Kanonloppet

Karlskoga, 13 Aug 1967

All cars are 1.6-litre F2 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT23 [5] (Jochen Rindt): Roy Winkelmann Racing for Jochen Rindt in F2 in 1967, winning nine races that season. Also for Gijs van Lennep as a Roy Winkelmann Racing Team Holland entry at Zandvoort that July. Then used by Denny Hulme for the 1968 Tasman series but crashed at Pukekohe. Feo Stanton and Alex Mildren bought the wreck which went, less suspension, to Bob Britton in Australia who used it to make a jig for a 'Rorstan' for Stanton, a 'Mildren' for Alex Mildren and his own series of Rennmax BN3 cars. The BT23 frame later passed to Graham Hepburn and then to Denis Lupton (Melbourne) 1981 who also bought the suspension, by then with Les Sargent. Sold to George Goodare (Sydney, NSW) 1983 - Jean-Marie Muller (France) 2008 . Involved in an accident at Reims in 2010 and reported to be damaged by fire. Subsequent history unknown.
2. Lotus 48 [R1?] (Jim Clark): The prototype Lotus 48 was taken out to Australia for Graham Hill to drive in the Australian Grand Prix at Warwick Farm in February 1967, when he retired. It was then the Team Lotus spare car at the start of the F2 season, first racing at the Nürburgring in April. Jim Clark then used the car in nine F2 races from May onwards, including his wins at Jarama and Keimola. Driven by Alex Solor-Roig at the Spanish GP in November, but his deal to race the car fell through. Retained for 1968, when it was Jackie Oliver's regular entry supported by Roger Frogley's Herts & Essex Aero Club and maintained by Derek Wilde. It was sold to Gerry Kinnane at the end of the European F2 season, and raced for him by Oliver in the Argentine Temporada in December. Then raced by John Watson at the opening F2 race of 1969, at Thruxton, but crashed and badly damaged. Repaired in Belfast with a new outer skin created by Fred Smith using the workshop of Belfast Corporation Bus Company on the Falls Road, and raced by John L'Amie for Kinnane later in the year. To Alan Fowler for 1970, and driven by Barrie Smith at the Thruxton F2 race in March 1970, but did not start. Reportedly sold by Fowler's D&A Shells to a collector in Nuneaton, and retained by him until 1997, when it was sold via John Harper to Bob Tabor (Llanrothal, Herefordshire). The car was restored by Tabor by Simon Hadfield, and the monocoque was rebuilt by Competition Fabrications (Attleborough, Norfolk) who carefully replaced the single-curvature Belfast-made outer skin with a correct double-curvature skin. A stronger rollhoop structure was also fitted. The rebuilt car was raced by Hadfield in the Goodwood Glover Trophy in September 1999.
3. Lotus 48 [R2?] (Graham Hill): Graham Hill's regular Team Lotus entry in Formula 2 in 1967, raced by him in 16 of that season's races. Retained for 1968, when it was entered by Gold Leaf Team Lotus for Hill in a further eight F2 races. Sold to Gerry Kinnane's Team Ireland for 1969, and raced by John Pollock in the Thruxton F2 race in April and then in Irish 1600cc racing. Sold to Kevin Murphy in 1970 for Frank Keane to drive in Irish libre racing, primarily at Mondello Park, and in hillclimbs. Traded to Bobby Howlings for a Brabham BT30 in September 1970, and advertised by him the following month. Then evidently to Beric Ewin (Finchley, London) and fitted with a Ford twin cam engine for the new Formula Atlantic category in 1971 and 1972. Then unknown until acquired by a private collector in the late 1970s.
4. Brabham BT23 [4] (Alan Rees): Roy Winkelmann Racing for Alan Rees in F2 1967. To Walter Habegger (Oberönz, Switzerland) 1968 for Swiss championship events. To Gérard Pillon (Geneva, Switzerland) 1969 and used in Swiss national events and French hillclimbs. (Although one source gives this as the car of Enzo Corti at Rheims and Albi in 1969, that identification looks highly doubtful.) Crashed at Côte de la Faucille on 7 September and not seen again. In 2009, Walter Habegger recalled that Pillon had an accident in the car and that it was badly damaged.
