Paul Nicholas Trophy

Brands Hatch, 24 Oct 1976

All cars are 2-litre F3 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Chevron B34 [34-76-29] (Rupert Keegan): New to Rupert Keegan in July 1976 and raced in the British F3 series with British Air Ferries sponsorship, winning three races and clinching the BP BARC title for Keegan. To David Brotherston (Edinburgh, Scotland) for 1978, and raced in the British F3 series. Brotherston continued to use the car in 1979 and 1980, again in British F3, after which he sold the car to Bob Howlings. Then to Bob Baxter (Saffron Walden, Essex) for Formule Libre towards the end of the 1981 season. Later to Alastair Ferguson, and used by him in TF3 in 1987. It was unused from the late 1990s until 2007, when Ferguson sold it to Hugh Price. Price had it completely rebuilt to Keegan's BAF livery with a view to racing it in the Classic F3 series in 2008. It was sold to Bruce Bartell in 2009, and raced by him in HSCC events, then by his son Maxim Bartell in Classic F3 from 2014 to 2017.
2. Ralt RT1/76 [29] (Geoff Brabham): Ralt records show as sold to Geoff Brabham in 1976, probably being delivered in early June. Used by him until the end of 1978 then sold to Ken Thorogood's Hub of the Universe Racing for Osamu Hatagawa to use in British races.
3. Chevron B34 [34-76-24] (Geoff Lees): New to Geoff Lees to drive in the British F3 series, entered by Rob Roy Racing with D.J. Bond, but running with works assistance. A former triple champion in Formula Ford, Lees had a series of very good results in the Chevron, running immediately behind the championship battle between Bruno Giacomelli and Rupert Keegan. He took his first win at Silverstone in September, leading every lap. He followed that with two second places, and then won the season finale at Thruxton at the end of October after Keegan collided with Giacomelli at the start. The car was then used as a test car for prospective Chevron customers. At some point in this process, the car was rebuilt on a new monocoque and effectively divides, with the original tub used by factory fabricator John Lewis to build one car, and the retubbed car going to KWS for Jean-Louis Schlesser.
4. March 763 [13] (Stephen South): March build records show sold to John Stokes, 19 May 1976. Run by Stokes for Stephen South from mid 1976, until wrecked in an accident with Derek Daly in the 1977 British GP support race and scrapped. Some parts used in the construction of 773-T1, South's replacement car.
5. March 773/763 [9] (Tony Dron): Shown in March records as sold to Tony Dron 12.1.76. This was the solitary Unipart car in 1976. Although Unipart ran two cars in 1977, they only bought one new car, converting the older car for Needell, the junior driver in the team. Some results credit Needell's car as being a 763.
6. March 753 [U22] (Giordano Regazzoni): According to the March build records constructed in 1975 from discarded parts of works cars 753-U1 and 763-U1 for Giordano ‘Dodo’ Regazzoni. Probably used by the works drivers Nilsson and Ribeiro at Cadwell Park and the British GP support race in July 1975, with this car built as temporary replacement for Nilsson’s 753-U1 rolled at the Monza Lotteria in late June. Retained by Regazzoni into 1978. Motoring News 16 Mar 1978 p7 comments that Regazzoni is still using last year’s car.
7. March 753 [14] (Ken Silverstone): Originally a car belonging to the B&O team in 1975, when used by Pierre Dieudonné. Chassis number for this car and its sister, driven by Hervé Regout, observed by AF at Oulton Park 4 October 1975. Sold to Ken Silverstone for the 1976 season [Autosport 2 Sep 1976 p33 says his car is ‘ex Dieudonné.) To Wyatt Stanley in mid 1977 and retained by him for the 1978 season.
8. March 753 [15] (Phil Silverstone): Originally a car belonging to the B&O team in 1975, when used by Hervé Regout. Chassis number for this car and its sister, driven by Pierre Dieudonné, were observed by AF at Oulton Park 4 October 1975. Sold in 1976 to Phil Silverstone, and retained until early 1978 at least. At the beginning of 1978 Ian Flux joined Cloud Engineering, who ran Phil Silverstone, and in the absence of anything better he used this car, which Silverstone had replaced with a Ralt, for the first race of the Vandervell series. See Autosport 9 Mar 1978 p41.

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.

These British Formula 3 results have been compiled by Chris Townsend using the main British magazines Autosport and Motoring News but also the US magazine On Track which carried surprisingly good coverage of the British series.

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.