It was 1967 at LeMans and Mario Andretti...

[tdw28210]

..had just left the pits around 4:00 AM with new brake pads on his Holman & Moody prepared GT40 MKIV. He disappears over the hill on the way to the esses. Unexpectedly, one of the front pads locks up. Mario loses control, the rear of the car comes around, skids and then bounces between the walls and comes to rest in the middle of the course. Mario scrambles out of the car and over the wall. The Holman & Moody team waits for the car to come back to the pit area along with the other two now recently wrecked MKII's. Both cars ironically wrecked trying to avoid Mario's MKIV. Thus ending Holman & Moody's ill-fated 1967 campaign to help defend their victory over Ferrari that magical year before. A still young Lee Holman helps his Father (John) pick up the pieces of the GT40's for preparation for returning them to the USA.




For the next 55 years a magnesium wheel from Mario's wrecked MKIV car sits on a shelf at Holman & Moody in Charlotte. It gets moved when the shop moves from near the Charlotte airport to its current location on Westinghouse Blvd. Collecting dust and largely forgotten. Fast forward to earlier last year. Starting in April I decided I was going to visit that shop. I had known it was there for years and was laughably close to me, but I had never made time to go by. I finally did last year.

Over the ensuing months and after a few short visits, I had sort of struck up a friendship with Lee Holman. I'd just poke my head in the shop occasionally and chat with Lee about all kinds of things, but mostly to see cool stuff and hear cool stories about racers and race cars. One of my favorites is a B&W photo of Lee as part of a pit crew, fueling a Daytona coupe at LeMans. Right around Christmas this past year I bring by a couple "serious car guys" with me to come visit Lee and the shop. I had shared with them how amazing it was to see original GT40 tubs on pallets and chat with Lee Holman. They wanted to come see too.

The visit ends up being a great time and Lee hits it off with my guests. I end listening to Lee, Martin and John tell stories and drop names of iconic racers I grew up admiring. In the course of those conversations I comment to John Hotchkis (one of my guests) that I didn't want "just the t-shirt", but would like to get something more genuine. In our short tour that day we had seen a few old original Mark II magnesium wheels on a shelf a a pallet of new ones too. (I'd not noticed the old ones in my previous visits).

John responds to me and says "what about a wheel"? I immediately think that's a great idea. I wait for a pause in the action and just blurt it out to Lee. "Hey Lee, would you sell me an original wheel?" He pauses for a second, looks at me and says "sure" and then asks me which one. I just say "an original GT40 wheel". I then get short explanation from Lee on the dangers of aging magnesium wheels. He says that magnesium wheels continue to get harder and more brittle as they age and can disintegrate under stress. (yep, got it). He then looks at Seth, his shop hand that had joined us by now and was enjoying the stories with us too. "You know, we have that one damaged Mark IV wheel." Seth's face breaks into a smile and say "the Andretti wheel?" Lee responds, "yes". I then ask Seth "the Andretti wheel"?

Seth smiles and says "yeah, it's a mark IV wheel from the '67 LeMans race". I turn to Lee immediately; "Would you sell it Lee?" He smiles and says "I might". I then tell Lee I am definitely interested in that one or really ANY old GT40 wheel but I am not exactly carrying a lot of cash with me today. He says that's fine, they're not flying out of the shop. I say "great" and ask if I can come back later to "wheel shop". He agrees. The visit wraps up about 20 minutes later and we head out. By then a new group of admirers had shown up to chat with Lee by then anyway.

So I called Lee yesterday and asked if I could come by today around lunch time today to "wheel shop". He says he'll be around then. I say "great" and head over to the shop. I see Seth first as I walk in. I say to Seth, "I am wheel shopping today". He asks, "are you going to get the Andretti wheel"? I respond, "only if Lee will sell it to me". He then smiles and wishes me luck.