5. Brabham BT23 [6] (Robin Widdows): 1967 Whitley Racing Services for Robin Widdows. Sold at the end of the 1967 season to Mitsubishi Motors and shipped to Japan. May have been used by Kouichi Satou in 1973 and Masaru Tanaka in 1975
6. Brabham BT23 [3] (Frank Gardner): Motor Racing Developments entry for Frank Gardner in 1967. To Squadra Tartaruga for Xavier Perrot (Zürich, Switzerland) to race in F2 in 1968. Retained early 1969 but damaged at Nürburgring 27 April by a Porsche landing on top of it. Sold via Jo Siffert in 1969 to Jacques Joliat (Porrentruy, Switzerland) who raced it in French and Swiss hillclimbs in 1970 and 1971, before replacing the FVA with a FVC for 1972. Unknown in 1973 and 1974, then to Michel Salvi (Malbuisson, France) and raced with a 1300cc Renault Gordini engine in 1975 and 1976. To Alain Ribager (Mulhouse, Alsace, France) in 1977, and raced by him until 1979. In 1980, Daniel Coquet raced a 1300cc Brabham a few times, and advertised it in October that year as a BT23 with 1300cc Renault engine. Then in 1981 and 1982, Jean-Pierre Mutel raced a Renault-engined BT23 which is very probably the same car. Found by Gérard Gamand in 1984 near Valence, France with March bodywork but still with a Renault engine. To Michel Champelovier 1989 then 'Hollinger' then Thierry De Mortier by 2006. To Max Pearson (Queensland, Australia) 2010.
7. Brabham BT23 [7] (Gerhard Mitter): To Gerhard Mitter (Germany) and raced in selected F2 events in 1967. Then entered by Mitter Tuning for Werner Lindermann in 1968. Retained by Lindermann and entered by Montan Racing Team through the 1969 season, returning in 1970 for the team's second driver Helmut Gall. Last seen at Hockenheim on 12 April 1970 but believed to have been destroyed some time later.
8. Brabham BT23 [2?] (Jack Brabham): Motor Racing Developments entry for Denny Hulme in 1967 and probably the car used by Jack Brabham for a few races in July and August after his usual car was sold to Mick Mooney. Then raced by Frank Gardner in September. It was then taken to the Tasman series for Denny Hulme to drive after he had wrecked BT23-5 at Pukekohe. The BT23 was then advertised by Frank Williams in early April and sold by him to Ernesto 'Tino' Brambilla in Italy. Brambilla raced it as a Scuderia Picchio Rosso entry at Tulln-Langenlebarn in July 1968, but was then recruited by Ferrari to drive the F2 Dino 166, and his BT23 was only seen once more that season, when driven by Enzo Corti at Vallelunga in October. Corti drove the car for Scuderia Picchio Rosso right through the 1969 season, and it was then raced a few times in early 1970 by Vittorio Brambilla, Tino's younger brother. In 1970, the car had BT30 sidepods and wings. Its last appearance was in July 1970, after which the brothers bought new Brabham BT30s. The next steps in the car's life remains unclear, but it is said to have been acquired by Antonio Bernardo (Lugano, Switzerland) some time in the early 1970s. An original claim that Bernardo acquired it directly from the Winkelmann Racing at the end of the 1967 season appears to have been a misunderstanding. He stored it unused "for over 30 years". It was bought from Bernardo in 2006, and restored between 2006 and 2010. Paint layers on the bodywork match the colours used by MRD and Corti, and the double-rollhoop also matches Corti's car, but some questions remain unanswered about this car as of February 2023.

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.

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.