Story by Willem Oosthoek
With John Mecom winding down his racing program, Frank Lance left the Mecom team at the end of 1966, but he had fond memories of his time there.
Frank: “In 1966 Mecom flew in some of his company people, as well as my wife Carolyn, to see the Indianapolis 500. His company airplane was a four-engine Lockheed Electra. They flew up just for the day, and flew back to Houston that night, after celebrating Graham Hill’s win in the Mecom Lola. I got to see Carolyn for a few minutes before the race and for a couple of hours afterward. I had been away from her for the whole month. Carolyn had a seat in the stands behind the pits, with all of the drivers’ wives. I thought it was very thoughtful of Mecom to include her on that trip to Indy. By 1967 the theaters would show the race in closed circuit. My mother came up to Houston to help Carolyn with the kids, and they all went to see the race there in Houston. This was the first time my mother ever got to see what it was that I was doing for a living.
“I started working for A.J. Foyt on the first day of 1967. When I got there the building of his new car, the Coyote, was well on its way. The new tub was shipped in from Eddie Kuzma in California. The full-time crew consisted of A.J. Foyt’s dad Tony, Lujie Lesovsky, Gil Morales and Andy, whose last name I don’t remember. Joe Leonard was one of the Foyt drivers that year. He was a former National Champion motorcycle racer and I read about him for years in cycle magazines. Obviously, I was a fan of his, especially when I was assigned to work on his car. Gil was the car’s chief mechanic, and he and I would split 10% of the earnings of that car. Tony and Andy split 10% on A.J.’s car.
“There were three cars in the shop from 1965 and 1966. I believe them to be Lotus. For 1967 the United States Auto Club ruled that all cars had to have their suspension parts to be 4130 chrome moly, heli-arch welded, and heat treated to a certain spec. The Lotus suspension parts were mild steel welded by a method called gas-flux brazing. This is what most of the British cars used. I thought the suspensions of those 1965 and 1966 cars looked weak, so I asked Eric Broadley of Lola Cars about this method, and he responded that he had a lot of confidence in it.
“Lujie had already made jigs for the new parts, so he, Andy and I got to work building new suspension parts for four cars, including the new Coyote. I did the welding, while Lujie did the fitting. He had quite a reputation for building Indy cars as far back as the roadsters and I learned a lot from him. Meanwhile, A.J. brought in a California surfboard builder to do the fiberglass work. He was kind of a hippie, but he knew what he was doing.
We got the cars put together, and with A.J.’s help, I did the chassis set-up. When we got to Indy the first day, our cars could go full speed, with A.J. going at qualifying speed. I felt pretty good about that. I only worked on A.J.’s car at the Speedway, while Gil took care of Leonard’s car almost singlehandedly. Lotus was one of the teams that struggled to get up to qualifying speed, in spite of having two previous winners in their new cars. One day Colin Chapman, Graham Hill and Jim Clark came into our garage, looking our Coyote over. They were nervous about qualifying. A.J. said to Chapman: ‘Why, we just copied your 1965 Lotus.’ They did finally manage to get the new cars up to speed.”
In 1967 the Indianapolis 500 grid offered a spectacular variety of cars and engines, unlike modern day editions, essentially Dallara spec races. On race day the following chassis made the field: seven Eagles, seven Gerhardts, five Lotuses [including the Coyote], four Brabhams, three Lolas, two Vollstedts and one each of a BRP, a Cecil, a Shrike and a Huffaker chassis. As for engines: a range of Ford and supercharged Offy units. And then there was the STP Paxton Special entered by Andy Granatelli, also responsible for the two works Lotus entries of Graham Hill and Jim Clark. The STP Paxton used four-wheel-drive and was powered by a turbine engine. Parnelli Jones was hired as its driver. Although John Mecom was supposed to have been winding down his Indy car operation, his chief mechanic for 1966, George Bignotti, appeared with three new Ford-powered Lola T92s in Mecom’s name. They were assigned to Jackie Stewart and Al Unser.Frank: “I think that Bignotti talked Mecom into letting him use those Lola Indy cars for the 500, where the big money was. I understand they were sold off after Indy, truly ending Mecom’s racing involvement. As for us, we had a good month, with no problems until qualifying, when A.J. coasted into the pits with a dead engine. He knew exactly what was wrong and we ran back to the garage to get a spare magneto. We put it on and set the timing. When he had a chance to qualify, he was on the second row, with Joe Leonard qualifying right next to him. This was the race where Granatelli showed up with the turbine car for Parnelli to drive. Parnelli qualified 6th fastest on the third row, but when the race started, he came around everyone and took an early lead. We were surprised since he did not show that much speed in practice.”
