John Player Formula 3 International Championship

Brands Hatch, 29 Jul 1973

All cars are 1.6-litre F3 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. March 733 [26] (Mike Wilds): New to Dempster International Racing Team for Mike Wilds to drive in F3 from July 1973 onwards, replacing the 1972/73 Ensign with which he had started the season. It was then sold to Graham Watts (Faringham) for hillclimbs, appearing at Prescott in March 1974, when the car had a 1600cc Holbay engine. During 1975, the car was bought by Terry Smith (Felton, Somerset) to replace his highly successful 1-litre Vixen Imp. Smith raced the March in sprints and hillclimbs through the rest of 1975 and through 1976, using a 1600cc Holbay Ford twin cam engine, but in the summer of 1976, bought the ex-F1 McLaren M14D. The March was sold to Geoff Hunt (Andover, Hampshire), again with the Holbay twin cam, and used in sprints for quite a few years. Eventually traded to Richard Speakman for the ex-F3 Pilbeam MP51. Subsequent history unknown.
2. Royale RP11A [6] (Val Musetti): New factory car for Tom Pryce to drive, replacing the one wrecked at the 1972 Monaco GP F3 race. To Reystan Racing for 1973 for Andy Sutcliffe to drive, but Sutcliffe left the team in April, and his seat was taken over by Val Musetti, who had written off his own RP11 in testing. Raced by Musetti through to the end of the season. Converted to Formula Atlantic specification for 1974 and raced by Musetti in the British championship up to May. Sold later in the year to Mike Franey and raced in libre racing. Raced by Franey in a couple of British Formula Atlantic races in 1975. Subsequent history unknown.
3. Brabham BT38C [19] (Jimmy Fuller): New to Canadian driver Chris O'Brien and raced in British F3 in 1972 using Holbay engines. To Jimmy Fuller for 1973, again in British F3, then to David Taylor for Kim Mather to race in British Formula Atlantic in 1974, and then in libre. At some point during this period the car was rebuilt on a 1973 BT40 monocoque. Also raced by Ted Payne during 1974, and Payne then took over the car in 1975, appearing mainly in libre races at Croft. To John Simpson for 1976, again in Croft libre, and later reported to be the car raced by David Proctor (Jedburgh) in Monoposto between 1981 and 1985. Presumably the car Proctor used to win the 1600cc class in the Classic F3 series in 1994 but Proctor had two BT38Cs, the second raced by his son Seb Proctor. Not run again after 1996 and by 2004, both cars were with Mark Barton (Haslemere, Surrey). Barton raced a BT38C in the Classic F3 race at Brands Hatch in June 2008.
4. March 733 [3] (Russell Wood): New to Russell Wood and run for him in the British F3 series by Peter Bloore Racing with backing from The Chequered Flag. Wood won three early round of the championship but had a heavy accident at Zandvoort in May and did not win again. Sold to Australian Ian Douglass for 1974 and rebuilt for Australian F2, using various 742 bits. The car was involevd in a fire during private testing at Oran Park after the Lakeside race in December 1974 and was completely burnt to the ground.
5. Royale RP11 [5] (Simon Sherman): New to Simon Sherman and raced in British F3 in 1972. Retained for 1973, but did not start many races. Sherman entered the car for a few races in 1974 but only started one race. Subsequent history unknown.
6. March 723 [713M-6] (Roger Hurst): New to John Bisignano (Denver, CO) and raced in British F3 in 1971 with support from Liggett & Myers L&M tobacco brand. Sold in October 1971 to Roger Hurst of Lenham Hurst and raced in F3 in 1972 and 1973. By 1973 the car was being described on occasion as a 723, a 733, a March Falconer, and even as a Lenham LM1. Last raced by Hurst in November 1973. In March 1974, the car was advertised by Low Cost Racing who mentioned that it had Falconer bodywork and was fitted with a Holbay R70 engine for Formula 4. It is likely that this car remained in F4 for some time and could well be the Falconer-bodied 713M raced by Jim Burrows (Ilford, Greater London) in 1975. Subsequent history unknown. A car with this identity was advertised in Italy in 2012.

Sources

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' original results.

These British Formula 3 results have been compiled by Chris Townsend using the main British magazines Autosport and Motoring News but also the US magazine On Track which carried surprisingly good coverage of the British series.

All comments, clarifications, corrections and additions are most welcome. Please email Allen if you can add anything.