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Scribante Summer Trophy

Aldo Scribante, 25 Feb 1978

ResultsLapsTime/Speed
1 Roy Klomfass March 77B [11] - Ford BDD Swindon
#8 Team Uniewinkels [Martin Flint/Roger Taylor]
(see note 1)

2 Trevor van Rooyen March 77B [8] - Ford BDD Swindon
#7 Team Gunston [Eddie Pinto] (see note 2)

3 Bobby Scott March 77B [17] - Ford BDD
#21 Sportsman Lager [Andrew Thompson]
(see note 3)

4 Ian Scheckter March 78B - Ford BDD Nicholson
#1 Lexington Racing [Ken Howes]
(see note 4)

5 Clive Cooke Donnelly JD201 - Ford BDD
#15 Rally Motors

6 Mike Domingo March 76B ['MD'/"1A"] - Ford BDD
#9 Team Domingo-Bodycraft (see note 5)

R Nols Nieman March 77B [18] - Ford BDD
#4 Benson & Hedges [Alex Blignaut]
(see note 6)
Throttle cable
R Tony Martin Chevron B45 [45-78-01] - Ford BDD Swindon
#3 Lucky Strike Racing (see note 7)

R Dave Charlton March 76B [1] - Ford BDD
#6 (see note 8)

All cars are 1.6-litre F/Atl unless noted.

Heat 1 Laps Time Speed
1Roy Klomfass
2Trevor van Rooyen
3Bobby Scott
4Ian Scheckter
5Clive Cooke
6Mike Domingo
7Nols Nieman
8Tony Martin
9Dave Charlton
Qualifying
1 Roy Klomfass (F/Atl) 1.6-litre March 77B [11] - Ford BDD Swindon
2 Ian Scheckter (F/Atl) 1.6-litre March 78B - Ford BDD Nicholson

Notes on the cars:

