t much of a success on the track. It’s only factory-backed outing at Le Mans had Surtees and David Hobbs at the wheel, but the newly developed Aston Martin V8 could only last 25 laps. Later an updated version called the Mk3B was raced by Penske Racing and won the 1969 Daytona 24-hour outright.
(source: supercars.net)
www.motorsportinpictures.com
Motorsport in Pictures on 2016-07-11 21:57:25
Tagged: , Mike , Donovan , 1969 , Sunoco , Lola , T70 , Mk3B , 2016 , Donington , Masters , Historic , FIA , Sports , Car , Champisonship , V8 , Paddock , Pitlane , Pits , dave , Rook , rookdave , Racing , Photography , Motorsport , Motorsportinpictures , www.motorsportinpictures.com , Nikon , D7100 , Sigma , ART
