British Formula Atlantic Championship Race

Oulton Park, 16 Oct 1982

All cars are 1.6-litre F/Atl unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 78B (Duncan Bain): Martin Mansell (Middlesex) acquired a large number of March 782 parts including a monocoque from a West Midlands hillclimber, and had these built up by an ex-March employee. It seems likely that these parts came from Godfrey Crompton (Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire) of Douglas & Gavin (Stourport, Worcestershire), who had acquired two March 782s from Bob Salisbury Racing for himself and Chris Cramer in 1979 and 1980. Duncan Bain (Luton, Bedfordshire) bought into Mansell's project, and the pair ran the car in British Formula Atlantic in 1981, usually entered as a 78B. Bain bought Mansell out at the end of 1981, and ran the car through 1982 with Abdex Engineering Ltd sponsorship. Sold to David Newall (Slough, Berkshire) for 1983, when it was sponsored by Staggers Jeans and run by McDonald Engineering. When the series was cancelled, Newall sold the car to a Frenchman who was planning to use it for hillclimbs. Newall recalls the car being collected by engine builder Geoff Richardson, who was going to rebuild the BDA engine before it went to France, but cannot remember the Frenchman's name. Subsequent history unknown.
2. Chevron B56 [56-82-01] (Gary Gibson): New to Team Sanada for Masanori Sekiya to drive in the 1982 British Formula Atlantic series. After just a few races, he moved over the the Ehrlich RP5A instead, and Robin Smith took the B56 to Ireland for Gary Gibson, who was then using the B53 with success in the Irish series, to race at Phoenix Park in August. Gibson soon decide the B56 was unsuited to the circuit and raced his B53, with Smith himself racing the B56. Gibson then came to Scotland to race the B56 in a libre race at Ingliston in October, and then drove it at Oulton Park a week later and at the Macau GP in November. He then raced it in the Irish series in 1983, after which it was not seen again. Chevron records indicate that it was sold to Mike Gue's Essex Racing in the US. Subsequent history unknown.
3. McLaren M21 (Tony Dunne): One of two cars entered by Astor Club Racing International in British Formula Atlantic in 1975, this car was raced by Roberto Alvarez at Silverstone on 13 April, and then by Tony Trimmer later in the season. This car was next seen when acquired by Tony Dunne, who raced it in the British Formula Atlantic series in 1982. Dunne then entered Alo Lawler in Dunne's McLaren M30 in BRSCC libre in 1984 and 1985, and traded the M21 back to McLaren International in 1986 for the spare M30 monocoque. McLaren International rebuilt the car to Scheckter's F2 configuration, and the car was on display in the Donington Museum for many years. When the other two cars were restored in the late 1990s and none were found to have a chassis plate, McLaren International issued this car with a '1' chassis plate.

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.

The British race results have been compiled by Chris Townsend based on material in Autosport and Motoring News reports in the UK plus the information supplied by a wide range of contributors.

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

Autosport 21 Oct 1982 p50, Programme (AF).