  1. March 77B [11] (Roy Klomfass): New for Rupert Keegan to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in early 1977, run for him by the Doug Shierson team and entered as Team Uniewinkels. Then run by Martin Flint and Roger Taylor for John Gibb to race for the rest of 1977. Retained by Flint & Taylor's Team Uniewinkels for 1978, when it was driven by Roy Klomfass. Moved to Alex Blignaut's Team Texan for the start of the 1978/79 season, still with Klomfass driving, as a spare car to the team's new March 79B. The 77B was then sold to Dave Hart's Team Valvoline. Hart fitted it with a BMW engine for the new Formula South Africa in 1979, then converted to a Mazda engine for 1980. It was then sold to Brian Ferris, who raced it in 1981 and in early 1982 before his new Ralt RT4/82 arrived. The 77B may have been raced by Ferris's friend Klaus Grogor in the latter half of 1982. In January 1983, it was sold to Fred Goddard who ran it for several drivers as part of his Petromark team over the next two seasons, including Braam Smith, Roy Carr, Derek Irving and Danie Mulder. It was unused in 1985, then driven by Ivano Moavero in 1986. Then retained by Goddard who took it with him to the UK when he emigrated in 1989 to set up Fred Goddard Racing. After Fred's death in July 2007, the 77B passed to his son Earl Goddard, and he sold it to Nick Beer around 2013.
  2. March 77B [8] (Trevor van Rooyen): New to Eddie Pinto and Team Gunston for Roy Klomfass to race in South African Formula Atlantic in 1977, using Swindon BDA engines. Retained by Team Gunston in 1978 for new driver Trevor van Rooyen. Retained again by Team Gunston for the 1978/79 season, when it was a spare car to Van Rooyen's new March 79B and was driven that season by Basil Van Rooyen at Kyalami in October 1978 (when Trevor was unwell), by Dave Charlton at Killarney later that month, and then by Trevor at two races. Later in 1979, it was raced twice by John Love. It was unused in 1980, then sold to Jeff Waberski after his DAW Supplies team's ex-Ian Scheckter March 78B was destroyed in a transporter fire. The 77B was fitted with a Mazda engine and raced by Bernard Tilanus for DAW Supplies from June 1981 onwards. It was raced by Dave Charlton for DAW around March/April 1982, then by Billy Maloney as a DAW entry later in 1982. Maloney crashed the car at some point, and acquired a March 782 to replace it in April 1983. The 77B was sold to Klaus Grogor's House of Sports Cars team for Grogor to drive in the 1983 season, and then retained by Grogor unused through 1984 and 1985. It was then sold to Gary Harrison who intended to convert it into a sports car for the 'Can-Am' series that absorbed Formula SA in 1986, but he only used in single seater form. The car was acquired by Dorino Treccani during the 1990s and sold to Andrew and Stuart Thompson in 2000.
  3. March 77B [17] (Bobby Scott): New to Andrew Thompson in South Africa, and raced by Bobby Scott in South Africa Formula Atlantic in 1977, with sponsorship from Sportsman Lager. Retained by Thompson and Scott for the 1978 season. At the end of that season, in May 1978, Thompson built another 77B from spares (77B/'AT') and the next time 77B/17 was seen was when it was hired to Tommy Dunne later in 1978 (now in the 1978/79 season) but crashed. The wreck was pushed to the back of Thompson's workshop and was not raced again. The salvaged tub and parts have remained in South Africa.
  4. March 78B (Ian Scheckter): Ian Scheckter had a new Team Lexington March 78B for the start of the South African Formula Atlantic series. He retained the car for the 1978/79 season (October to May) and by December 1978 it had been updated with the same sidepods as the new March 79B. When Scheckter acquired a new F2-chassis 79A, the 78B/79B was sold to Clive Cooke, who raced it for the first time at Kyalami in January 1979. The car was due to be converted to a BMW engine for the Formula SA series, but Cooke did not appear. Sold to Jeff Waberski's DAW Supplies team in 1980, and fitted with a Mazda engine for Bernard Tilanus to drive. He won three of the first four races of the season, but while the March was being taken to Killarney for the Cape South Easter Trophy in March 1980, the transporter caught fire just outside Parys and exploded. The March was "completely destroyed" according to press reports, and the team's second car, a Wheatcroft R18 that was being towed on a trailer, was also badly damaged.
  5. March 76B ['MD'/"1A"] (Mike Domingo): A car built up by Mike Domingo at the start of 1977 using a monocoque that Ian Scheckter had damaged when testing 76B/1 after the race at Aldo Scribante in March 1976. Domingo's car is usually referred to as "76B/1 (A)" as it built around the first tub from 76B/1. It was raced by Mike Domingo through 1977, 1978 and 1979. In late 1979 it was converted to use a Mazda engine, and was raced by him in this form in 1980. In August 1980, Dave Charlton drove the car at Kyalami as Domingo was observing Ramadan, but failed to start after being injured in practice for the aloon car race. Domingo continued to drive the car until early 1981, when it was sold to Ivano Moavero and raced by him in 1981 and part of 1982. Then in mid-1982, Moavero bought the highly-developed ex-Duxbury 77B, and sold the 76B to Michele ('Mike') Peters who raced it through to July 1985. At some point during this time, it was rebuilt using the monocoque from 76B/19, which had last been raced in 1979. Peters sold the resulting car to Terry Moss, to replace the 77B that Moss had wrecked. However, instead if racing the 76B, Moss stripped the car and used its components to build up a March 782. The 76B tub was put aside until 2010, when it was acquired from a friend of Moss by Bernard Tilanus. The tub number showed that the tub was from 76B/19, not from 76B/1, so it was reunited with its original chassis plate and fully rebuilt.
