British Formula Atlantic Championship Race

Silverstone, 5 Jun 1983

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

Notes on the cars:

1. March 78B (David Newall): 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. March 80A/81A [80A-1] (Stewart Phillips): New to Bernard Hunter (Edinburgh, Scotland) and raced in the British Formula Atlantic series and libre racing, entered by Colin Bennett Racing. Retained for the first libre races at the start of 1981, then raced by Stuart Lawson and Ted Dzierzek in Scottish libre in April and May. To Tony Brown, and raced in hillclibs in early 1982, but Brown soon returned to the Martin BM16 that he had run from 1979 to 1981. The 80A was acquired by Stewart Phillips (Enfield, Middlesex) and raced in libre races from July 1982 onwards, entered by Winchmore Hill Garage.
3. Chevron B45 [45-78-04] (Vin Malkie): 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.
4. March 78B [782-6] (Dave Hoban): Alex Ribeiro's Hart-engined car at Thruxton 27 Mar 1978 and presumably all season. Hired by Wolfgang Locher for Hockenheim 26 Sep. To Phil Dowsett (Maldon, Essex) for British Formula Atlantic in 1979, converted to 79B specification and supported by Pinch Plant and Martin the Newsagent. Retained by Dowsett for 1980, then unraced in 1981. Advertised by Dowsett as a 782/79B in September 1981. To Dave Hoban (Horncastle, Lincolnshire) for libre racing and British Formula Atlantic in 1982, then retained for libre racing in 1983 and in 1984.

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 9 Jun 1983 pp63-64.