Championnat de France de Formule 3

Clermont-Ferrand, 17 Jun 1973

All cars are 1.6-litre F3 unless noted.

Notes on the cars:

1. GRD 372 [032-F3] (Larry Perkins): Entered by GRS International for Keiichi Tahara at two races in June and July 1972. To Team Cowangie for Larry Perkins to drive in British and French F3 in 1973 but although the car was identified as chassis 032, it was once referred to as "ex-Jones" [his own chassis 033-F3 or the ex-Sutcliffe GRS car] and also once as ex-Rousselot [the GRS chassis 021]. Jones had retained 033 for the start of 1973 and the ex-Rousselot 021-F3 was driven in 1973 by Pedro Passadore, so neither are likely. Perkins badly damaged the car in practice at Paul Ricard on 1 July 1973. When he returned to racing, he first borrowed the works Ensign and then acquired a Brabham BT41, indicating that the GRD was not repaired.
2. Brabham BT41 [16] (Randy Lewis): New to Randy Lewis in 1973.
3. March 723 (Nick Crossley): New to Stan Mathews for F3 in 1972 but Mathews almost immediately ordered an Ensign instead. The March 723 was sold in September to F4 driver Nick Crossley who used it in F3 at the end of the 1972 season. Then retained by Crossley as a spare car for his team of new March 733s in 1973, and retained again for 1974. Crossley recalls converting it to take a BDA engine for libre racing at some point, and he kept it again for 1975. Sold for 1976 to John Day to use in libre racing.
4. GRD 373 (Rudolf Dötsch): Rudolf Dötsch (Mülheim, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany) raced a GRD 373 in F3 in early 1973 as part of Team Europa Möbel as teammate to Wolfgang Bülow. After the first few races, his entrant changed to Jörg Obermoser Eurorace, but it is presumed here that Dötsch owned his car and moved it from one team to the other. His last appearance was at Brands Hatch in July where he "destroyed" the car when he possibly missed a gear change and hit the bank at Kidney. He was taken to hospital with a broken leg. When he returned to F3 in F4, it was in his old March 723, so the GRD was presumably not repaired.
5. GRD 373 (Sigi Hofmann): Sigi Hofmann (Stuttgart, Baden-Württemberg, Germany) raced a GRD 372 in European F3 in 1973, entered by Jörg Obermoser-Eurorace GRD. Like Gernot Lamby's car, it was often referred to as a GRD 373, but was referred to at least once as a 372, indicating it was a 1972 car upgraded to 1973 specification. He appeared at least six times in German F3, and also at Misano and Zandvoort. Nothing more known.
6. Brabham BT41 [11] (Johnny Gerber): Initially a Motor Racing Developments entry for Tony Trimmer in 1973, then becoming an Ippokampos Racing entry for Johnny Gerber until August 1973. Not seen again.
7. March 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 (Folkestone, Kent) 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. Its history over the next five years is unknown, but in 1979 and 1980, Tony Harris and Colin Brook raced 713M-6 in F4. Subsequent history unknown. A car with this identity was advertised in Italy in 2012.

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.