  6. March 77B [18] (Nols Nieman): New to Alex Blignaut for Nols Nieman to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in early 1977, with Benson & Hedges sponsorship. Retained by Blignaut's Benson & Hedges team for Nieman again in 1978. Raced for Blignaut by Derek Bell in November 1978, then by Sarel van der Merwe in May 1979, after which it was given by Blignaut to Tony Martin's South Coast Motors team as a spare car. It was entered for Billy Scheepers in January, then rented to Roy Moss for the Goldfields race in February. Bernard Tilanus then borrowed it for the Killarney race in March after his DAW March 78B had been destroyed in a transporter fire. In July 1980, it was sold to Jeff Waberski's DAW Supplies team for Wayne Taylor to drive. Then in October 1980, it was sold on to Mel Lahner's Rackrite Racing. Taylor moved with the car, and raced it at Kyalami on 4 October and then in the first few months of the 1981 season. It was then taken over by Trevor van Rooyen who found the weight penalty on his ground-effect March 802 was too great. He raced the 77B for the rest of the 1981 season. It was retained for 1982, when Rackrite ran the car for Andre du Plessis and Mike Domingo. It was retained again for 1983, when driven by Gavin Lahner and Kevin Heath. It was not used again after that, but was retained by Mel Lahner until sold to Andrew Thompson in 1984. It was later restored for Ian Schofield.
  7. Chevron B45 [45-78-01] (Tony Martin): New to South Coast Motors for Tony Martin to race in the South African Formula Atlantic series in 1978, sponsored by Lucky Strike and initially wearing Chevron B39 bodywork. Retained for 1979, but Martin also had an older Chevron B34 which was used at several races. The B45 was then fitted with a 3-litre Ford V6 engine for the new Formula South Africa that started in July 1979. It was also rebuilt by Ken Gillibrand as a "wing car", but this was not a success and it was rebuilt to more standard specification. It was fitted with a Mazda engine for 1980 and entered by South Coast Motors for Len Booysen to drive in the first few races of the season, but Martin had to take over the car when his preferred B34 was damaged in a towing accident. He was very successful in the car that season, but reports only gave it as a BP Racing Propart Chevron or a BP McCarthy Chevron, so it's unclear when he used his rebuilt B34. Martin bought an ex-F2 Maurer MM80 for 1981. The B45 was later destroyed in a garage fire.
  8. March 76B [1] (Dave Charlton): New to Ian Scheckter for South African Formula Atlantic in 1976. Sold to Len Booysen for the 1977 season, then loaned by Booysen to Dave Charlton to drive. During this time it was bought from Booysen by Ken Gillibrand, who then loaned to DAW for Bernard Tilanus to drive in April and May 1978. It was unused in 1979, and advertised by Gillibrand in August. Sold later in 1979 to Soon Weeks who fitted the 2-litre BMW engine from Dave Hart's March 77B and raced it in this form in early 1980. Then swapped with Bernard Tilanus and the DAW team for DAW's Wheatcroft R18, and fitted with a Mazda engine. Raced several times by Tilanus but he then left the team after a disagreement with Jeff Waberski and was replaced by Trevor van Rooyen, who raced the 76B for the rest of 1980. It was sold to Vernon Bricknell at the end of that season, and raced by him in early 1981 until his new Maurer MM80 arrived. The 76B was then sold yet again, this time to Fred Goddard's Pretoria Brick team for Wayne Taylor to drive, until Hekro's March 802 was acquired for him. Pretoria Brick retained the 76B for 1982, when it was raced by Basil Mann, Kevin Heath and Roy Carr. It was sold to Alan Dunlop for 1983, and he raced it until 1985. It then passed to Neville Riddell and most of its components were used in a sports car built for Riddell by Lew Baker. All that was left was the tub, and this was sold to Fred Goddard who is believed to have stripped it to keep the bulkheads as spares. At this point the 76B no longer existed.

Sources

Note that the identification of individual cars in these results is based on the material presented elsewhere in this site and may in some cases contradict the organisers' published results.

The South African race results were originally compiled by Chris Townsend based on material in Autosport and Motoring News plus information supplied by a wide range of contributors. One of the contributors was later found to have used erroneous information, and the results have in some places been reworked using reports and results in South African newspapers such as the Rand Daily Mail.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen (allen@oldracingcars.com) if you can help in any way with our research.