British Open Trophy Race

Oulton Park, 1 Apr 1983

Notes on the cars:

1. Williams FW07C [15] (Mike Wilds): Built new in 1981, Williams FW07C/15 was raced by Alan Jones at Monaco, and by Keke Rosberg at Long Beach in 1982. It was then sold to Colin Bennett Racing and fitted with a 3.8-litre DFV for Mike Wilds to race in the 1983 British Open series. Wilds won the first race, only for the series to be cancelled. The car was converted to Can-Am spec for 1984, but was wrecked by Walter Lechner at Trois-Rivières. Rebuilt on a new chassis, it was a rental car in Interserie before being crashed again. Lechner sold it to an American who raced it in US historic racing (HGP) from 1992 to 1995. Five subsequent owners have raced it in HGP, TGP and Masters F1.
2. Chevron B45 [45-78-04] (Duncan Gray): New to Fred Opert Racing for North American Formula Atlantic as a second car. Used as a spare by Keke Rosberg and as his race car at Lime Rock. Also raced by Eje Elgh and by Arturo Merzario at Trois-Rivières. Raced by Rosberg at Macau in November 1978. Advertised by Opert from ATS Engineering, where he had moved to become team manager, in March 1979 as a lightweight B45 with 1979 rear suspension and F2 fuel tanks. Then sold to Mike Peers and entered in the revived British series for Jim Crawford in 1979, winning five races and finishing second in the championship. Fitted with a BDX engine for 1980 and run by Plygrange Racing for Crawford in the F2 class of the Aurora series. Stayed with Plygrange for 1981 when raced by Vin Malkie (Northwich, Cheshire) in libre racing. Reappeared in 1983 when raced by Duncan Gray in the British Formula Atlantic series. It was entered by Peers himself in libre in 1984. Then to Steve Raine for Sprints, co-driven by Robin Boucher, and then hired to Bob Fearnley's RK Racing for Tiff Needell to drive in a pair of races in India in early 1985. Then reportedly to Stuart Ridge for 1986. To John Lloyd then to Simon Hadfield (Shepshed, Leicestershire) but damaged in an accident at Mallory Park. Restored with original Excita condoms bodywork and sold in 1998 to Jeff Wright, a Scotsman then living in Canada. Still with Wright (Wilmington, NC) in 2014 and raced regularly in vintage racing. By 2019, the car had moved to Scotland and was owned by George Coghill (Halkirk, Highland) and was prepared by Steve Worrad (Whitchurch, Shropshire) for sprints.
3. March/BRD 792 [31] (John Travis): New to John Cooper to drive in the Aurora AFX series in 1979, using Hart engines. Also raced by Eddie Jordan in the Donington Park F2 race in August. Not seen in 1980, but reappeared in 1981 when it was used by Kim Mather in F2 and Formula Atlantic. Also driven by Jim Evans that year in libre racing. To John Travis for libre in 1982.

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

Autosport 7 Apr 1983 p21. Duffield's Ralt was the ex-Leslie/Caledonian Coal Ralt RT4, Trimmer used the BRM driven last season by Dave Williams, Flux had the ex-Mallock (Macau) Ralt RT4, Littlewood had Ken Moore's Ensign N177/MN09, Brindley had Nick Mason's ex-Depailler Tyrrell and Crawford was "reunited" with the Ensign N180B that Vijay Mallya had used to win "both the Madras and Calcutta GPs last month". The results panel in Marcus Pye's Autosport report gives Robinson's car as B42/17 and Gray's as B45/04 and Marcus added that Robinson's car had "served him well for several years" and that Gray's was the ex-Crawford car. The report also notes the capacities of Wilds and Crawford's cars as 3.8 and 3.3 respectively.