ShellSport Group 8 1977

The first season of Group 8 racing had shown that a well-prepared and reasonably up-to-date F1 car was the ideal option, and Tony Trimmer proved that when he secured a brand new Surtees TS19 for 1977, prepared by Melchester Racing, and breezed to the title. Guy Edwards bought the March 75A V6 that Hexagon had run in 1976 and took it back to RAM Racing. It was good, but not quite good enough, with its Ford V6 engine, so RAM converted it to a F1 Cosworth DFV engine, after which Edwards won two of the last three races.

Also proving effective in F1 cars were Emilio de Villota, who replaced his Lyncar 006 with a pair of F1 McLarens, Divina Galica, who also acquired a Surtees TS19 and came close to winning at Donington as well as leading at Brands, and Derek Bell who won one race in the Penske PC3, but was disqualified at Mallory Park and penalised 48 points. The most competitive of the 5000cc cars was Bruce Allison's Chevron B37, which finished second three times, and Val Musetti also went well in his V6-engined March 752. Best of the F2 cars was Tony Rouff, who won at Thruxton in Graham Eden's Ralt RT1/77.

The races

13 Mar 1977 > Mallory Park

27 Mar 1977 > Snetterton

08 Apr 1977 > Oulton Park

11 Apr 1977 > Brands Hatch

22 May 1977 > Mallory Park

06 Jun 1977 > Thruxton

26 Jun 1977 > Brands Hatch

09 Jul 1977 > Oulton Park

24 Jul 1977 > Mallory Park

31 Jul 1977 > Donington Park

29 Aug 1977 > Brands Hatch

11 Sep 1977 > Thruxton

02 Oct 1977 > Snetterton

16 Oct 1977 > Brands Hatch

1977 ShellSPORT International Championship table

Previous: the 1976 F5000 season

Points table from Autosport 15 Dec 1977 p25.