This is a repost from the Facebook Group "Glory Days of Racing". I hope that you find it to be interesting.
The 1969 Daytona 24 was a real shocker as the favored Porsche 908 factory team succumbed to faulty equipment letting the Penske prepared Sunoco Lola T70 Mk. 3B GT of Mark Donohue and Chuck Parsons take the overall win.
Six weeks later the Penske team was in Sebring hoping to repeat their Daytona win but it was not to be as the rough Sebring airport circuit caused the Lola’s suspension (radius arm mounting) to fail and they retired on lap 96.
As the team of Penske mechanics began putting the race car on the transporter, along with all their tools and equipment, Roger Penske was getting assurances from Sunoco and Chevrolet that they wanted him to get the car ready for a trip to France and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
A couple of Penske crew members were assigned to drive the transporter back to the Penske shops in Philadelphia but after getting on I-95 late in the afternoon they decided to stop in the Daytona Beach area for the night for some rest and relaxation (R&R) after all the hard work of race week.
The R&R included a nice dinner out and some bar hopping at the nightclubs on the beach side along A1A. When they awoke the next day the transporter and race car were gone from the hotel parking lot.
This became a huge story in the local media due to the Penske and Donohue name recognition and their Daytona 24 win just weeks earlier. As a result, it wasn’t long before the transporter was found. Unfortunately, the thieves had stolen all the tools and equipment and the race car was missing.
Mark Donohue decided to get involved by offering a reward for the recovery of the Lola which was a featured story in the Daytona Beach News Journal. This solicited several tips to the authorities and one was so credible that Donohue was invited to participate in the bust.
Based on this tip the authorities, with Donohue in tow, raided a barn where the remnants of the Lola were found with the engine literally cut out of the car. The engine, a Traco 5-liter Chevy, had been installed in a Cobra. While the rest of the Lola was intact it was too damaged to get it ready in time for Le Mans.
It would eventually be rebuilt and converted to a streetcar and ending up being owned by Mike Bohannan, AKA the Wolfman, who lived in the Los Angeles area.
