Richard Dagiel’s Lotus 30

Lotus 30/L/12 – circa 1966-1970

Richard Dagiel purchased his Lotus 30 from Robert (Bob) Shaw of Rockford, IL. Bob was friends with Homer J. Rader, of Lotus Southwest, who sold Bob this Lotus 30 sometime in the mid-’60s (possibly 1966). Bob traded in a Lotus 23B for it. Richard believes the chassis number of this car was #14.

Bob raced the car in the dark green color seen in the photos here, but he had a white Autodelta style four-leaf clover, the “quadrifoglio,” which has usually been borne through the ages by Alfa Romeo racers, painted on the car. The clover betrays Bob’s racing history, as he was the 1963 F-Production National Champion driving an Alfa Romeo. Richard ran the car with dark green metallic paint – one year it had a yellow nose stripe, the other year it was gold.

At The Track

Richard co-drove the car with Bob, and Richard worked on it until he bought it in 1968. He raced this car at tracks around the Chicago area including Elkhart Lake.

Richard, with a co-driver Guy Wooley, raced in the 1968 USRRC Road America “500” at Elkhart Lake on July 28, 1968. The car is identified as a “Lotus 289”. They finished in 14th place out of the 33 cars that started, having completed 93 of the final 125 laps.

Richard said that he and Bob entered the 1966 USRRC Road America 500 race on Sept 9. While driving, the front chassis box started to collapse on Richard, eventually pinching off his brake lines. That caused the brake fluid to come spraying up onto the windscreen. That must have been exciting! They are listed in the USRRC records as DNFing on lap 61, with the identified as a “Lotus LSM Ford.”

Richard was a mechanical engineer by profession, and he is the one who rebuilt the car after this failure.

In The Garage

Specs on the car from Richard Dagiel’s time of ownership:

• The car had been modified to Lotus 40 specs.  
• ZF 5-speed with a transmission cooler  
• 289 C.I.D. Lotus Modified engine  
• Telcalemit & Jackson mechanical fuel injection  
• 15″ wheels  
• 4 piston disk brakes – these brakes were unusual as they had bronze caliper bridges  
• Horizontal aluminum radiator  
• Removable front and rear body sections  
• GT-40 exhaust snorkels

Publications

Symons Mfg. Company

Richard worked as a mechanical engineer at Symons Mfg. Company of Des Plains, IL.
He was featured in their July 1969 issue of “All Around News.”

News Clippings

Here’s a couple news clipping with Richard.

Later Owners

Dieter Lewis bought the car in 1971. Andrew Bradshaw of the UK is the current owner.

An Unidentified Lotus 30

Richard had a photo of another Lotus 30 that he saw while out racing his 30. He had no recollection of who owned that car. Thanks to the internet, we now have an answer this that question.

This is a photo Richard took. He let me scan it along with his other photos. RA Historian, a participant on the old Autosport forum, wrote, “Amazingly enough, I have almost identical photos to those two! Taken same day, same place, only at a very slightly different angle.   The track is Wilmot Hills, Wis.; the event was an SCCA Regional, the date was the middle Sunday of July 1967. The car did not compete in the race at all but just sat in the paddock like this all day. I also do not have any idea as to who owned the car. One interesting aspect of the car is that it had two wooden (?) blocks jutting up through the rear deck just aft of the engine. Don’t know their purpose. Tom” http://forums.autosport.com/topic/142640-lotus-30-id-help-needed/page-2

Richard and Ted Dagiel

Richard and Ted Dagiel, Feb. 2003. Thanks for your help!

All Photos courtesy of Richard Dagiel / Copyright 2002-4 Richard Dagiel (except where noted).

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This page last updated on 3/16/2019.

Last Updated on March 25, 2019 by Kirk Keyes