Falstaff National Races (St Louis Region SCCA National)

Mid-America Raceway, 16 Sep 1973

All cars are 1.6-litre FB unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. Brabham BT38 [26?] (Tom Klausler): New for Motul Rondel Racing in May 1972, replacing BT38/11, and raced by Carlos Reutemann. Also raced by Gerry Birrell at Albi, when Reutemann was away racing in the Canadian GP. Reutemann left the Rondel team after the Hockenheim race at the beginning of October, following a disagreement over engines, and the car was raced by Ronnie Peterson in the Brazilian F2 series. Sold by Rondel to Tom Klausler (Palatine, IL) for Formula B in 1973, and won at Trois-Rivières in September. Then advertised by Roy Witz (Arlington Heights, IL) in mid-1974, then sold to John Kowalski (Berea, OH) for Formula Atlantic in 1975. Kowalski advertised it in December 1975 as "ex Klausler", still with its "big valve Hart" engine. Used by Kowalski in early 1976, but he then upgraded to a newer Lola T360. The Brabham is believed to have gone to Dr Mike Orgel (Ladue, MO), who raced a Brabham BT38 in Formula B and then Formula Atlantic in SCCA Midwest Division events from 1977 to 1980. After driving in Regionals in 1977, he won the MidDiv Regional title in 1978, and scored 10 points in Nationals that year. He did not appear in the points table for 1979, but scored one point in 1980 in a Brabham BT38. It would then be the "ex-Peterson" car acquired at some point from Orgel by Bob Willis (St Louis, MO), who also owned the Rondel sister car BT38/14.
2. Brabham BT40 (Mike Hall): Mike Hall (Twin Lakes, WI) raced a brand new Brabham BT40 at the SCCA Run-Offs, known then as American Road Race of Champions, at Road Atlanta 25 Nov 1972, the first BT40 to race. Hall then raced this car in Formula B and Formula Atlantic in 1973 and 1974. He replaced it with a Lola T360 for 1975 and the Brabham was then raced by John Elder (Rosemount, Minnesota) in SCCA Nationals in 1975, winning his class at Brainerd in July. Hall had modified his car with a wide nose and a higher and fuller tail, and Elder's car showed the same modifications. The car was then advertised, as "ex-Mike Hall" by Richard Prather's Prather Racing (Wheeling, IL) in November 1976. There is a good chance this was the car raced by Peter Robinson (Madison, Wisc) in 1976 and 1977. Subsequent history unknown.
3. Brabham BT35 [9] (Bob Schutt): New to Nick Craw, and raced initially in the British Formula Atlantic series at the start of 1971 before moving to the North American SCCA series in May. Borrowed by Alan Lader for the 1971 SCCA Runoffs. Raced by Craw at Bogotá in early 1972, then sold to Bob Schutt (Kirkwood, MO) for Midwest Division SCCA FB in 1972 and 1973. Sold to Dorsey Schroeder (Manchester, MO) and raced by him 1974, 1975 and 1976. Then to Mike Mahan in 1976 or 1977 for autocross, and next to Greg Scharnburg in 1980, also for autocross. In October 2001, it was bought from Scharnburg by Mike Winebrenner (Sellersburg, Indiana).
4. Lola T240 (Carl McIntyre): Carl McIntyre (Boulder, CO) raced a Lola T240 in MWDiv in 1973, finishing third in the division with 15 points. Geography and a common entry number (#70) would suggest this was the car raced by Bill Bachman (Boulder, CO/Nederland, CO) the previous year and then quite possibly became the car driven by Bob Young in 1974. Nothing more known.
5. Brabham BT29 (William Brown): Bill Brown (Memphis, TN) raced a Brabham BT29 in Midwest Division Formula B in 1973. After faiuling to start for his first three Nationals, he won the Lake Afton SCCA National in mid-August 1973, then scored two more for fifth place at Mid-America Raceway in September, qualifying for the 1973 Formula B Run-Offs. Memphis is on the border of three Divisions, Southeast, Southwest and Midwest, and Brown faced a long haul to any National. He attended the Run-offs where he finished 10th. Previously, Brown had raced a Temple in Formula Super Vee and qualified for the Run-Offs in 1972. Brown scored points in FB in a Brabham again in 1974 and 1975, and raced at Mid-America Raceway in May 1976. He moved to a FSV Lola for 1977. This is probably the Dr. William Russell Brown, a former SCCA racer, who died in 2004. Nothing more is known about the Brabham BT29.
