1990 Lola T90/00

Sold for $82,000 at 2016 Mecum : Monterey.
This Lola T90/00 Indy Car has been documented as Lola chassis #H.U.02 and is powered by a Ilmor-built Chevrolet 2.65-liter turbocharged V-8 engine. It is finished in #5 Valvoline livery. This is one of the two original cars used by Galles-Kraco Racing for the 1990 season. For the 1990 season, team owners Rick Galles and Maurice Kraines decided to merge their operations, which paired Al Unser Jr. with 1986 Indianapolis 500 winner Bobby Rahal. This particular car was driven by two-time Indianapolis 500 winner Al Unser Jr. to his first CART PPG Indy Car World Series Championship. During the 1990 season, Unser captured six races on his way to the season title.

Unser captured the Long Beach Grand Prix from the pole position in only the second race of the season. After a fourth-place finish in the Indianapolis 500, Unser won the first oval race of his career at the Milwaukee Mile and then proceeded to dominate the competition with a four-race winning streak at Toronto, Michigan, Denver and Vancouver. At the Michigan 500, Unser dueled wheel-to-wheel with his elder teammate Rahal for lap after lap prior to taking the checkered flag first. Unser would go on to become a two-time CART champion and win an outstanding 34 Indy Car races—including the Indianapolis 500 in both 1992 and 1994—in his career.

A restoration of the #5 Valvoline Lola was completed in June of 2016 with aircraft hardware used throughout the car.

By Daniel Vaughan | Dec 2016