Mario drives hard into the couple of fast, sweeping bends – the left-hander on Bayshore Drive and the right/left as we approach the Albert Whitted Airport, just breathing off the throttle to let the car settle before getting hard on the gas again. The vision is really good with just a pyramid-style rollhoop in front of me. Through the twisty section, where the corners arrive much quicker than you’d imagine, I can see over Mario’s shoulder at his elegantly smooth steering inputs despite the bumpiness of the track.
As you’d expect, the acceleration matches the furious noise that’s punching me in the back, and we hit the streets of St Pete for a whirlwind lap. Starter engaged, Mario hits the ignition and lights up the rears. I asked the guy who was strapping me in to pinch me, but he just laughed.Ĭharles Bradley, Editor in two-seater Ind圜ar with Mario Andretti Climbing in behind that achingly cool red-on-silver helmet design, it truly dawned on me that it was for real, when I looked into the wing mirror and saw those Andretti eyes staring back. In 1988 Emerson Fittipaldi took two victories in the Marlboro T87/00 switching from a March 88C after six rounds giving the design six victories in total.Īs an aside one of the Truesports entries was chassis number 13, one of the very few Lola's to be given this number as most designs jumped from chassis number 12 to 14.I jumped into the ‘fastest seat in sports’ thanks to Andretti Autosport and the new sponsor for the program, Ruoff Mortgage. Mario Andretti took two victories to give the T87/00 five wins to the ten of the March 87C and given that, on average, there were three or four times as many Marches on the grid Lola had a better ratio of cars to wins. A great part of Bobby's success was down to the fact that he and the Budweiser/Truesports T87/00 were competitive on all tracks, in addition to his wins he took five seconds and two thirds as well as the victory in the non-chmpionship Marlboro Challenge race at Tamiami Park. On paper it would seem as if Little Al had made the better move but the season saw Al take no wins while Bobby took three and the PPG Championship. switched to the March camp whilst Bobby Rahal made the reverse trip by switching from March to the Lola stable. There was an important pre-season change of driver seats when Al Unser Jr.
The full technical details of the T87/00 can be found in the Lola Press Release below. Both seasons saw the March 85C and 86C taking the lion's share of the wins and the two Championships so 1987 saw Lola making a concerted effort to get back on top and wrest the title from their Bicester rival.
and Mario Andretti while the T86/00 secured three victories shared between the same drivers. The two previous Indycar designs the 1985 T900 and the 1986 T86/00 had been quite successful with the T900 taking five wins between Al Unser Jr.
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