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Bert Hawthorne in Allan McCall's Tui twin-cam on its way to victory at Edmonton in August 1971. Copyright owned by the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame.  Used with permission.

US Formula B 1971

The 1971 FB season saw a fabulous battle for the title between Alan Lader, the previous year's runner up, in his Brabham BT29 and Kiwi Bert Hawthorne in the Tui, a one-off Formula 3 car that had been converted to Formula B by its builder Allan McCall. Lader won the opening two rounds, the second only after the stewards needed to review the video of the race the check the results. Hawthorne then took over with a flag-to-flag win in Mexico City after Lader crashed on the opening lap, writing off his faithful Brabham BT29. Fred Opert supplied a new one but Lader couldn't stop Hawthorne winning from pole at Edmonton and Brainerd. However, the Brainerd victory had been snatched at the very end after Freddie Van Buren had led almost the whole race in his Chevron B18.

The points Lader had accumulated put him five points ahead going into the last race at Road America and he also had a new car, the latest Brabham BT35. The Kiwi led yet again with Lader back in third but after seven laps, Hawthorne was off the track, his brakes having failed, and Lader cruised home to win his third race of the season and the overall title.

The races

23 May 1971 > Seattle

20 Jun 1971 > Monterrey

27 Jun 1971 > Mexico City

01 Aug 1971 > Edmonton

15 Aug 1971 > Brainerd

29 Aug 1971 > Road America

1971 SCCA Continental Championship for Formula B/C table

1Allan LaderBrabham BT29 - Ford twin cam85 pts3 wins
2Bert HawthorneTui Mk1 - Ford twin cam Hart60 pts3 wins
3Nick CrawBrabham BT35 - Ford twin cam45 pts 
4Freddy van BeurenChevron B18 - Ford twin cam40 pts 
5Bill GubelmannMarch 712M - Ford twin cam28 pts 

Previous: the 1970 season

Next: the 1972 season

The championship table was constructed from results after Competition Press & Autoweek's end-of-season review (CP&A 1 Jan 1972 p10) showed that the usual 20-15-12 points system was in use.