The next 30 minutes is sort of a 'typical" visit with Lee. Him siting in his office behind his Mac computer and me asking questions. Today we chatted about Goodwood (Lee is a big fan of the event). He then looks at his watch and says. "So do you want that Andretti wheel?" I try not to tip my hand too much (we've still not agreed on a price) and say something like "sure", but how much?" Lee shoots me a price. It is MORE than fair in my estimation given the history of the wheel. I then say "sold" and then insist on paying him more. He sort of pauses, and i insist again, but I tell him he has to take a picture with me, a GT40 and the wheel. He sort of chuckles and agrees. So here's that picture; Lee, me and the '67 LeMans Andretti wheel.

[pwd72s]

Brittle and hard? Hey, it would still make a good hose reel! Seriously, pretty damned cool!

[Noah930]

Wow. What a great story. And a fantastic piece of memorabilia.

[porsche tech]

Sounds like a cool guy!

[rfuerst911sc]

Great story thanks for sharing .

[unclebilly]

That’s pretty cool and a great story to start my day.

[CurtEgerer]

Nice!

[David]

Very cool! I’m curious to see how you display it.

[Reg]

Thanks for sharing. Wanna sell it?😁

[flatbutt]

What do you do what such a piece of race history? Mount it on a wall? Place it under glass? Personally, I'd leave it as is and set it on a pedestal in an appropriate spot. Very cool.

[mistertate]

So cool, looks like it has fan spokes too

[billybek]

Very cool! Thanks for sharing.

[astrochex]

That’s really cool! Like others, I would love to see how it is or will be displayed.

[HobieMarty]

That is awesome!!! To spend time listening to the first hand stories from someone who was a huge part of racing history is the icing on the cake, oh and the wheel is damn cool.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

[masraum]

Very cool! I love that sort of thing. I'd happily have a room/garage full of cool old parts and memorabilia. Really spectacular when it's got amazing provenance and you get it from someone like that after hearing the stories.

[Eric 951]

very cool.

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by David

Very cool! I’m curious to see how you display it.

Still trying to figure that out. But now I think I need to get my hands on one of these as part of the display. https://www.exoto.com/s/1/ProductDetails.aspx?Language=en&CategoryId=351&ProductId=1898

Originally Posted by Reg

Thanks for sharing. Wanna sell it?😁

Not any time soon. It would take quite a bit to pry it from my hands.

Originally Posted by mistertate

So cool, looks like it has fan spokes too

It does! The built-in wheel fans were only on the MKIV wheels. Sort of a per-cursor to the BBS "dog bowl" wheel fans on the 935's. In fact , there were right side and left side MKIV wheels. My wheel is the left rear off Mario's car. The left front was destroyed in the crash - completely removed from the car.

[tdw28210]

Originally Posted by HobieMarty

That is awesome!!! To spend time listening to the first hand stories from someone who was a huge part of racing history is the icing on the cake, oh and the wheel is damn cool.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Totally agree. Hanging with Lee (and Martin and John) and hearing old racing stories is absolutely awesome.

Originally Posted by masraum

Very cool! I love that sort of thing. I'd happily have a room/garage full of cool old parts and memorabilia. Really spectacular when it's got amazing provenance and you get it from someone like that after hearing the stories.

Yeah, I agree. I've picked up a few "things" over the years. Wife is starting to ask questions.

Originally Posted by unclebilly

That’s pretty cool and a great story to start my day.

Glad you enjoyed it.

[sugarwood]

Anyone else put off by this story?

The wheel belongs with the Holman shop, not as a coffee table trophy in some rando's house.

Also, you come off as a coveting vulture with your "Don't want a T-shirt" comment.
How about visiting and respecting the place without the need to take stuff that isn't yours.

It also sounds like you pulled one over on the old man by visiting repeatedly like a confidence man with a low ball offer.

Sorry, but that's how it comes off to me. All done in very poor taste.

[astrochex]

Thanks for taking a dump here, sugar. You really think Holman was conned into selling the wheel? That laughable.