Gran Premio de Madrid

Jarama, 13 Apr 1969

All cars are 3-litre F1 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Lola T142 [SL142/36] (Keith Holland): New to Alan Fraser for Keith Holland to drive in British F5000 in 1969 and 1970, and by Ray Calcutt when Holland left the team. Then via Harry Linney and Bob Miller to John Bowtell (Witney, Oxfordshire) who raced it in late 1971 and early 1972, entered by Andrew Cavell. Raced at Silverstone in April by Martin Ridehalgh, and by Bowtell again later in the year. To Richard Brown (Chieveley, Berkshire) for hillclimbs in 1973, then to Bob de la Haye for 1974 and 1975. Then unknown until acquired by John Peskett (Leicester) in 1978. Unused and stored until the car was featured on TV program 'Salvage Squad' broadcast in March 2002. Again unknown until advertised by Marcel Roks (Belgium) 2005 (blue with white stripe, #39). To Will Tomkins (Peterborough, Cambridgeshire) 2005 - Roger Deans (Baldock, Herts) 2006 and debuted at Shelsley Walsh in September 2006. See full history: Lola T142 SL142/36.
2. McLaren M10A [M10A-1] (Peter Gethin): See full history: McLaren M10A 'M10A-1'.
3. Brabham BT18 (Bill Stone): According to a biography of Bill Stone, his 1968 Formula 3 Brabham started out as a crashed BT18 frame bought from Frank Williams. Stone built this car up and entered it as a BT18/21B in European F3 events in the latter half of 1968. Early in 1969, Stone appeared with a Brabham powered by a Ford twin cam engine and said to be a BT21B when he raced it at Silverstone in April. At the Madrid GP, Autosport described it as a BT18 with a 1800cc Ford twin cam engine. It was called a BT21A when Del Bennett drove it at Silverstone in May. This car was then sold to Al Justason (Toronto, Ontario) for Formula B racing in 1969. Photographs of the car in Justason's ownership show that it had BT18 upper bodywork and it is likely that this "BT21" was actually Stone's BT18-based car from 1968. Justason sold the car to dealer Joe Grimaldi as a rolling chassis and its subsequent history is unknown.
4. Lotus 59B [59-F2-21] (Max Mosley): New to Max Mosley for Formula 2 in 1969. It was prepared and entered by Len Street Engineering, a successful west London Lotus dealership. The car was first seen at the Jarama F1/F5000 race where it was ballasted and entered in the F1 class. At its next race, the F2 race at the Nürburgring, Mosley went off the road during practice when a bolt worked lose in the front suspension, and the Lotus was severely damaged. It returned to Lotus for repairs, but then remained unused during the summer as Mosley retired from driving. In September it was loaned to Roy Winkelmann Racing so that Ronnie Peterson could drive it at Albi, a precursor to Mosley and Winkelmann team manager Alan Rees signing Peterson to drive the new March F3 car two weeks later. The 59B was also raced by John Miles at Vallelunga. Then sold to Johnny Blades (Whitley Bay, Northumberland) for F2 in 1970, appearing at four early-season F2 races before being returned to Lotus to be converted to 69 specification. After a few libre races, it returned to F2 at Mantorp Park in August, where Autosport said "the only parts remaining of his ex-Mosley 59B being the wheels, gearbox and engine". Despite this surgery, the car was often described as a 59 or a 59B during Blades' ownership. Retained by Blades for F2 in 1971, when it was also raced by Carlos Pace at Crystal Palace. Blades retained the car again for 1972, when it was fitted with a BDA and used in the British Formula Atlantic series. Then sold to Ton Strous (Netherlands) for 1973, and fitted with a F2 engine, but Strous withdrew after wrecking his engine before his first race. Converted by Strous to F3 specification, but then unknown Strous reportedly sold it in 1991 to Richard Spelberg (Dusseldorf, Germany), who converted back to Lotus 59B spec for historic F2.

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.

3-litre Formula 1 Non-championship events 1966-1983

These results were initially compiled by Allen Brown, but these were in the very basic form required to track individual car histories. Since then further details, such as laps completed, qualifying times and so on, have been added from Rob Ryder's extensive database.

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

Individual sources for this event

Autosport 18 Apr 1969 pp14-15 (report by Max Mosley). Motoring News 17 Apr 1969 p6 (report by ARM, Andrew Marriott).

The Gran Premio del Jarama de Formula 1 y Formula 5000 was billed as a non-championship Formula 1 race, but with no support from the regular F1 teams, Autosport described it as a "motley formule libre event with but eight starters". ARM for Motoring News described Lotus, Matra and Williams all dropping out after displaying some initial enthusiasm. The F1 cars were led by Colin Crabbe's Antique Automobiles Cooper T86, using a 36-valve 24-plug Maserati engine. Autosport took the opportunity to say that it was chassis F1-2-67, correcting what had earlier been reported. Historic racer Neil Corner took over the drive as Vic Elford was racing in the BOAC 500 sports car race at Brands Hatch. Tony Dean's ex-Bernard White BRM P261 V12 was the only other genuine F1 car present, and the F1 class was padded out with a brand new ballasted Formula 2 Lotus 59B for Max Mosley, who Autosport roped in as race reporter, and an ex-F3 Brabham BT18 with an 1800cc Ford twin cam in the back. The F5000 category contained the two leaders from the British championship, Gethin and Holland, plus the two ex-F1 Lotus 43s that had recently been converted to F5000 power. In the race, Gethin got down to a time of 1m 30.9s, compared with the F1 lap record of 1m 28.2s held by Jean-Pierre Beltoise in a Matra.