Muscle Man
Introduction
In 1971 Graeme Lawrence had the world at his feet. His time in the sublime Ferrari 246T had really put him on the map in Australasia as a topline professional – winning the Tasman Series and various grands prix in South East Asia attests to that. Buying the cutting-edge Lola T300 later in the year should have consolidated his status as a F5000 front runner. Instead, it almost killed him…
In part 2 we look in detail at the monster T300 crash that nearly ended Lawrence’s career, his heroic fightback to the front in a Lola T332 and how he just missing out on another Tasman crown. We detail his long running love affair with racing Atlantic racing cars in South East Asia, where he effectively became a fly-in-fly-out driver earning a motza. There are tin top sorties in an E38 Charger and several Bathurst starts; in class Triumph Dolomite Sprints and as a stalwart in everyone’s favourite privateer Murray Carter’s XC and XD Falcon. Lawrence also ran his own Formula Atlantic/Pacific race team for a decade in New Zealand annual international series for a decade. His drivers included Indycar stars such as Davy Jones and Paul Tracy and a future Dutch F1 driver by the name of Jos Verstappen… There’s so much more to the man they call ‘Shag’
Lola T300
By mid-1971 the F5000 brigade had their act together and the 2.0 and 2.5-litre cars, like Lawrence’s Brabham BT29, couldn’t keep up. The Brabham was competitive at that year’s Australian GP at the tight Warwick Farm finishing fourth behind three F5000s. But the writing was on the wall, especially after Frank Gardner turned some quick laps in the light and nimble Lola T300. Based on a F2 monocoque, the T300 would soon change the face of F5000. Lola would dominate the category for its entire lifespan.
Lawrence ordered the third production Lola T300 produced. It arrived in late 1971, in time for the Bay Park meeting, where it scored a win. The bright yellow T300, sponsored by JBL Freight, was one of the favourites for the 1972 Tasman.
“The deal was for $25,000 for the season,” Lawrence recalls. “We had uniforms done but in the end they didn’t pay a cracker! Father wasn’t happy about the Lola, he felt it was a bit flimsy. The fire extinguisher sat out the front – what a stupid place! We made up some other panels to strengthen the front-end structure.”
After qualifying sixth for the Grand Prix at Pukekohe behind the internationals, he was third by the back straight, but a moment at the hairpin put him to the back of the field. A gritty recovery drive saw Lawrence up to seventh by lap 40, but John McCormack’s Elfin MR5 was proving tricky to pass. What followed was a tale of total carnage and tragedy, as he relates. “I worked my way back up behind Mac and he was really difficult to pass; no one was holding a blue flag. The accident has been relayed to me by Kenny