“Parnelli led the race until about lap 190 of 200, when he pulled into the pits. At this time A.J. was in second, which put him in the lead. It was almost like 1966, when Jackie was leading with a similar number of laps to go, when his car quit, and Graham Hill won. This time A.J. won, with Joe finishing third overall in the second car. Not bad!” “But it could have been very different. On the last lap I was out at the signal wall, watching to see A.J. come out of the last turn, when someone spun out. It caused others to spin. There were cars and smoke and parts all over the track between turn 4 and the pit entry. I thought ‘OH, NO! A.J. is going to get caught up in this mess and wreck.’ But he came out of turn 4, saw what was going on and slowed down enough to weave his way around this melee and take the checkered flag. He was the only one to go the full 200 laps. Then the red flag was thrown.” Frank: “After the 1967 race it looked like we were going to pursue the rest of the USAC season working out of the Speedway garage. That meant spending most of my time living in Indianapolis. I decided that it was more important for me to be with my wife and family in Houston, rather than be away from them. So, I called John Mecom again and asked if I could come back. At the time Mecom was a Firestone racing tire distributor. From July 1967 till May 1968, I worked in the Mecom tire business, taking Firestone tires to races around Texas and to the 1967 Formula One race at Mexico City. In March 1968, during the USRRC season opener at Mexico City, I was sent down there to supply Firestones for Moises Solana’s new McLaren/Chevy. I wound up helping with that car, as well as with the Lola T70/Chevy that his younger brother Hernan was racing. Moises won the race, so I was involved with Jim Hall, winner of the very first USRRC race at Daytona in 1962, and the winner in one of the final races in that series. The owner of both cars wanted me to come down to Mexico and take care of his cars, but I was not interested.“I was getting tired of racing. The Mexico race in March 1968 was the last one I went to, before going to work as a maintenance mechanic for the Maxwell House coffee plant in Houston. From November 1975 till July 1976, I worked as a truck and tractor mechanic in Atlanta, Texas, followed by work as a field mechanic for the Woodlands Division of International Paper in Queen City, Texas. By 1981 I worked as the general mechanic for an International Paper mill, until I retired in Queen City in February 1997.”
Jim Hall once commented about Frank Lance, on how he went from being an excellent racing mechanic to be involved in more mundane mechanics, just because he wanted to become a family man. That may have been true, but Frank, now 90 years old, lived ten years of his life working on some fascinating competition cars, met the top race drivers and car owners of his day and had an insider’s look into the world of international motor racing. Frank: “I always thought that there were many mechanics out there who were smarter than me and who were more skilled at fabricating. That made them a better race car mechanic than I was. I was fortunate that, for some reason, I fell into jobs with some of the best teams around. That is why I had the success that I did. It was quite a ride for those ten years.”Links to Part 1-8 below:
John Shea says
We all own Frank a debt of gratitude for “Being There“ and still being here to relive those memories with us ! You too Willem ! Great stuff !
JEFF ALLISON says
Congratulations to all involved on a well-researched and interesting article, and thank you for telling the other side of the motor racing story so well, i.e., the mechanics and by extension anyone on a race team. Their contributions are often overlooked or ignored. Willem was kind enough to introduce me to Frank, and we have stayed in touch since so I’ve been able to enjoy Frank’s stories all along. The article is a fitting tribute to Frank Lance and his fascinating career, but it also represents all the mechanics out there that helped put a car on the track. Thank you Pete, Willem and Frank for a seminal contribution to motor racing history.
William A Conner says
Magneto by Marelli! Conteggio delle tenebre