6. Lola T240 [HU12] (Carmon Solomone): Identified as the #8 Lola T240 raced by Quin Calhoun (Chicago, IL) in CenDiv FB events in 1971, scoring 16 points in FB that season. Retained and raced again in CenDiv in 1972 but only scored 1 point. To Carmon Solomone (Woodridge, IL) for 1973 and raced in Pro and CenDiv events over the next two seasons. History then unknown until 1981, when it was bought from somebody in Chicago by Dan Walker (Oyster Bay, NY). He autocrossed it for a couple of years, advertising it in December 1983, then sold it to somebody in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Again its history is then unknown, but it is said to have been bought by an unknown owner c1991 and owned for 20 years before being advertised c2011. Mentioned by Kim Baker of vintageracecarsales.com as traded to him around July 2013. A car with this number advertised by Greg Jacobs of Ignite Performance in January 2014.
7. Brabham BT29 (John Bernadine): John Bernadine (Tulsa, OK) raced a #80 Brabham in Midwest Division Formula B in 1973. In the results of St Louis Region's Falstaff National Races in September 1973, the car was listed as a Brabham BT29. Bernadine upgraded to an ex-F2 Brabham BT38 for 1974, so the BT29 may have been traded back to Fred Opert. Nothing more known.
8. Brabham BT18 [F2-26-66] (Mikeal Bystrom Jr): New to Tony Palmer and used in British F3 in early 1967. History then unknown until 1973, when it was being raced by Mikeal Bystrom Jr (Minneapolis, MN) in SCCA Formula C, using a 1000cc Novamotor engine. According to its logbook, it was sold to Peter E. Portante Jr (Minneapolis, MN) in January 1974, then Ed Kasprowicz (Detroit, Michigan) in May 1977, then Denny Sideri in August 1978, who used it in SCCA drivers' school. The logbook continues with Wayne Boian in October 1981, and finally Chris Stove in January 1984. Its history is then unknown again until the late 1990s, when Gennaro Russo (New York state) was racing it in FC and FF. He sold it to an Austrian expat who took it to Graz, Austria, when he returned home.
9. McLaren M10A [300-07] (Jim Sechser): See full history: McLaren M10A 300-07.
10. Brabham BT35 (Turner Woodard): Turner Woodard (Indianapolis, IN) raced a Brabham BT35 in SCCA Regionals and Nationals in 1972. He was entered at #76 by Motor Sport Associates, Cicero, Indiana. He was also entered by Motor Sport Associates for a few events in 1973, but it is not known whether he turned up for any. However, he scored 15 points in CenDiv Formula B in 1973, suggesting he ran the BT35 for most of that season at least. Subsequent history unknown.
11. Chevron B15 (Steve Hughes): In 1972, Steve Hughes (Wichita, KS) finished fourth in Midwest Division Formula C, in a Chevron. He was a regular runner in FC in 1973, but regularly retired or failed to start, finally scoring points at Fort Sumner in September 1973, where he won the FC class, giving him enough points to qualify for the Runoffs. He attended the Runoffs, where Formula magazine's reporter described the car as a Chevron B15, suggesting a F3 car still with its original 1-litre engine. Chuck Grauel, who raced against Hughes, described the car as a B15B, so it could have been an ex-Formula B car converted to smaller engine, but he also said it was "ex-Gethin". Hughes appeared in Midwest Division's FC table again in 1974, with four points. Grauel (Kansas City, KS) later acquired the car, and won the Division FC title with it in 1976. Once during that season, the car was described as a B9, which would make more sense of the "ex-Gethin" history, as Gethin drove several B9s not no B15s. Grauel advertised it in December 1976, when it had Lucas downdraft engines and a Hewland Mk8 gearbox. Subsequent history unknown.
12. Brabham BT29 (Norman Johnson): Norman Johnson (Simonton, TX) raced a Brabham BT29 in the two Mexican Formula B races in June 1971. Records of Southwest Division racing of very sketchy and little is known of Johnson's exploits in the car in 1971 or 1972. His next known outings in a Brabham were at Texas World Speedway in September 1971 then at Dallas International Motor Speedway in February 1972 where he crashed. He did not score points in Southwest Division in 1972, but won the Division in 1973 and appeared at the Runoffs, where his car was again described as a BT29. He then acquired a Brabham BT40, but it is unclear whether he continued to drive the BT29 through the 1974 SCCA Nationals season. Subsequent history unknown.

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.

Individual sources for this event

SCCA Sanction 73-N-52S. Official results kindly provided by Rocky Entriken. Competition Press & Autoweek 20 Oct 1973 p19.