IndyCar: Wilson charity Lola work begins Saturday

The work required to restore the Lola chassis Justin Wilson drove to his first Champ Car victories in 2005 will commence this weekend. Once completed, the chassis – owned by former team owner Dan Petit – which took Wilson to wins at Toronto and Mexico will be auctioned to benefit the Wilson Children's Fund.

With work space donated by Dennis Reinbold at his Dreyer & Reinbold Racing shop, the ex-RuSPORT Lola B04/00 chassis was picked up by Passport Transport from a West Coast auto dealership owned by KV Racing co-owner Jimmy Vasser and taken to its temporary home at the DRR facility in Carmel, Indiana.

Led by Wilson's former crew chief (and current KV Racing team manager) Chris Mower, the quick restoration and rebuild process he's outlined will begin with a teardown of the car on Saturday. The chassis and bodywork, currently dressed in an orange Champ Car promotional livery, would then move to an undetermined location to be painted before returning to the DRR base for final assembly over the Jan. 28-29 weekend. Paint and prep supplies have already been donated by Sherwin Williams.

At present, Mower is looking for volunteers with IndyCar experience to help with the teardown on Jan. 14, experienced painters to shoot the car with its 2005 livery shortly thereafter, and for volunteers to converge on the car once it's painted to turn it back into a rolling chassis at the end of the month.

Due to the specialized nature of the work and the condensed timelines, Mower is limiting the volunteer cast to those with Champ Car or IndyCar experience to minimize the number of hours required to complete the charity project.

For those with the aforementioned expertise and the desire to help, please send an email to chrisdmower@gmail.com to coordinate with Mower.