Lola T332 1977 Australian Grand Prix Oran Park

The Lola T332 was designed by Eric Broadley and produced by Lola Cars for use in the Formula 5000 category. Eric Broadley was the founder and chief designer of Lola Cars, he was one of the most influential race car designers of the post-war period and responsible for designing several high-profile projects for Indycar, Formula One and Lemans.
The car was based on the T330 which for its time was the fastest car in Formula 5000, dominating the US 1973 season. Refinement of the T330 made the T322 the perfect race car and with its introduction the T332 won the UK series in 74, the US series in 74, 75 and 76 and the Tasman series in 75.

The 1977 Rothmans Formula 5000 Series began with the running of the 42nd Australian
Grand Prix at Oran Park. The field for the 1977 series was strong with a host of local and international drivers.
One of the lesser know drivers was Alan Jones the son of racing great Stan Jones. Although
Alan had several promising results in the American F5000 Championship and the Formula
One Championship, he remained relatively unknown in the Australian racing scene. Alan Jones completed the 1977 Rothmans Series in the Theodore Racing Lola T332 backed by Teddy Yip.
The battle for pole position in the 1977 Australian Grand Prix was held over three qualifying sessions, with the top 8 places separated by only 2 seconds. Pole position was set by Warwick Brown’s Lola T430 with a time of 65.7s, Jones joining Brown on the front row with a time of 66s.

The cars were set to race, with the starter flag lifted to its highest point Jones’ Lola took off just seconds before the flag had dropped. Knowing his mistake of jumping the start Jones pressed hard to try and limit the damage from his inevitable one minute stop-go penalty. With Jones seemingly out of contention the race was between Brown in his Lola, Peter Gethin in a Chevron, John Goss in a Matich and Vern Schuppan in a Elfin.
Jones was on the attack and charged from the back of the field working his Lola T332 into contention, on his way setting the fastest lap of 66.4s. With Schuppan suffering fatigue, Jones was able to catch up to Goss who sat in 3rd place.
Jones pace was good but his climb through the field was stopped when he ran out of laps, finishing forth only 2 seconds behind Goss in third place. Brown won the race with Gethin 15s behind in second.

Item includes certificate and production number plate, mounted to the chassis.